Listen Money Matters - Free your inner financial badass. All the stuff you should know about personal finance.

If you want to start a business what kind do you want it to be? There are two competing business philosophies: lifestyle business vs. growth-minded business. A lifestyle business isn’t intended to make the owner tons of money. The goal of a lifestyle business is to make enough money to be comfortable while having freedom and a good work-life balance while doing work that you enjoy. Many lifestyle businesses were started based on the owner’s particular hobby or passion and represent their personal values. When you think of the startup world, you typically think of founders who are working like mad to grow their companies as fast as possible. Often, the founder or founders will get their company to the point where there’s enough promise to attract funding. And at that point, you’ve got investors who now want to see an ROI – and in the startup game, they’re not looking for a modest ROI, they’re looking for “to-the-moon” businesses. This is the growth-minded business model. Whichever type of business appeals to you, starting and building one puts you on a different plane than the great majority of people. Most people spend their entire lives working for someone else, making someone else money. Starting your own business can give you more choice, freedom, and independence than your average 9-5'er can ever dream of. And we think that makes it all worth the effort. Full Article Here Show Notes Apex Predator: A farmhouse ale from Off Color Brewing. LMM Financial Toolbox: The tools we use to manage our money. LMM Pro: Research, evaluate, and track rental properties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re continuing online business month with an interview with Corbett Barr from Fizzle on how to build a business. Fizzle encourages you to create something you’re proud of through hard work and persistence. The site isn’t full of “20 Amazing hacks to start a business overnight and become a billionaire” content. It offers long-term advice that will help people grow a business. Full Article Here Show Notes Fizzle.co: Use this link to get a free five-week trial period.Crabbie's Ginger Beer:A slightly sweet, alcoholic ginger beer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, so we want you to start your own business. But why are we advocating for online businesses? Because a brick and mortar business only goes so far. You have to physically be present, and there is a logical maximum you can earn based simply on space restrictions. Restaurants can only turnover so quickly; clothing stores can only fit so many people inside at a time. The internet is infinitely scalable. It has almost limitless reach. There are people from every corner of the world who hear what Listen Money Matters has to say. An online business also gives you the freedom we all want. You aren’t tied to a location. We want to motivate all of you to get started creating online businesses. The idea is that with part-time, but a focused effort, in one year you can build an online business that earns $1,000 or more per month. Full Article Here Show Notes Kentucky Ryed Chiquen: An amber ale brewed with rye malt and aged in rye whiskey barrels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many people are afraid to negotiate be it for a raise or a salary offer for a new job. Josh’s approach is to follow a process that will allow him to accomplish the thing he is afraid of. If you can break something down into steps and just follow the steps, suddenly you’ve done it. When it comes to getting a raise, most of us could do better. Today we talk fearless salary negotiation tips with Josh Doody. Full Article Here Show Notes Imperial Donut Break: An Imperial Porter from Evil Twin Brewing. Salary Negotiation Sample Email: To counter offer once you have a job offer. Salary Increase Letter Sample: Asking for a raise. Josh's Twitter: You can reach him here. Fearless Salary Negotiation: Josh's site. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How resourceful are you? When we harness the science of resourcefulness, we can achieve great things in our personal, professional, and financial lives. How do we define success? For many people success means more; more money, more stuff, more employees. But that definition is wrong. There are two approaches to resources; chasing and stretching. When we chase, we tire ourselves out going after more, more, more. If we stretch, we use the resources we already have available. Once we stop chasing and start stretching, we are better able to solve problems and innovate which means we are more fully engaged in our endeavors. Author Scott Sonenshein joins us to discuss his new book on resourcefulness. Scott Sonenshein is the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management at Rice University. His new book Strech: Unlock the Power of Less-and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined gives us a new way to succeed in business and our lives by using the science of resourcefulness. Full Article Here Show Notes scottsonenshein.com/book: Where you can find Scott's book. Mint: Start budgeting today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On This Financial Life episode, the guys chat with Brian, a long time fan of the show. They talk about his finances, mortgage, and debt over a cold one. Here’s the scoop. He and his wife are new first-time home buyers and live in the Philly area. They didn’t have the best living situation, so it pushed them to aggressively to save for a home and drastically cut spending. They didn’t have the easiest time of finding a home. The first house they put a bid on majorly failed the inspection and they were looking at 10-20k worth of repairs. No bueno. They finally ended up finding a place they loved, but the price was a lot higher. After doing the math, they decided they could afford the house and used an FHA loan to pay for it. Full Article Here Show Notes: Andrews Beer: Mac Fanny Baw Bourbon Barrel Aged Smoked Ale from Against the Grain Brewery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding the perfect job is a daunting task. You send out tons of resumes, create custom cover letters, go on interviews, anxiously wait for a call and then end up not getting an offer. Rinse and repeat. It can be incredibly frustrating when you send out application after application and don’t hear back anyone. If you have been searching for a new job for some time, it might be time to step up your game. Today the guys talk to Mark Fiebert (Andrews dad) and pick his brain on how to land a job. After years of experience being on both ends of the hiring process, Mark has some great incites on how to get your foot in the door, nailing your interview and making connections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holiday spending hangovers make January a debt month for some of us so we are bringing you five questions on how to deal with debt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you currently have debt there are ways to make it less expensive. Today we will discuss why you should refinance your debt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are a lot of things that deserve your energy but paying off debt isn’t one of them. If you have debt, it can feel hopeless. But you can get out of debt, and it’s easier than you think. We can show you how to be lazy and pay off your debt. An All-Time Record If you have debt, you’re not alone. Total household debt—a category that includes mortgages, student loans, and car loans along with credit card and other debt—dipped in the wake of the Great Recession, but it has since steadily rebounded in the years since. Overall, Americans’ debt hit a new high of $13 trillion last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2008 by $280 billion, according to the New York Fed.” Not all debt is the same. Mortgage debt, for instance, is typically low-interest debt and a home can be an investment. It’s the other kinds of debt, credit cards, student loans, that can hinder all of your long-term financial goals. So let’s tackle that kind of debt once and for all, and be lazy while we do it. Paying off debt is a process Paying off debt is a process, and there are several steps. These steps can take a while to accomplish. You didn’t accumulate this debt overnight, and you’re not going to pay it overnight. Face the Music It’s terrifying to sit down and total up just how much debt you’re in, but that is the first step if you want to pay off your debt. Make a list of all of your outstanding debts and the interest rate on each. The best way to see all of your debt is in your Credit Karma account. Not only will you see all of the debts but you’ll be able to see your credit report and credit score too. It’s free to make an account so do that now if you don’t already have one. Go through your credit report and make sure all of the listed debts are legitimate. There are a variety of reasons debts that aren’t your’s can end up on a report. If you find debts that are not your’s, you can dispute them. Consult Your Budget What’s that? Don’t you have a budget? Well, go to Personal Captial and get a good overall picture of your finances and your spending. How much money do you have coming in compared to how much is going out? Do you have any money that isn’t going out? Your budget is going to identify the cash you can use to pay off your debt. You should be dedicating at least 20% of your income to paying off your debt. Once you have a month’s worth of budget data, go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Where are your spending leaks? Saving money is easier than making more money, so if you want to be lazy and pay off your debt, this is the best place to do it, by cutting your budget. Let Trim find and cancel expenses like gym memberships you don’t use and subscription services you can’t afford when you have debt to pay off. Let Billshark negotiate better rates for things like your cable and internet service. Every dollar you save is an extra dollar you have to pay off your debt more quickly. Triage the Damage Are you behind on any payments but not so far behind that... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We use credit cards to buy everything these days- groceries, drinks with co-workers, cat beds, gum, sweater vests and all the other things that make us happy. Then the end of the month rolls around. Your bill comes, and you come to the dreaded realization that you blew your budget once again and your credit card bill is more than you can handle. It’s happened to the best of us, but it doesn’t have to happen to you anymore. Introducing Debitize, a new way to pay off credit cards on time and responsibly. Today the guys talk to Liran Amrany, the CEO Debitize about how it works and the story behind it’s creation. You can listen to the episode here: What is Debitize? Liran founded Debitize to help simplify, optimize, and automate personal finances, especially around credit card spending where he witnessed a significant need. Two-thirds of Millennials avoid using credit cards mostly because they have seen debt negatively affect friends and family. However, building credit is important, and Liran wanted to create a tool to help people use credit responsibly. Before founding the company, he was an Executive Director at JPMorgan, where he spent nine years as a derivatives marketer, focusing on structured credit, exotics, and cross-asset hybrids. After working on the institutional side of finance, he wanted to build something to make a real impact in the financial world and help people avoid credit card debt and better manage their money. How does it work? In a nutshell, Debitize automatically debits your checking account every day to cover your credit card purchases. The funds are temporarily held in your Debitize Reserve Account, and then they automatically pay your balance for you every week. Yes, finally someone who will pay your bills on time for you and in full. Using Debitize is very simple. First, you’ll need to activate your account and link your checking and credit card accounts on the Debitize site. You will do this by logging in with your bank credentials like you would with Mint. Once you’re all set up, you will only use your credit card to make purchases, not your debit card. With Debitize, you get the best of both worlds. You can use your credit card as a debit card while still earning rewards and points credit card companies off. It will help you avoid spending money you don’t have and will keep your finances on track. Debitize will send you a weekly spending summary and confirmations of scheduled payments to keep you in the loop. They will notify you when you have a low balance or if there was a large transaction on one of your cards. Although they encourage you to pay your bills in full to avoid paying interest, if you are making a large purchase that you would like to pay off over time, Debitize will give you the flexibility to do so. The Benefits Automated Withdrawals If you’re on the fence about using credit and fear getting into debt, Debitize is an excellent way to start building your credit. It acts as a safeguard against overspending. They make automatic withdrawals from your checking every day you make a purchase and set the funds aside to pay off your credit card bill. Don’t worry about Debitize overdrawing your account. You can set up a minimum balance in your checking, so they won’t overdraw your account to make payments. Even if you don’t set up a minimum, they still will not overdraw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the month of January, Listen Money Matters is getting back to the basics with a month focused on the debt and the importance of credit. Over the course of the month, the guys will cover the fundamentals of credit, debt reduction plans and talk to an awesome guest about a tool he created to help keep you out of debt. What is affected by your credit? Well, everything really. Your credit score is a number that reflects your credit risk level. If you are looking to borrow money for any reason – to purchase a car, get a mortgage or to take out a student loan, your credit score will determine how much that loan will cost you. If you have a low credit score, you will have a harder time getting a loan, and when you do qualify for a loan, the interest rates will be very high. Compared to people with good credit scores, your monthly payments will be more per month to pay off a loan of the same value. Bottomline, having bad credit will cost you. Having good credit history is not just about being able to buy things. Sometimes your credit history is considered by potential employers. According to the New York Times, 47% of employers check your credit score. Landlords absolutely look at your credit score, and it plays a big part in approving you to rent a home. The cost of insurance rates can be higher if the insurer pulls your credit data to calculate your insurance risk score. Even some utility providers may be required to provide a down payment for service for people with bad credit history. What does good credit get you? A cheaper life. The better your credit history, the cheaper it is to borrow money. When you have large loans like a mortgage or student debt that you will be paying off for years, those interest rate savings could add up to thousands of dollars in the long run. Let’s say your mortgage rate is 4.5%. An increase of only 1% will increase your living costs by 12% per month. On the other hand, a decrease of 1% will decrease your living costs by 12.8% per month. Having an excellent credit score will give you access to better credit cards with awesome rewards and no fees. Sometimes you can even get perks with your bank by upgrading to better accounts without ATM fees or minimum balances. Most importantly, using credit cards protects your cash. If your debit card gets lost, stolen or there is fraud, you can kiss your money goodbye in most cases. When your credit card gets stolen, the credit card companies money is gone, not yours. If you report it immediately, the bank will nine times out of 10 resolves it in your favor pretty quickly. When it comes to protecting your money, it is definitely using credit cards compared with cash, checks or money orders are numerous. Action List * Sign up for CreditKarm.com, Credit.com or both. Find out your credit score and see why your score is what it is. * Get a list of all of your credit card accounts on file and request that each one increase your limit. Call them, do it automatically online, get it done. Don’t be greedy; small incremental increases make a difference. * Take inventory of all of your debt, their amount and their interest rates. This month we’re creating you a debt reduction plan. * Listen to next week’s episode where a simple, free automation will increase your credit score by over 5%. There can be a lot of emotion around credit and debt but having credit is important. These days, everything in life is tied to it and if used correctly life will be cheaper and easy for you if you have good credit. Understanding the how the credit process works will help you manage it and make it work for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one ever said being an entrepreneur was easy, but what a many people don’t know are the psychological struggles like depression and anxiety that also come with it. Every day, even sometimes every hour, there are ups and downs causing a constant battle of emotions in their mind. Entrepreneurs tend to struggle silently not to show their vulnerability. Not until lately have entrepreneurs come forward to talk about these struggles, including today’s guest, Sheryl O’Loughlin. She is the former CEO of Clif Bar, CEO of Plum Organics and she is currently CEO of REBBL super herb beverages. The guys talk to her about her new book Killing It: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart. Entrepreneurs juggle so many roles when building their business. Sheryl knows firsthand how difficult it can be to balance business, family and mental health without one or more pieces falling by the wayside. When she began to struggle with an eating disorder she realized something needed to change. In Killing It, she shares her experiences being an entrepreneur running two fast-growing companies. When in start-up mode, some business owners severely neglect their health which makes them much less resilient. Not eating properly, not getting enough sleep and not exercising will just make the daily stressor harder to deal with. Sheryl wants to mentor and inspire others to invest in their wellbeing. She says without that “Your business will not succeed, nor will you”. Growing a new business can become an obsession for entrepreneurs. Although maintaining meaningful, supportive relationships are crucial, family and friends who are trying to support them ofter times get pushed away. This comes at a huge cost. Many relationships end in a divorce, friendships break down and all that’s left is a feeling of isolation and abandonment. Entrepreneurship can be one of the most rewarding career paths but it isn’t an easy road. In Killing It, Sheryl shares her journey and provides her readers with guiding principles for anyone looking to balance their career, family, and life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yep, it’s time of the year again for New Years Resolutions to kick-in and for many of us, that means getting your finances in order. Are you financially ready for the new year? As we slowly approach the new year, it’s a great time to financially prepared for what’s to come. Whether you want to save for a home, get a new job or start a side hustle, you need to financially prepare you and your family. Today the guys review their last year in business and finance and talk about how they are going to prepare for next year. A Financial Yearly Review Even though 2016 has come and gone, it is still important to reflection and review of the past year. Start by giving yourself a high five and think about all the things you did accomplish. What areas did you improve and what goals did you achieve? Now that you reached those goals, are there any things you need to do in the next year to maintain those goals? Next is the not so fun part. Look at what got pushed to the wayside bur don’t beat yourself up for going off track. Move into the new year with a renewed commitment. If your stay focused on what you want you will make progress going forward. Set Goals For Next Year It’s always a good time to write your goals down on paper. Once you know where you’re going, you can map out how you are going to get there. This holds true for any area of your life. Every year Andrew and I write down our resolutions on a post it and keep it in our wallets all year. It’s a good reminder of what you want to achieve and make sure you are on track. What do you want to happen in the coming year? Think about what do you want to happen in the coming year. Is there anything big you need to save for – a move, a baby, a home, a car? Is there anything missing in your financial plans such as retirement savings or life insurance? Setting financial goals for your future self (and family) will help lower stress and set your finances back on track. Planning it Out Although the new year is a perfect time to set financial goals, the challenge is sticking to them as the year goes on. It’s easy to write stuff down on a piece of paper but you need to plan out how you will you reach these goals. Carve out time for yourself and or partner to review your goals and financial progress regularly. Monthly check in’s will help you manage your budget and goals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the guys tackle five questions from the audience on debt, real estate investing and freelancing. Question one: Hi, Andrew, Tom, and Laura, I think an important, and sorely needed topic is finance for freelancers. And not even those who use invoicing systems. I’ve been freelancing for more years than I care to admit, and there are so many like me who copyedit, proofread or design book jackets. We’re one-person shows, with little-to-no cushion, where times are feast or famine. I would love to talk about this more or hear you guys talk about it in more depth. Putting together a financial system when you have variable income is uses the same fundamentals as someone who is a salaried employee. However, you’ll have to build a bigger cushion if your income isn’t consistent. You need to keep more in a reserve account than someone who has steady pay. Keep track of your income month to month and use that data to plan for the upcoming year. If you have a pool business and make most of your money from April to September, budget accordingly. Make sure you aren’t overspending that income has to last you. Six months worth of expenses should be a big enough war chest to get you through a hard time if need be. If you are a freelancer and haven’t earned in 6 months, maybe it’s time to look into another career or pivot your business. Question Two: Hey guys, Is it possible to rollover my Roth IRA to a traditional? Would I get a tax refund for the income tax that I would have saved had I been using a traditional IRA all along? Are there any limitations or conditions to performing this rollover? I have only had a Roth IRA for two years. There are some advantages of rolling over your Roth into a Traditional. If you’re broke and need cash or you are retiring soon and aren’t planning on earning in the future could be a reason to make this play. When you move money from a Roth retirement account to a traditional IRA, you can get back the taxes you paid on that contribution, but there are rules and deadlines. Be aware of the calendar deadlines that the IRS imposes. Question Three: Hey guys, I am trying to refinance my credit card debt. I asked Lending Club for a $3,000 loan, and they are only giving me the option to take out a $6,025 loan. Do you know why this is? If this is my only option, I plan on taking it out and then giving back $3,025 right away since I only need 3k. What would you guys do? Is that even possible for me to give back $3,025 right away? Lending Club is a peer to peer lending service. That means, instead of going to a bank for a loan, you can get a loan from a group of random people. On the flip side of things, you can also contribute to funding a loan for other people allowing you to get in on the bank’s profit engine. Lending Club because they get better rates than they would with a bank loan and loans are issued much faster through the power of the crowd. The crowd will also approve loans that normally banks may not.Lending Club offers better rates than a bank would, and loans are issued much faster. Lending Club and Prosper charge a 5% origination fee. The origination fee you pay for your loan will depend on your loan rate. The safest borrowers with the best credit pay the lowest origination fees, while mostly everybody else pays a 5% fee. Lending Club because they get better rates than they would with a bank loan and loans are issued much faster through the power of the crowd. The crowd will also approve loans that normally banks may... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Budgeting sucks. No one really wants to do it. It’s hard to stick with, it’s a chore to review it every month and it makes you feel like crap when you spend way too much on lattes. But, you’re an adult so you need to do it. There are a few types of budgets, which one is right for you? We’re getting back to basics of budgeting. Both Thomas and Andrew have been off the rails with their own budgets so get ready for some confessions. They will discuss different types of budgets, how they work and which ones are the least painful. Reverse Budgeting This budgeting method focuses on savings goals. Instead of setting up budget categories to look at your spending, create savings goals and whatever is left you have to spend. Start allocating money at the top of your priority list and work your way down. Pay yourself first. Retirement, savings, and emergency fund are put aside first. Next are fixed expenses such as mortgage/rent, utilities, car payment, etc. Third are non-fixed expenses. Anything that can fluctuate from month to month, such as groceries and gas. After that comes debt payments. Anything that is left over can be used for fun stuff like eating out, travel, fancy coffee or whatever else you like to treat yourself with. Balanced Money Formula You may have heard the balanced money formula also called the 50-30-20 rule. It’s a budget framework outlined by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren in their book All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. It is a very simple type of budgets. Fifty percent of your take-home pay goes towards fixed expenses and necessities like food, housing, utilities and ideally all this should be should be kept at 35%. Thirty percent of your take-home can be spent on wants like eating out, treating yourself to a new dress, electronics, etc. The last twenty percent goes right into retirement accounts, savings and emergency funds. The Envelope System Ah, the good old envelope system. This was a great way to keep your budget and savings goals in check before budget management tools were created, This method may seem is old-fashioned, but it’s great for those who are you are just starting out on their financial journey. Also for people who need to whip their financial ass back into shape. This is a cash budget method so you won’t need to check credit card balances to see how much you spend. Start by looking at what your monthly cash flow is and what you have been spending in different categories. Once you know those numbers, get our your envelopes allocated your expenses. Every dollar has a name and a job. $200 for groceries, $75 for gas, $150 phone, etc. By giving yourself a set amount of money in your envelope to use towards a specific category, it will help you control your spending. When there is no more money in the envelope, you can not spend any more in that category. If you absolutely need more money, cut from another category to cover the access. Budget Management Tools Personal Capital – This is the Mint.com for investors. They will track your investments, analyze your investments and suggest ways to improve things like your 401k allocation. I use this as a tool to monitor my diversification and risk levels. This is for more advanced investors. Mint – Create budgets that make sense today and set you up for success tomorrow. Receive alerts for unusual account charges, and get custom tips for reducing fees and saving money. We also wrote a book to help you get started called Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show the guys talk with Shannon McLay, a financial planner, author, blogger, and podcaster. She left her traditional financial services job to start her own company, The Financial Gym in NYC – a fun, judgment-free space where you can talk freely about your finances, get the help you need and have a glass of wine while doing it. Shannon left her corporate job because she felt that the financial firms only provided the tools and resources to help those who had high net worth. She started doing a lot of pro bono work on the side for people who were earning a lower salary and soon realized that helping those people was much more fulfilling. That’s when she decided to start her own business doing just that. She understands that the road to financial fitness is different for everyone, so she offers multiple solutions to help people get and stay financially fit. Shannon is committed to making financial fitness fun, easy and accessible for others. She’s like the Jillian Michaels of personal finance. If you want to hear more from Shannon, check out her podcast, Martinis and Your Money, where she share’s a martini with friends and experts while discussing money and career topics. She has interviewed many influential people in the personal finance space. She also has a monthly group Happy Hour Ladies, where they chat about the financial challenges and some other fun topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to make a little money on the side? You can use that old chestnut of ‘buy low sell high’ to your advantage. There are a ton of people making money selling on Amazon and eBay using retail arbitrage. If you want to learn how to make money selling on Amazon we’ll teach you how to get started with retail arbitrage. Forty percent of Amazon sales come from third-party sellers. Their merchandise stored in Amazon’s warehouses. So clearly, there is money to be made. We talk to a master at selling on Amazon, Jordan Malik is not only an award-winning Amazon seller, he’s written a best-selling book on how to make eBay and Amazon selling work for you. Buying & Selling? No, It’s Retail Arbitrage Arbitrage is defined as, “The simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from a difference in the price.” Which is a fancy way of saying, buy low and sell high? The general idea is simply of finding products for a good price, maybe something on clearance which you are able to sell for profit. Most people seel through Amazon, because well, they are you can find anything online at a great price. For example, maybe you see a hair product on clearance at Walmart for $1.75 which is regularly selling on Amazon for $18.99. Clearly, you can make a huge profit here. So you buy it, send it to an Amazon warehouse using FBA and they ship it to you when it sells. Yes, it does entail a little more work than that but you get the idea. Let’s go a little deeper, shall we? What Are You Selling? If this sounds good to you so far, give Amazon selling a try. Start small, though. Go through your own things and sell a few on eBay and a few on Amazon. This will enable you to familiarize yourself with the way both sites work before you decide to jump in. It has the added bonuses of getting rid of some of your clutter, freeing up storage space and making you a few bucks with no outlay. Just checking what’s already selling on Amazon will show you what types of products are doing well. Choose a category and then Best Sellers. Monitor best sellers for a few days or even a few weeks to help make your decision. Within those items, choose some things you have some familiarity with. Video game consoles might be trending well but if you don’t know anything about them, you won’t know what you’re buying and won’t be able to answer seller questions. Jordan sold books for a time and was making $2000 a week at it! Books are a good category for a few reasons; they’re small, light, and fairly sturdy which makes them easy and inexpensive to pack and mail. Books are also readily available and cheap. Some libraries even give them away for free. Thrift shops are another good place to buy books, some are even selling them by the pound. Jordan recommends not falling in love with selling in just one category, though. You love books but so do a lot of other people. Be diversified in what items you sell. Sell on eBay or Sell on Amazon? If you have a “one of a kind” item, your Magnum PI lunch box, for example, eBay will be better. They also take some things that Amazon doesn’t sell, like used clothes and some used baby items. eBay is also better for large items, like cars and furniture. It’s more work to list things on eBay and more time consuming than to sell on Amazon. Amazon does a lot of the work for you because they have so many items, if they have something you want to sell already listed, you can skip things like uploading photos and writing detailed descriptions. Where To Buy Your Inventory Jordan doesn’t use wholesalers. It can tie up a lot of your money and unless you find a relatively unknown one or negotiate an exclusive contract with them, there is too much competition to make it worth his while. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The wage pay gap between men and women has been a major focus of attention. In 2015, full-time female workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. We have all heard the stats, many times, yet still, the gap has barely moved in last decade. Although women obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees at higher rates than men education hasn’t been enough to move the needle. Today we have Allegra Brantly on the show, a negotiation expert who coaches women on getting fair pay and the raises they deserve. She believes that complaining about the wage gap will not close it, the only way women are going to get paid what they are worth is to ask for it. It’s time we stop undervaluing ourselves and get paid what we’re worth. Not just women, men too. According to Allegra, the wage gap can cost a full-time working woman a ton of money over the course of her lifetime. She will need to work an average of ten plus more years to get equality. And her savings need to stretch longer because of women on average live longer. Allegra wasn’t always the ask for what you want kind of gal. She has accepted job offers with salaries much less than she deserved. Her personal need to make more money pushed her to ask for what she wanted because it was the only way she was going to get it. Now that she has navigated this terrain successfully she wants to pass her knowledge on to women in her life. Inspire them to see their full value as an employee. So, how do you do this? Know your numbers To able to negotiate your salary, you first must know what an employee like you is worth. Research your fair market value. See what other people make in your field in your city. Glassdoor and Linked Salary are great for this. See what the range is and ask for the top of the range if you can prove that you deserve it. Never accept an offer without negotiation. Never accept an offer below market range. Also, it’s ok to talk about your salary. Discussing your salary with your co-workers is your right as an employee. Although it is taboo, it is allowing employers to keep your wages down. Know who you are negotiating with And what motivates them. Try to get to know your co-workers and boss the best you can. Be in the know with what’s going on within the company. Figure out what your negotiation partner values, needs, and what their priorities are. You want more money but how will it help them. The more knowledge you have on their interests and how they operate, the more negotiation power you have. It’s important to have a sense of how they like to be approached. Stating rather than asking Obviously, don’t go in there demanding they pay you more but you still need to be strong and confident. As uncomfortable as it might feel, you’ll need to be self-promoting. Lead with your research and be upfront with your worth and what people in this role are making. Let them know you want to get the raise you deserve so you can feel confident that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. Allegra suggests asking for a raise once a year. Think about it, in a year you would have learned a year’s worth of skill sets, became more efficient in your role, became more familiarized with the company and more in tu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today the guys talk to Eric Bowlin, a successful multi-unit real estate investor from Texas about how he created his real estate empire by the age of 30. He accidentally got into real estate back in college when he and his wife decided to buy a house near the University. They purchased a 3 unit building, living in one unit and renting the rest. One night while watching a movie with his wife, he heard a knock on the door. It was one of their tenants there to pay rent. At that moment he realized that I would become a real estate investor. That was the easiest money he had ever earned in his entire life. At that moment he realized that I would become a real estate investor. That was the easiest money he had ever earned in his entire life. Eric now owns 26 units making him about 130K per year and he and his family have achieved financial freedom. He sacrificed a lot to get to where he is today, and never stopped planning, preparing, and learning. Eric talks to a many people who have said “I’ve always wanted to invest in real estate, but…” and he wants to help educate others on what real estate investing actually is and move past the misconceptions. You don’t need a ton of money to buy property. Of course, you need some capital to get started in real estate investing, but not as much as you think. There are many turn-key companies like Roofstock that have affordable properties with excellent returns. Investing is not land lording. Investing is actually buying and holding the property for rent and (hopefully) appreciation. You do not have to be a property manager, you will hire one so don’t get all wrapped up in the “I don’t want to fix leaky toilets” mentality. And, real estate investing isn’t flipping. Flipping homes for profit is a completely different business. Real estate isn’t really that risky. Yes, it is an illiquid asset but otherwise, it is a quite stable market. If you take the time to learn the ins and outs of the real estate market you will make good decisions and investments with great returns. Spend a lot of time finding a good market to invest in. It probably won’t be in your own neighborhood so you’ll need to do your market research on demographics, crime, schools, vacancy rates, and percentage of renters in a neighborhood. If you looking to invest in real estate but looking for something a little more hands-off checkout Fundrise or RealtyShares where you can invest in crowdfunded real estate projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veterans financial challenges are different from those faced by civilians. Too many come home from service with a lack of knowledge on how to handle their personal finances. Many also struggle to find jobs and need some guidance on how to navigate their new life in the civilian world. Financial literacy is desperately needed for veterans, and today our guest works to help service families secure economic future they feel good about. In honor of Veterans Day, the guys talk to Douglas McCormick about economic empowerment of veterans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emotions impact every financial decision we face and sometimes it causes us to make choices out of fear or greed. Today on the show the guys talk to Dr. Daniel Crosby, a psychologist, behavioral finance expert and asset manager. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Founder of Nocturne Capital. In Daniels’ latest book, The Laws of Wealth, he talks about principles for managing your behavior and how emotion and psychology influence our financial decisions. What is behavioral finance? The concept of behavioral finance is a fairly new idea that looks at behavioral, psychological theory together with economic explanations for why people make irrational financial decisions. Why do so many smart people making the wrong choices with their money? Daniel wants to find out what causes some people to behave illogically when it comes to finance and how to build investment portfolios based on unvalued investments created by investor’s emotional behavior. Daniel works as a sort of a financial therapist and asset manager centering his work on helping his clients stay away from making irrational emotion-driven mistakes. Investors can often be their own worst enemy and are to blame for poor investment returns. Volatility in the market can cause investors to act unpredictably at times – not in their best interest. You control what matters most You can’t control the stock market but what you can control is human behavior. Over the last 30 years, the market has returned about 11% a year while the average investor has only held about 4% because of emotional decision making when markets are going up and down. “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful” – Warren Buffett Investing needs discipline and rationality. Being in control of that takes planning and executing. Take your power back and gain control of your situation no matter is going on in the markets. Set up systems for yourself and follow simple rules of thumb so you mitigate potential harm to your financial lives. Daniel believes you cannot do it alone. People who work a financial professional tend to do 3% better than people who don’t. Advisors don’t have all the answers, but they can help you not to make emotionally driven mistakes. Do you want to be average? Two of the well-known investment styles are growth investing and value investing. Growth investing is investing in stocks that have shown higher than average growth over the previous years, compared to the market average, and show promise to continually grow into the future. They are riskier than average stocks but have the possibility to multiply in value. The other is value investing strategy. Value investors like Daniel actively seek stocks they believe the market has undervalued. He believes many of these stocks get overlooked due to human behavior and fear. He finds pockets of disproportionate value which are created by human behavior. The strategy has been used by Warren Buffet for many years. Daniel takes a quantitative approach to choosing his investments basing his choices on the The 5 P’s – Price (valuation), properties (quality), pitfalls (risks), people (what are the insiders doing), push (momentum/potential growth). Risk is not a squiggly line Risk is different for everyone when it comes to investing, and that’s why Daniel believes in personal benchmarking. He helps his clients create a personalized definition of risk and using their top motivations to make better decis... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the guys tackle five questions from the audience on windfalls, real estate, and building credit. Question One First off, let me start by saying I’m loving the Investment Property series you guys are doing. I totally want to get into this, just need to figure out how to save for that first down payment… My question is this…you guys talked about saving 15% a month for the reserve account to cover vacancy and break fixes…Let’s say you own a great property, and you don’t have to dip into the reserve account much for a long time. Is there a point where you cap it and stop contributing to the reserve account? Aaron via Email You won’t want to keep all of the property earnings in your reserve account because in the unlikely case you do get sued – say goodbye to that money. Part of our strategy is to choose insurance policies with high deductibles so for fixes and updates that are not major will pay out of pocket. By not making small claims, our monthly premium low.e are keeping the reserve account up to our deductible. We don’t want to use the insurance unless we have to to keep our monthly payments low going forward. What we are keeping in our reserve account is the amount of our deductible. So, if let’s say our deductible is $10,000, we want to be able to cover anything below that therefore we keep $10,000 in our reserve account. There will be big fixes eventually if you hold the property for many years so plan for significant expenses. If you know, you have to replace the AC unit or roof in the next year, plan for that by putting extra money aside in the reserve account the months leading up to it. Question Two Could you walk me through your decision to go with Roofstock as opposed to Memphis Invest or some other traditional turn-key company? My wife and I have spoken with Memphis Invest, and it seems like they run a tight ship and have an excellent reputation in the REI community. Were you simply looking for higher returns than their markets offered? I’m drawn to the fact that the properties are completely rehabbed before being rented, and they seemingly do an excellent job of reducing risk within their property management (minimum of 2-year leases, very in-depth vetting, etc.) Joseph via Email Memphis Invest is an extremely high-quality operation and great company. For us, the properties Roofstock offered were more what were-were looking for as a beginner investor. The homes were cheaper with Roofstock so we were able to try it out without investing a significant amount of money. As new investors, homes with Memphis Invest were just more than we wanted to spend on a property. We also wanted to spread around the risk by investing in multiple properties rather than putting all our eggs in one basket. This strategy has worked well for us making our average returns are higher with the less expensive properties. Question Three Is there anything I can do credit-wise/savings-wise/career-wise to increase my likelihood of getting approved for a mortgage loan? Nyequita Smith via Email Getting approved for a mortgage is all about your attractiveness to creditors. To improve that you’ll need to increase your credit worthiness. Try for more on time payments. If you only have one credit card and then you only have one on time payment a month regardless if it $3,000 or $30. Get more credit cards and put really small things on them like Netflix, Hulu, coffee, etc. Pay each of them off every month. This is a simple way to increase your number of time payments and credit score. Increase credit utilization. Call your card companies and request to increase your limit. When you have more available, your percentage utilize is lower. If you are maxing out your cards everything it doesn’t look good to creditors. If you increase your limit and only using a small amount ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you feel if you made $3.75 million in bonuses a year? It hard to imagine but our guest has done it. And he wrote a book about it! Today we have a chat with Sam Polk, author of For the Love of Money. For most people, that amount of money would be enough to live a more than a comfortable lifestyle for many years. I can’t even begin to imagine what that would feel like, but if I had to guess, I would say it would probably feel pretty damn good. For today’s guest, 3.75 million just wasn’t enough. Today we have Sam Polk on the show to talk to us about his book For the Love of Money. The guys go deep on what life on Wall Street was like, money addiction and redefining success. Meet Sam Polk At only 30 years old Sam Polk was doing very well in his career working as a senior trader on Wall Street. He was offered an annual bonus of $3.75 million and was not happy with it because it wasn’t enough. At that moment he knew he had lost himself in his obsessive pursuit of money. He was addicted to it, and no matter what the amount was, it would never be enough. He knew he had to make a change and decided to walk away from it all – the power, the money, and may other self-destructing behaviors. For the Love of Money For the Love of Money is about Sams’ journey to find out what he really wanted and where he fits into the world. He still wanted success but wanted to do something that contributed to humanity. Sam came to the realization that fulfillment comes from doing work he cares about. Sam wants to help others truly find out what they believe is important. Figure out where your puzzle piece fits in the world, not just where it makes money. After leaving Wall Street behind, Sam moved to Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and daughter, and soon son. He is now the co-founder and CEO of Everytable, a company that sells fresh, delicious meals at prices everyone can afford. If that wasn’t enough, he is also the founder of Groceryships, a nonprofit that helps low-income families struggling with food-related illnesses like obesity and diabetes. His mission is to create businesses are for solving problems but not by funneling profits to those at the top. Through his companies, he wants to “be part of creating a new economy that harnesses the dynamism of capitalism and also fosters the connectedness of a true democracy in which every vote and every voice count the same.” If you want to read more about Sam Polk, you can find him at http://sampolk.me/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We like to check in with our listeners and see how their financial life is going. Today we will take a look at This Financial Life with Corey. We will show him how to make more money by starting a music teaching business. Corey lives in the Boston Area, and he sure is a hustler. He currently, works six different jobs throughout the year and has been saving as much as he can to improve his financial life. One of his gigs is teaching private lessons on trombone, and he wants to expand that to make it a full-time business. Right now he has two students but doesn’t know how to grow his side gig. On this episode, Andrew and Thomas will go through the steps of legitimizing and marketing a side project like Corey’s. Corey’s Financial Life Corey neglected his finances for many years, ignoring his debt, forgetting payments and spending money recklessly. After spending the good part of his four years at college majoring in video games, parties, and girls, he left with student loan debt, no degree and depression. At 22, his financial situation was pretty bleak. He spent a summer without a job making the debt and depression even worse. Corey ended up in a mental hospital over Thanksgiving weekend where he experienced a sort of a financial epiphany. When he was released, he knew he could never let himself get that low again. Corey is taking the first steps to improving this financial life. He is getting his spending under control with a 30-day money crunch so he can save a meaningful amount of money. What he is still struggling with is being too emotional about finances and getting too close-minded when it comes to ways to improve his situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You have a budget, great! But what about your budget categories? Setting them up without losing your sanity can be a tall order. Having a budget is only the first step. You need to set up budget categories that are detailed enough to show you where your money is going but not so detailed that you go nuts trying to keep track of them all. Budgets are Personal Finance 101 No matter how little or how much money you have, everyone needs a budget. Every other aspect of successfully managing your finances are built on knowing how much money you have coming in, how much is going out and where it’s going. But there are so many ways to budget that it can be confusing. How many budget categories is too many? How many is too few? If a budget is too complicated, you’re unlikely to stick to it. You want a system that is simple and straightforward. The 50/30/20 method fits the bill. 50/30/20 This budgeting method is simple. You allocate your total budget at these percentages. We’re going to break down what expenses fall under each. And to be clear, the numbers you’ll be using are post-tax, so the amount of money you get in your paycheck each month, not how much you earn. And we recommend Mint for budgeting. It’s free and easy to use, and once you get your account and budget categories set up, Mint does most of the budgeting work for you. You can certainly just use 50/30/20 as your categories for the most straightforward system ever, but unless you have your finances on 100% lockdown, you probably need to expand out a bit. 50%: The Essentials The 50% represents the essentials in your budget, expenses like housing, hoa fees, utilities, transportation, parking fees, insurance premiums, and groceries among them. This also includes things like child care and child support. That these expenses are essential doesn’t mean we can’t reduce them though. We’ll cover that. Housing is the most significant expense for most of us so how much of the 50% should be devoted that and what exactly does “housing” encompass? “Housing should comprise 35 percent of your take-home income. That includes the mortgage or rent, all home repairs and maintenance, property taxes, utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and sewer, and homeowners or renters insurance. In short, it includes every housing-related expense.” That is one take on it, but it’s pretty unrealistic. I think it’s more realistic to budget that 35% just for your rent or mortgage payment. It might mean you have to tighten up in other areas of the 50% but housing isn’t cheap, and unless you take on a roommate, live really far from your place of work in the case of city dwellers or can live with your parents rent free, there aren’t a lot of ways around the high cost of housing. 30%: The Fun Stuff The 30% is to be budgeted on nonessentials, things that you spend money on but could live without (although the living might be pretty miserable). This percentage includes things like meals out, leisure activities, clothes (clothes are a necessity, yes, but presumably you haven’t been running around nekkid to this point, so you already have some), hobbies, and grooming. 20%: The Important Stuff This budgeting category too many people overlook, but it’s the most important. The 20% is for debt repayment, (if you have any) saving and investing. It’s easy to leave this category out and just tell yourself whatever is left over at the end of each month is the money you’ll put towards these things. But the problem is, when you don’t dedicate money to these areas up front, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As technology advances, it enables people to become more connected and informed. One of the biggest effects of new technology is on the financial world. Now, investments are incredibly accessible to all people searching to live a more flexible financial life. People can invest their money more easily than ever before Online financial planning and management services allow people to invest money and manage their portfolios from their computers or phones. Online management takes the guesswork out of investing. It gives users the opportunity to establish and develop a portfolio of investments with ease. Because let’s face it, we aren’t Warren Buffett. Picking the right stocks, at the right time, and holding on through the ups and downs, can be impossible. Enter Personal Capital One such online investment platform, Personal Capital, has made a name for itself as a comprehensive investment checkup tool that offers a range of services at a low cost. But does this platform live up to the hype? Below you will find a comprehensive Personal Capital review—the pros, cons, and whether or not it can help you improve your financial situation. Let’s get started. About the Personal Capital app Personal Capital has been around since 2009, and the platform has since developed a user base of more than 165 million investors. These investors have a combined account holding of $7 billion. There are two basic services offered through a Personal Capital account: free finance aggregation, and paid advisory service. Most advisors use the free aggregation tools, but higher net worth investors tend to opt for the paid service. To be eligible to use their paid services, investors must have at least $100,000 to start their accounts. Personal Capital targets these higher net worth investors with its paid service. This helps bolster its free service for other users. Therefore, the platform truly offers something for everyone. There are several different features that investors using Personal Capital have access to. And, the platform is frequently expanding to increase its offerings. Personal Capital budgeting Having a budget—and sticking to it—is one of the best things you can do for your short and long-term financial health. Unfortunately, budgeting can be a struggle for many people. The Personal Capital budgeting tool draws information from your various bank accounts to help keep track of how much you’re spending and what you are paying for. This allows you to get a better grasp on your spending habits. And, ultimately, make changes to help support your saving and investment goals. Personal Capital retirement planning When people start investing, they often do so in an attempt to prepare for retirement. The retirement planning tool offered by Personal Capital. It gives users an overview of their retirement savings to help them stay on the right track. You can use this tool to help you determine whether you are saving aggressively enough. It will tell you then are you meeting your retirement goals on time. Personal Capital users can access this feature from the online dashboard or on the iPad, iPhone or mobile app. Account integration options Personal Capital enables you to plug in cre... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thinking about a 401k loan? A 401k is meant to fund retirement, but you can withdraw money from it earlier. There can be negative consequences if you borrow from your 401k but they are not as dire as we have been led to believe. Using the money to make or save money or to pay off high-interest debt can pay off. It goes against personal finance philosophy to take money out of a retirement account before retirement, but under the right circumstances, it is something to consider. 401k Recap By now most of you know what a 401k is but for those new to the site, this will get you up to speed. A 401k is an employer-sponsored retirement account. Employee contributions are deducted directly from your paycheck before they are taxed. The money is invested into one of the funds offered by the employer. If you’re lucky, your employer matches your contribution. This is free money. For the year 2017, you can contribute up to $18,000. Because that money is meant for retirement, withdraws are discouraged before you reach age 59 ½. If you withdraw money before that age, you will be hit with a 10% penalty. There are some exceptions. If you are no longer working at age 55, if you are using the money to pay medical expenses, or if you have become disabled for example, you can withdraw the money penalty-free. Another way to access that money without the penalty is the subject of this podcast. You can borrow money against your 401k without being penalized. FYI: If picking funds in your 401k, 403b or TSP gives you anxiety, or you fear you’ve made terrible choices than you need Blooom. You’re welcome. Why a take a 401k loan? There are lots of good reasons to invest in a 401k. Not many people get a pension anymore so a 401k may be their only retirement plan. There is also a low bar to invest in a 401k. Your employer does the work; you just have to opt-in. You don’t have to know anything about investing to get started. Contributions are taken directly from your paycheck, so you never have a chance to spend the money. For some people, this is the only way they will save for retirement. The money goes in and grows tax-free. This can help reduce your taxable income and bump you down to a lower tax bracket. When you retire and need the money, most of us will be in a lower tax bracket than we were during our working years, so that is a tax saving. A 401k can also be a great place to borrow money from. How it works Borrowing against your 401K means, you are borrowing from yourself. Unlike borrowing from a bank, the interest you pay, you pay to yourself. The amount you borrowed is no longer invested so rather than getting investment gains; your “gain” is the interest you pay back. You can borrow up to $50,000 if you have a vested balance of at least $100,000 or 50% of the value, whichever is less. You indicate the account you want to borrow money from. Those investments will be liquidated. You will lose any gains those investments might make during for the duration of the loan. Depending on the plan rules, you may or may not be allowed to continue making pre-tax contributions. You have five years to pay back a 401k loan, then if the loan was used to buy a home that will be used as your primary residence. There is no early repayment penalty. Most plans allow you to repay the loan through payroll deductions, the same way you invested the money. Good Reasons to Borrow Against a 401k If you need money fast and for a short period, a year or less, borrowing from your 401k can be a good solution. You’ll have the money quickly sometimes within a few... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buying a rental property is fun, but it certainly needs to be done with care and a ton of research. Since a rental property is a long-term investment, you want to make sure you review all considerations. You are putting a lot of money into a property for a down payment, so you need to arm yourself with all the information you need to make a profitable investment. This is week four of our real estate investments series. The guys talk in depth about buying a rental property, assembling your team and reducing risk. Are the local laws in your favor? EVICTION LAWS! Find out what the eviction laws are before committing yourself (and money) to a particular area. Of course, you don’t want to have to evict a tenant, but if someone is living in your place and not paying you to rent for months, you got to do what you got to do. How long does it take to evict someone? In places like NJ, it can take months to have someone legally evicted while you wait around losing money. How easy is it to raise the rent? There could be rent stabilization laws in place to don’t allow you to raise rents as you see fit. How likely is it that you can use their security deposit for damages? Getting answers to all these questions is super important. Start by looking for a place that are “landlord friendly states.” The top 8 states – Texas, Indiana, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arizona, Florida General Property Grade Location, location, location. The location is critical in buying a rental property. Each rental property you look at will have a grade, A through D. This will help you determine if the property is investment grade. It’s In summary, buying an “investment grade” property is about focusing on the key criteria that will keep your property occupied and stress-free. Here is the breakdown of the ratings. A Property: Newly built properties in the nicest areas. High-quality buildings that are newer (built within the last 15 years) They may include premium with top amenities attracting high-income families. You will also see much higher and much less maintenance, but it comes with a much greater down payment and lower returns. B Property: The slightly older property, but still nice. Might be not quite as nice of an area. Tend to have middle-class tenants. Rental income is typically lower than Class A and may have some small maintenance issues. For the most part, they are in good condition, live in ready and will some upgrades can be moved to a Class A C Property: Older properties, more than 20 years old and located in fewer desirable areas. Likely, they also really could use some work. However, for investors, these rentals have high returns D Property: Run down properties in bad areas. The area and the property can be described separately. It’s possible to have a run-down property in a great area. Harder to have a great property in a bad area, though. It’s important for an investor to understand that each class of property come with varying levels of risk and reward. Crime rates and school quality also need to be taken into consideration. We will soon have these ratings pulled into our Rental Property Tool, but the info is readily accessible. Understanding Vacancy Rates and Potential Tenants When buying a rental property vacancy is inevitable. The vacancy rate is the percentage of all available units in a particular area that is unoccupied at a given time. Look at the US Census data on vacancy rates in the area you’re seeking to purchase in. With 2 minutes of research, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does Roofstock live up to their promises? In our Roofstock review, we dig into their selection of turnkey rental properties and put our money on the line to find out. I’ll admit, I’ve been obsessed with rental properties for a few months now. It took me about that long to wrap my brain around it all. There is so much to think about and consider – the topic of turn-key real estate investing is littered with “rabbit holes.” Now, before we jump in you may be wondering, “why would I ever want to get into rental properties?” If so you should probably start here: The Case for Real Estate Investment Properties. Eventually, after much research, Laura and I decided that we were going to get rental properties far away from the NYC area. In starting our search for turn-key rentals, here were some of the biggest sticking points for us: * How could you possibly purchase a property sight unseen? Is the internet full of crazies? * How do I find properties in my price range that aren’t in a war zone and produce a respectable cash flow? I’m not exactly a well-connected real estate professional. * How can I be sure that I’m not being sold hot garbage by an “expert”? Is there any way to undo it all if I wake up the next morning in a cold sweat regretting my decision? * How do I evaluate and track the profitability of these properties? There are a lot of moving pieces in turn-key real estate investing. * How do I make sure I don’t get stuck with “the worst property management company ever” and wind up with more work/stress than I bargained for? Few people say they love their management company, and that scares me. * How can I set it up such that I do the least amount of work possible, today and in the future? Simply put, I ain’t got time for that shit. * Does my ass need to be the only one on the line? Is there anyone that will stake their reputation on my continued success? In this review, we’re going to cover the above questions and go into extraordinary detail of our experience with Roofstock. After speaking with their CEO and many others on the team, we decided to go ahead and make a turnkey real estate investment with them. Twice. What is Roofstock and what do they bring to the table? Roofstock is a turnkey rental property online marketplace. A core requirement for properties to be listed on their marketplace is that a property needs to be occupied by tenants who meet Roofstock’s strict screening guidelines. Since we’re investors and not real estate professionals, we only look at turnkey solutions. This is the target market for Roofstock, busy professionals who want high yielding successful rental properties without the time commitment or the need to put work in themselves. Unlike most places you’d go to find turnkey rental properties, Roofstock does not own any of the properties listed in their marketplace. Instead, their expertise is in evaluating, negotiating and closing property transactions. So they aren’t trying to sell you anything but instead are looking to add value to an existing and usually convoluted process. What originally got me excited about Roofstock was their inventory. It’s probably what gets everyone excited. Currently, there are over 100 Roofstock properties available for sale, 20 awaiting listing and 75 with a sale pending. This dwarfs the size of any other turnkey seller Laura and... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the guys get nerdy about the numbers and chat about how to calculate cash on cash return to see if a property will be a smart investment. Is This a Good Investment? If you’ve been talking about buying a rental property with friends and family, there was probably someone who told you some horror story about owning rental property. Before letting them scare you out of it, do the math. It’s important not to make an emotional decision when buying a rental property. Instead look at the numbers and have systems in place to protect you. Some of us are just not numbers people (including myself). Although real estate investment math isn’t calculus, there are a lot of calculations involved. Don’t worry; we’re here to help. Cash On Cash Return The cash on cash return is a simple way of measuring the performance of a potential investment property that is quick and easy. It can be a good starting point for quickly filtering potential investment properties. Cash-on-cash return = annual pretax cash flow / total cash invested. For example, if you put $100,000 cash into the purchase of property and the annual pretax cash flow is $10,000, then your cash-on-cash return is 10%. Cash-on-cash return is the actual return you will get at the end of the year your rental property after all property specific expenses are paid out like mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA, etc. It’s a great metric to determine if a property will be a good investment right off the bat and a quick, easy way to compare different properties. Although cash on cash return is a useful back of the napkin evaluation, there are many other essential calculations to take into consideration. Yup, more math. We’ll Do The Math For You Unless you enjoy getting elbow deep in nerdy spreadsheets, we have something that will do all the math for you. Simple Wealth is a platform that will help you research, evaluate and track rental properties. It not only will it calculate your cash on cash return, it will also help you understand your properties income, appreciation, and equity using our sexy graphs. Simple Wealth will help you calculate cap rate, NOI, gross yield, rent estimates, and vacancy rate. What does all that mean? Let us get into it. Key Numbers Here are some of the key metrics we use to evaluate rental properties so you can get a better understanding of how all the math works. Annual NOI (Net Operating Income) is income after property expenses. NOI is simply the annual revenue generated by an income-producing property after taking into account all income collected from operations and deducting all costs incurred from operations. NOI excludes any financing or tax expenses incurred by the owner/investor. In other words, the NOI is unique to the property, rather than the investor. Cap Rate is the annual return on investment without financing. Return if you bought the property in full, in cash. Gross yield shows the rate of return on investment. It is a good rule of thumb number you can use to compare properties quickly. It is an easy calculation which is the monthly rent times 12 then divided by purchase price. Not the amount you would invest but the full cost of the home. Key Costs The purchase price is the biggest lever you can pull to make a property a better investment. Even negotiating 1k lower can significantly improve your cash-on-cash return. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Owning a rental property can be a great player in your overall investment strategy and an excellent way to build wealth. It typically isn't affected in the same way as the stock market so that it can provide diversification in your portfolio. However, it's important to understand the risks of the real estate market. Andrew just started investing in rental properties earlier this year soon today's episodes he will give us a broad overview of why real estate can be a great investment and what he has learned from his experience. We understand investing in real estate isn't for everyone, but it is an awesome way to build wealth. We are going to tell you why. View Episode Show Notes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you are looking to move to Denver or Denmark, there are a lot of things you need to take into consideration before moving to a new city. When you are moving to a new city, everything is new and exciting, but it can also be a little scary. Preparing will help you get past that insecurity the unfamiliarity of a new city can bring. And overspending is almost always a result of under planning. One of our awesome listeners has been thinking of making a move to a new city and asked us for some tips on how he can prepare. Thomas has been planning a move to Denver and will share some tips and resources he in today’s episode. Financial Prerequisites Before you move to a new city, you want to have your finances in order. Get your debt situation under control and work on your credit score. If you are planning on renting, landlords look at that very seriously when considering a tenant. Make sure you have a job when you get there. If you’re moving because of a job, get a relocation bonus. ASK FOR IT! You’d be surprised what you can get if you ask. Creating a moving budget. This will show you how much money you will need to save up for all expenses including broker fees, security deposits, moving companies, possible storage, furniture and at least the first month’s rent. Step 1: Choosing the new location If you’re relocating because of a job or school, either for yourself or a spouse, apparently you’re skipping this step. For Thomas, he just wants to leave Iowa so he can have a new place to call home. Start by researching locations you might be interested in. Figure out what you want out of a new location and make a priority list with value scores. Don’t get caught up in what you might do when you get there. Make a list of real priorities and things you truly value. Maybe you don’t have a car, so you want a city to be walkable. You love hiking and the outdoors, so you need to find a place with the nice weather most of the year. Since it is more likely than not that you’ll need a job when you move, some of your top priorities should be: * What’s my industry like in this city? * What’s the probability that I can get a good job? * What’s the cost of living index, and will my likely salary be able to manage it? * Will I have to downgrade my current lifestyle because the new city won’t let my dollars stretch as far? Compare your cost of living now to what it will be on the move along with your new salary. Thomas has been using Numbeo to compare the cost if living between Des Moines to Denver. He figured out he will need $4,837 each month to get the same standard of living I’d get on $4,000 in Des Moines. Also, check out tax rate differences. If you have children or plan to have kids, then you need to consider schools and daycare costs in the area. Once you have all the info you need, start scoring cities you’re interested in based on your priorities.Check out city-data websites, forums, and Reddit to get the low-down from locals. Thomas has found this pretty helpful except for those few people who don’t want any newcomers in town. Once you have your shortlist, visit a city or two if you can. It’s probably not feasible for most people to visit every potential city, but if you can try to Air BnB it up for a few days in your top pick. You can tour some apartments and get a feel for the place. Thomas did this in Denver, and that was fantastic. It solidified the decision for him. Step 2: Start preparing Moving sucks, so make a plan for everything that needs to be done way ahead of time and work on it in little chunks. Pare down your life and get rid of stuff you don’t need or use. You are starting a new life so leave some of the old behinds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If someone told you they were starting a franchise, what would be the first thing that came to mind – Mc Donalds, Chick-Fil-A, 7 Eleven? When you start to look into the world of franchises, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find. These days they come in all different shapes, sizes and niches. Today the guys chat with Laura Novak, owner of Little Nest Portraits Franchise, about starting a franchise. She talks to us about how her franchisees work, why she decided to go franchise and what systems she has put in place to make them successful. Why Franchise Laura started out as a photographer when she was only 23 years old and grew her passion into a successful small business of her own. As the years went on, she wanted to spend more time with her family and was ready to build a business that was bigger than her. For most entrepreneurs, it’s hard to let go control of their business. After being approached by someone about opening another Little Nest location, Laura started to think about starting a franchise. Doing this would allow her to still be in the business, but its success wouldn’t be tied to her hours. There is a significant difference between working in the business and working in the business. It was well said by Michael E. Gerber from the book The E-Myth Revisited about The Franchise Model. “It is a proprietary way of doing business that successfully and preferentially differentiates every extraordinary business from every one of its competitors. In this light, every great business in the world is a franchise.” Laura began to see fasting growing franchises in the women’s services sector such as workout studios and blow out salons. These companies were giving women the chance to have successful careers while being in control of their schedules and lives. She wanted to help people do what they love while balancing their families and home. With Little Nest Portraits she wanted to empower others and offer them a chance to be a successful and profitable entrepreneur. She has opened three locations, and there are a few more in works. How It Works With a franchise, you are for the most part trusting your brand in other people’s hands, so it’s super important to find the right people. The Little Nest vetting process is pretty extensive. It starts with 3- hour long webinars to get to know a little more about the candidates and give them the opportunity to learn about the company. Next, Laura will spend a day together with the candidate in person to learn even more about each other’s values. During these meetings, she looks for qualifiers such as level of management experience. There is already a lot to learn about the business itself, so she needs someone who already knows how to manage people successfully. They also need a decent amount of business experience and understand the basics. Most importantly, personal values need to match. All these things help Laura determine if an individual can capitalize the business. She has found the best owners do not have much experience with photography but instead have excellent sales skills, and of course, a passion for running their own business. Laura and her team provide weekly reports to all branches to show how everyone is performing. Franchises are all about partnership. The location owners success is also her success. Laura and her team provide owners with proven systems to support the growth of the business from marketing to customer service to decor. They want to give franchisees all they need to run a Little Nest successfully. Costs Some franchises require you to have a certain amount of assets as well as liquid funds to purchase a branch. For Laura and her team, all they are concerned with is if the franchise can get the appropriate fu... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s hard to know how to prioritize your financial goals. Personal finance is personal, so there isn’t one answer for everyone. It’s important to understand how to prioritize your financial goals and help you figure out what to focus on first. Should you start an emergency fund or save for retirement? Pay off debt or start investing? Everyone will give you different advice, and it can get confusing. Know What You Want You can’t do anything meaningful until you decide on some goals for the short term (this month), medium term (next 3-6 months) and long-term (1-2 years). What stage are you at in life and where do you want to be? Your financial goals can be buying a new home, saving for college, starting a family or creating an emergency fund. When you take this step, it’s important to think about both your short-term and long-term goals. Perhaps you want to plan a family vacation to Europe within the next five years. Or, you may wish to have enough of a buffer in your finances so that you and your significant other can afford to go out for a nice dinner every couple weeks. No matter your vision, be sure to create SMART goals. For example, how much should you have budgeted before you begin planning your trip? Or, how much money would you like to spend each time you go out to dinner? To that end, it is critical to tie real numbers to your goals. You should also have a feasible timeline for when you would like to accomplish each goal. It’s OK to be ambitious, but you should also avoid setting yourself up for failure by giving yourself far too little time to reach your goal. No matter what they are, it’s time to get ideas out of your head and make a list. Writing down your goals is critical. However, you should also make a habit of revisiting your goals and making sure you are on the right track. If so, remain consistent and do not let yourself get complacent. If you’re not currently on track, remember why you set your goals in the first place and find ways to get to where you want to be. Don’t be too hard on yourself — change is hard, and many people fail several times before they find the right formula for success. If you get off track, the best thing you can do is make some adjustments right away. Prioritize Your Important List Once you have figured out your goals, give priority to each of your personal goals in order of importance, and then determine how long you have to save for each of them. Remember to put your oxygen mask on first. Debt destruction is probably more important than kids college fund. Putting your retirement on track is more important than buying a new car. Debt is costing you money and will move you figure away from your goals. If it’s more than you can handle debt consolidation or refinancing could help you out of the hole. Having an emergency fund is so important. Unfortunately almost half of Americans couldn’t come up with $400 if an emergency came up. A good rule of thumb is having 3-4 months of your salary in a savings account and then contribute to an investment account like Betterment. Making more money can help you get to your goals faster. Not everyone has the time for side hustles so if you are looking to make some extra cash, every month then asks for a raise. Salary negotiation can be scary, but studies show that people who ask for a raise make more money than those who don’t. Know What You’re Worth Asking for a raise can be difficult, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Running and growing a business can be challenging – that’s why about 90 percent of all new businesses fail. Since the odds are stacked against you, it takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success. Whether you have a business or looking to start a one, it’s important to listen to your peers and mentors. Some lessons you will have to learn on your own but some small business tips you can learn from others. Collectively, Thomas and Andrew have ten years of experience under their belt running small businesses. Today they will share their most valuable lessons and small business tips. Don’t quit your day job. When you are just starting out, bringing in a consistent profit month after month can be challenging and stressful. You don’t want to be the position where you’ll do anything for a quick buck. You want to focus on building something that will make you $2000 passively everything month down the road and not worry about making $100 to survive the week. “A successful business is a marathon, not a sprint.” Keeping your day job until your business is financially stable will reduce pressure so you can focus on what matters. Remember – it’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it. For Andrew, constraint breeds creativity. Having limited hours to get work done forces him to do the things that matter and make the most out of his hours. Study the pros. You can read all the books on what you need to do to grow a successful business but what will push the needle is to study what the pros do. Find people inside and outside of your industry that you admire and dig into what they are doing with their businesses. For example, let us say you are super inspired by Pat Flynn and looking to run a successful online business. He has some great content online outlining what to do but go beyond that. Study what the pros do more than what they teach. Analyze their code, writing styles, videos, etc. Of course, don’t blatantly rip people off but take influence and make it your own. You will eventually develop your own style. First, get inspired. Improve 1% every month. Give yourself realistic growth goals. Growing 1% every month doesn’t sound like much, however, after a year you will have increased 12.68% and 26.97% in the second year. Just a little bit of growth consistently will start an exponential growth cycle. Just because you are improving 1% every month doesn’t me that every single thing you make will grow that one percent. That’s why you need to follow The Equal-Odds Rule. Thomas has an excellent video on it. Watch it. He believes if you want to make things that are amazing, things that become fruitful and well-known then you have to make a lot of things. The more you do, the more you will fail, and the more you succeed. Throw things at the wall. You never know. Don’t put yourself in the box. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do or what people expect you to do. Don’t ever feel you need to fit into a box. Put your weirdness into your work” that weirdness sets you apart. There are not a limited amount of opportunities. There are an unlimited number, but if you chase every opportunity, you will never make meaningful progress on the ones that matter. Only pursue opportunities that help you achieve your key goals. Say no to everything else. Also, stop thinking all the good ideas are taken. It will just paralyze your creativity. Your idea most likely has already been done. There are very few “new” ideas out there but who cares! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your paycheck gets deposited, groceries purchased, bills paid, and then you’re broke again until the next payday. That is the story for almost half of American households, and the vicious cycle is hard to break. It won’t be easy, but you can stop living paycheck to paycheck. An NYU study found that about 70 million Americans live in “wealthy hand-to-mouth” households. These are families that own assets like homes, retirement accounts, college funds and cars but yet still live paycheck to paycheck. They spend almost every dollar of their annual income to keep up their lifestyle and pay all the bills. Why is it happening? If you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck, you need to find the root of the problem. It is probably very simple – you are spending more than you earn. You may not throw your money away on extravagant things, but you are still living above your means. It’s time to consider making some lifestyle changes. Start by making a list of necessary and optional expenses see where you can save. If your spending is already very low, ask yourself what you need to survive and reframe your lifestyle choices. That can mean moving to a cheaper apartment, stop eating out, taking the bus to work, making lunch at home, getting rid of the gym membership or get your bills lowered. There are many people who people survive on very little – look at Mr. Money Mustache. Take a hard look at the choices you have been making and create a budget that will give you the flexibility to save, even if it’s just $50 a month. You can build wealth one dollar at a time. Prosperity Mindset The mind is a powerful thing. To make real changes in our lives, we need to create a positive shift in our thinking. I’m not talking about The Secret “think it and it shall happen” bullshit. Well, maybe a little. Having a bigger vision for what you believe is possible for yourself is the first step to getting there. There is truth in the law of attraction. If you feel that you will never be financially stable or you’ll never get out of debt you most likely won’t. That negativity is reinforcing your limitations. Take full responsibility for your financial circumstances. Your willingness to change it is a key factor in your ability to make better financial decisions. Remember, prosperity is not about having a big house or ton of money. It is about being happy and living comfortably, and the way to get there is with a positive attitude and motivation. Breaking the Cycle Think for a moment on what you’ll gain from breaking the cycle. How will it feel to have extra money at the end of the month? Once you start having money left at the end of every pay cycle, you’ll begin to feel a little freer. Having financial breathing room will significantly reduce your stress. Give yourself a pay cut. Living slightly below your means will help you stashing away some savings every month to grown an emergency fund. Try to pretend you earn less than you do. Start a crash savings program and do it in a short period like one to two months. Try saving 5-10% of your paycheck. Set up an automatic transfer to your account so it is easier to stick with it. Roughing it for a short period is all you need to get out of the cycle. Once you see that it is doable, it will be much easier to stay on course. If cutting expenses aren’t enough, then you need to build more income. Having an additional stream will make a huge difference even if it’s only $100 extra a month. It doesn’t necessarily have to be another job. If you have a few extra hours a week, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode was inspired by a tweet we received from one of our listeners Alexa who asked, How many side hustles are too many? She has been working on a few things that she loves and was questioning if she should just focus on one and ditch the rest for now. Both Andrew and Thomas have struggled with focusing on one project from time to time. When trying to build a business you have a lot on your plate. Staying focused can be tough with a constant stream tasks and new ideas demanding your attention. In this episode, the guys talk about why focus is so important. They share how they get focused and deal with working on too many projects at once. To answer Alexas’ question, it really depends on what the goals are for these side hustles. If they are just fun activities that make you happy and keep you busy, then you can have as many as you want. However, if you are trying to grow something that you would like to eventually turn into a money generating business you need to focus on one thing. That is only you’ll be able to get the momentum you need for it to grow. Determine which ones are hobbies and which ones are actual business ventures. Once you figure out “the one”, run with it. WWAD (What Would Andrew Do) If you have a few ideas for side businesses and not quite sure which one you want to pursue further, experiment with a few things until you get some results.Use the skills you have to narrow down possible fields and match your interests to something you are good at. After a couple of months if your lemonade stand is flopping but your computer repair business is profiting then you know where to focus your attention. Giving it the time it needs will help you reach your goal of growing it into a full-time job. Andrew as dabbled in my projects, side hustles, and business ideas sometimes many at once. What he has learned through his successes and failures is not to spread yourself too thin. Giving your time and attention to many things will either result in failure, burnout or a much longer path to your ultimate goal. Getting focused on one thing and sticking with it has been the main factor in the success of LMM. Get Focused So no that you’ve figured out what you want to do, how will you stay focused on whats important? We all battle distraction and it can overwhelm us sometimes but there are plenty of ways to fight it. Whatever you are doing throughout the day should have clear value towards building your craft. Build a system to help you achieve things every day. Choose a few tasks to complete each day and write them down. Before moving on to anything else, these must be done. Create a schedule and plan time for each task and make sure you give yourself enough time. If you schedule 60 minutes for something and it takes you longer the time crunch will stress you out. If you haven’t created a system for getting things done, you’re likely losing a lot of productive time to inefficiency. There are many tools out there to help you out. Thomas is all about building habits so he uses Habitica, a free habit building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. OmniFocus and Evernote are also great for organizing tasks and making lists of actionable items. You can also a try a “Not-To-Do List. The idea is to list all the things you are not going to go through the day to support your productivity. Avoid putting effort into things that will have little or no impact on the task at hand. Spend time on work that will show results. Self Reflect Diving headfirst into a new project can completely consume you. It is so easy to get lost in all the work, and our thoughts. Keep a journal to reflect on what you accomplished and how it measured up to your goals. This way you can see what is working for you and what ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We love to answer questions from our listeners, and sometimes we make a whole episode around it. Today we answer five questions about drinking on the job, Lending Club, borrowing from family, green mutual funds, having fun, buying a first home, Bonus Question: I have noticed that you tend to be drinking beer on each of the podcasts, let me just first say, fuck I’m jealous.I would like to know what kind of job I can get that will let me drink beer in the morning (without the whole judgey this guy is probably an alcoholic vibe). If you do respond to this email, please don’t use my name as my current job frowns on asking questions like these. This question is great. You have to work for yourself or work for some hipster-ass startup that has beer on tap all the time. But even then they’ll probably give you the stink eye if you’re drinking it at 8 a.m. Question One: Do you feel Lending Club is still a prudent investment given the recent scandal issues they’ve run into? Will it have long-term impacts on the business and the quality of loans? I’m considering a 50/50 split of my available investment funds between Betterment and Lending Club (in addition to my 401k where I’m already contributing 12%). – Matt So, a little background in case you didn’t hear. LendingClub CEO Renaud Laplanche resigned after it was found that the company had altered application dates on some large loans. It was also found that Laplanche “failed to fully disclose to the company’s risk committee a personal interest he held in a third party fund while the company was considering an investment in the same fund, which purchased LendingClub loans.” Tisk-tisk That said, after a full internal analysis of company reporting, it was found that 99.9 percent of loans were above board. Since the companies stock has plummeted but their loans were not effected. Many people were fired, so the few bad eggs are gone. Although Andrew lost money with his stock, he still has some money invested in loans. Thomas thinks he will wait this one out and see if and when the company gets back on its feet. Question Two: Need advice on relative claiming we owe them money. Last year my wife & I became debt free and were on our way to saving a down payment for an investment property. Now my mother-in-law is demanding a large sum of money from my wife. She kept every receipt from when my wife was 18 onward (she’s 36) and now wants to be paid back. The list includes things like brakes on my wife’s first car and new basketball shoes from her senior year. My wife never signed anything but apparently verbally agreed at the time to pay back some of this money. I realize that from a legal standpoint we probably owe nothing, but I feel as though morally we are responsible for whatever my wife agreed upon. Just where should the line be drawn? We can probably all agree that this is a pretty terrible parent. At first glance, the situation can make you cringe, but you have to ask yourself, what is really going on here? Is her mom desperate for money or is she just crazy? Keeping receipts for 18 years shows intent like she has been waiting deviously to cash out. Staying out of it would be the easiest thing but because they are married paying back this loan will be affecting both of them. The guys think that the most important aspect is to try and salvage the relationship. Sit down and have a talk with the mom and try to come to some middle ground. If she needs financial help, she should just ask, and they can figure it out together. Don’t lead with anger and find her intent before making any moves. Question Three: My name is Matthew, I’m 25 and just recently married and am on my way to having my first child. I have been looking at buying a house but after recently finding your podcast I’m not sure if I&#... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Becoming a new parent is a wonderful life experience, but it also comes with a ton of work, sleepless nights and some financial stress. Today the guys talk to Kim Palmer, mother of two and author of Smart Mom, Rich Mom about how to build wealth while raising a family and preparing financially for parenthood. New Expenses There are many new expenses that come along with a new family member. According to Kim, on average a new child will cost $11,000 in their first year which doesn’t even include childcare but well get to that. It just goes up after that costing you about $250,000 by the time they are 18 years old. Besides the basics like diapers and baby food which can cost upwards of $75 per week, you’ll want your new bundle of joy to have the best and most safe baby gear. Some of those big-ticket items like cribs and strollers and cost hundreds. You can buy gently used clothing, but car seats and crib are being recalled all the time so avoid buying those second hand. Most families have to make the decision whether or not to pay for childcare. Cutting one parents salary out of the equation and it’s a tough call. With all these new expenses the thought of removing a salary even for a few months can be a scary thought. On the other hand, childcare costs are pretty high. Depending on where you live, it can cost $2,000 a month for daycare and $4,000 a month for a nanny. Child care will likely be more than your mortgage payment. Kim loves using Amazon Family which gives Prime members save 20% on diapers subscriptions plus additional family-centric discounts and recommendations. She buys a lot online so she can compare prices and maximize her family savings. Start saving sooner than later. She and her husband saved for fives years before having their first child. It will get much harder after you have children. As a parent, you also need to start to think about saving for college tuition or buying a larger home for your growing family. Maternity Leave Unfortunately, most women do not get paid maternity leave. If you are planning a family in the future, this is critical to take into consideration when looking for a job. Unless you are planning on giving birth at your desk, then you will need some time off before and after the baby is born. If you want to know more about the company culture and policies of a potential employer, check out Fairy God Boss. They offer a platform for women to get the scoop about companies, and their policies from other women. Before asking about taking your time off, talk to other co-workers about their experiences with maternity leave. See how they navigated it and came up with a plan – how long will you need (providing exact dates) and who will be taking over what duties in your absence. This will give your boss a clear picture of what the next few months will look like without you. The Future Saving for your children future and education should start as soon as possible but not before you pay yourself. Contributing to your retirement is a priority then you can begin saving for your children’s’ future. College costs are rising and if you want to help your kids pay for college, opening a 529 savings plan is the way to go. You can set up automated monthly payments so you can make steady progress over eighteen years. How much should you be saving? Kim says Fidelity suggests $5,000 per child per year if you can swing it. Eventually, your kids will leave the nest, and you want them to go with as much financial knowledge as possible. Talk to your kids about sacrificing now for future goals. When they ask questions, try to give an answer that will introduce them to new concepts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy 4th of July! While you are watching fireworks, remember how much hard work and dedication it took the founders of the United States to declare independence. It takes the same effort and dedication when it comes to financial independence. These are the best habits for independence. Finding financial independence takes a lot of hard work too. Today the guys talk about building habits for independence and what mindset you need to become more freedom financially. What Retirement Should Be Andrew was recently having a conversation with his father about retirement. He said even when he has enough money to retire, the thought of having a finite amount of money and slowly burning it down its a pretty scary. The Concept of retirement is changing. Thomas read a book called The Happiness Equation, which talks about where the idea of retirement came from. In the 1880’s the German started making it mandatory for people over 65 to retirement to free up jobs for younger people. Back then the average lifespan was 67, so they only needed to have enough money to survive a few more years. Fast forward to today. The retirement age is still 65, but people are living well into their 90’s. They need a lot more money to live out the rest of their lives comfortably. Because retirement is a time of leisure, and travel, you will need to save more than just the cost of living. After reading this book, Thomas believes the idea of retirement is broken. Retirement for Thomas is having enough money so he can work on not for profit projects and still be able to support himself. Independence is not retiring; it’s the ability for you to put your time where you want to put your time. Getting Out of the Rat Race Many of us feel trapped in the cycle of going to work every day so we can pay the bills every month. This never-ending cycle is called the rat race. It is a period where you are required to put in a certain amount of time to get a certain sum of money. Always trying to get those TPS Reports to your boss. The ability to step off of the wheel and claim your time back is true independence. Although it isn’t going to happen overnight and it indeed takes some work but it cane is done. If you have your mind set on financial independence, creating habits for success will help you get there faster. Do three things every day Take an hour in the morning plus an hour when you get home and dedicate them to accomplishing daily tasks that will help you reach your goals. A bunch of those small steps will lead to bigger things. Keep your expenses low Recently, Andrew and I played Cashflow with some friends. It’s a board game where the goal is to get out of the rat race. You have a job, investments, balance sheets – it’s pretty intense but super fun. Get out of the rat race by increasing your passive income to twice that of their expenses. Keeping your costs low is just as important as making more money. Budgeting aside, once every few months go over your reoccurring costs and make sure all those things you’re paying for are still important in your life and making you happy. Beware of lifestyle creep. Don’t let your expenses increase your income. Invest In Your Labor-Asset By 2020, 40% of the US workforce will not be full-time workers. Being your own boss will be the new norm. Labor is your biggest asset. It is crucial to building the value of your work by actively trying to learn new things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season two of Listen Money Matters has officially reached 100 episodes. Thomas and Andrew have learned so much from each other and from the excellent guests we’ve had on the show. Today the guys discuss the top 10 things they have learned in 100 episodes this season. Andrew’s Lessons Having routine changes everything. Andrew learned the power of habit and made better use of his time. Having a routine has done wonders for his productivity and has actively and consciously built himself a daily routine so he can achieve more throughout that day. #gettingshitdone. Allison’s real estate investment strategy rocks. This episode caused a significant mindset shift for Andrew on how he approached wealth building. Allison inspired and opened his eyes to how easy it is to get into real estate investing. She was an excellent example of a typical family creating passive income through hard work and time. Real estate investing isn’t that hard. On a similar vain, this episode further educated Andrew on how the whole process works. He learned how hands off real estate investing could be making it a great passive income stream. Take the emotion out of money. Joan Sotkin was one of our favorite guests on the show, and her interview came just in time. Andrew was so caught up with work and was being driven by anxiety. He as approaching a burnout again and Joan was able to help him find balance. She taught him to stop worrying so much about money and focus more on healthy relationships and being in good physical health. Turn your family into a business. Great episode! Natali Morris was very inspiring and had some great advice on how to grow your family’s wealth. Since that episode, Andrew has taken the business more seriously and reduced our families costs by utilizing business write-offs. She also introduced us to the self-directed IRAs. Thomas’ Lessons The importance of Delegating Work. This was not part of an episode, but since working with Andrew, Thomas has learned to offload some work and hire some help. He was overloading himself but still resistant to the idea of having a team, but after a few of Andrews lectures, Thomas was convinced. He now has a small team, and his business is growing as a result. Investing in yourself is important. Before he started the LMM podcast, Thomas was a set it and forget it mutual funds kind of guy. This season has opened his eyes to different types of investments. One of our latest episodes was with Doug McCormick, author of Family Inc. He talked a lot about labor as one of your most valuable assets. Thomas learned it is super important to invest in yourself and your business. In the end, it could be a much better return on investment. The borrowing against your 401k battle. So, we got our asses handed to us on this one. After the borrowing against your 401k episode aired, Thomas began doing some hardcore research on the subject and learned a ton, but the real lesson for him here was understanding his responsibility as a podcaster. Everyone listening to the show has a different financial situation, so when discussing personal finance topics like this, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing your wealth is not just about keeping up with your budget and investing some money in the stock market. To achieve financial independence, you need to have a solid plan, and that starts with better decision making. Today on the show the guys talk to Douglas McCormick- Army veteran, entrepreneur, and author of Family Inc. He teaches us about managing your family finances like a business and how to use business principles to maximize your wealth. Many Americans of all ages struggle with finances. Douglas wrote Family Inc to provide everyone a straightforward and holistic way to manage their money and build wealth for their future. He wants to empower people to strive for financial independence and give them the education to make the right decisions. Appoint a CFO: Like any business, someone needs to be in charge of what is going on financially. Although the whole family will make decisions together, there should be one person who will be in charge of making sure all the money is managed correctly. This person is going to be the family’s Chief Financial Officer, and every family should have one. They will handle cash flow, risk management, small business investments, education investments, tax planning and most importantly be a teacher. The CFO will use the tools of the business world to customize a family financial plan and actively manage it. The CFO will use income reports and balance sheets instead of a traditional budget. Budgeting is a useful tool but can sometimes be short sited and distract us from what is paramount. Marking off every penny you spend month after month is pretty tedious and can easily get neglected after a few months. Douglas believes with budgeting; less is more. You want to focus more high-level expenses like rent and electric and less on tracking packs of gum and coffee shops. If you are ready to ditch budgeting for balance sheets, you can create your own on his site. Value of Labor In Family Inc., Douglas talks about the value of labor and how it is factored into the families net worth. Although we never really think about our labor as a financial asset, the family’s labor (selling skills for money) is a huge asset and it needs to be managed like one. You carry this labor asset with you throughout your life, and you’ll need to maximize it from your first job into retirement. With this value of labor mindset, you can make better choices when it comes to education and career. Higher education is certainly important, but you don’t want to pay for “excess” schooling. Let’s say you want to get your MBA. As chief financial officer, you will need to figure if the skills you’ll acquire can push your career to the next level while still being beneficial to your overall financial goals. Don’t just jump in head first without a clear goal. The value of labor also factors in when deciding on a job offer. We typically focus on the compensation, but you should also consider what about this job can drive more long-term value like developing new skills that can help you earn more in the future. Entrepreneurship “The surest way to financial freedom is entrepreneurship.” Douglas believes that it is unlikely you will create real wealth through traditional employment because of the competition in both the labor and capital markets. Starting your own business does come with some financial risk because there are no guaranteed minimum earnings, but there is no ceiling as well. The nature of employment has changed in the last decade and every year more and more people are moving out of the rat race and taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Besides the tax benefits and being your boss, when you own a small business, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever wonder how to people make money selling wholesale on Amazon? Andrew trawled Quora and found someone to teach us how to do it. Eddie Lichstein has been in the e-commerce business for 13 years selling wholesale on Amazon. He has always been a car nut and runs a site, TH Motorsports, which is the Amazon of car parts. He also runs Rejoiner, a site to help e-commerce business owners improve sales. Eddie has been very generous answering questions on Quora and he came here today to answer our questions. America Was Built On Small Business Small business makes up 99.7% of US employer firms. America has always been a country that fosters small business. And right now, certain sectors like e-commerce, are like the Wild West. In 20 or 30 years, people will look back with amazement at how easy it is to make money right now. So why aren’t more of us starting small businesses? Because we get caught up in the details; how do I incorporate? I’ll need an accountant, a lawyer. I’m just a regular person, I can’t deal with all that. Stop thinking that way. You can jump into e-commerce like we’re going to describe with no capital. All you need is a credit card (that you pay off in full every month!) and enough time (but it doesn’t take too much) to do some research and leg work. If You Have An Awesome Dildo, It Will Sell Eddie said that I had couldn’t resist using it as a headline. It’s not quite that simple. You have to love dildos, but really, who doesn’t? The barrier to selling through e-commerce is very low but you will be more successful if you sell something you love because the things you love, you know a lot about. Look around you right now. There are probably half a dozen small things in site that are not terribly expensive that you know a lot about. Choose three or four things and we’ll move on to the next part of the plan. Jungle Scout Jungle Scout is a site that allows you to do research into what sells on Amazon which is what every e-commerce seller wants to know. We used carrot/potato peelers in our example. You research the peelers and you want something that sells somewhere in the middle. If you choose top sellers, you won’t be able to compete with the sellers already peddling those. If you choose those at the bottom, there aren’t enough people buying them. Eddie figures that you will spend about 48 in total researching the product you want to sell. Ali Baba Ali Baba is China’s version of Amazon. But you can get a lot of items there very cheaply because it costs less to manufacture in China than in other places. So you buy 100 peelers. Remember, you are still not really spending money. You’re financing this on net 30 terms because you’re charging it and at least for your first foray into this, you should choose an item that is inexpensive so that if it doesn’t work out, you’re not out much money. You also aren’t taking much risk because you know what will sell after your research on Jungle Scout. Become A Detective You know how to make this whole thing cheaper and more profitable? Cutting out the middleman, Ali Baba in this example. Ali Baba isn’t making those peelers. They’re are getting them from a supplier. You want to see if you can track down the supplier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to real estate, breakaway success is found at scale, and Fundrise’s goal is to scratch that itch. Does the Fundrise platform stand up to the hype? That’s what I was determined to find out. I’ve always been a do-it-yourself investor – especially when it comes to real estate. My wife and I own three rental properties, and the condo that we live in is the result of a successful fix and flip over two years. It goes without saying that real estate is both an essential part of our wealth building strategy and something that we’re particularly interested in. It’s a strategy that is, above all, focused on long-term growth. Over the past one and a half years we’ve interviewed Ben Miller the CEO, twice. First, when Fundrise just started and was only available to accredited investors and a second time after they opened up their platform to normal people – we invested soon after. They’ve since scaled massively, paid me a ton of dividends and relaunched their entire platform as “Fundrise 2.0“. So, I thought it was long overdue that I broke down what they are, why you should care and what they do well (passive income). Let’s get nerdy! What is Fundrise and why should you care? Fundrise is a crowdfunded platform that allows average investors access to real estate returns they could not access on their own or through a traditional REIT. Their bread and butter are real estate deals that are overlooked by large institutional investors and out of reach for most individuals. Investing with Fundrise is available to non-accredited investors. Simply put, that means that anyone can invest with them, you no longer need to be insanely wealthy. And what is a REIT? A REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, is a company that owns or finances income-producing real estate. Most REITs are similar to Fidelity’s FRESX in that they manage many billions of dollars in assets and thus have to invest a significant amount of money. So, to be able to invest in new deals and manage the fund’s existing investments they typically need to make larger bets. They simply don’t have time to chase smaller properties. Often large REIT investments aren’t even directly in real estate assets but companies like Public Storage. Because what’s even easier than going out and finding real estate deals worthy of investing in? Investing in companies that do that already. Such is the case with FRESX whose largest holding is just the Public Storage company. Sounds like a shitty deal as there is Such is the case with FRESX whose largest holding is the Public Storage company. Seems like a shitty deal as there is little value added here considering a REIT is so much more expensive than just buying some of Public Storage yourself – for less. The problem is that this is pretty common and there just aren’t many REITs that are strong picks if you’re looking to buy into the rental market. Individuals, on the other hand, are mostly investing in smaller properties ($100k – $200k in value) that are in higher demand making it harder to generate a reasonable profit. It’s also more difficult, and expensive, to manage 100 properties as opposed to 10. That’s why the vast majority don’t go down this road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emotions have no place in investing. You rely on cold, hard data to make investing decisions. Today we’ll talk about ways to take the emotion out of buying stocks with the founder of Simply Wall Street. We interview Al Bentley, wind-surfer, CEO and co-founder of Simply Wall Street, an Australian startup that helps people make better investing decisions by turning complex data into easily understood infographics. Buy and Hold Wins Again Confirming yet again the advice that LMM has been giving you from the start, Simply Wall Street does not advocate picking individual stocks but rather the buy and hold strategy. But because there are people who buy individual stocks, Simply Wall Street wants to give them the best information available in a way that is easy to understand so that they can take the emotion out of buying stocks and make right decisions. The site does get incredibly detailed on individual stocks even looking at things like CEO compensation, but when you visit, you’ll notice that one piece of information they don’t include shares price. It is part of the analysis, but they don’t want people to rely too much on that one bit of data. People get too hung up on price when deciding what stocks to buy. DIY Fund Simply Wall Street wants to allow people to pick individual stocks not so they can sell them off quickly, but so they can essentially build their own fund. Individual stocks shouldn’t make up your entire portfolio but using the information that SWS provides makes it easy to have direct shares as a part of your portfolio. Investing for the In-Betweeners There is certainly no shortage of information available to help you pick stocks, but a lot of it is not easily understood by normal people. And what can be easily understood, previous share price, for example, is not a good indicator. You can’t always predict the future by looking at the past. It’s important to look at certain ratios like P/E and P/S, but you need context to understand what those numbers are indicating. Some investors rely on things like Google Finance for information, but that was built by finance people for finance people. SWS wanted to create something for the rest of us, the layperson that doesn’t have all the technical knowledge that some finance people assume everyone has. The founders are not finance guys, so they don’t have those ingrained biases. They were investors though so understood the problems of investors. There are a lot of resources for brand new investors, things like Betterment and Robin Hood, and things for high-end investors but investors that fall between those two categories are under-served. Special Snow Flakes SWS uses a system that is meant to analyze stocks that will be held long term. If you really want to nerd out, they open sourced their analysis model on Git Hub so you can have a look for yourself. There are five main components; Value: Value is based on future cash flow and its price relative to the stock market. Future: The expected performance in the next 1-3 years, based on estimates from up to 50 analysts. Past: The earnings performance over the previous five years. Health: A company’s financial health and their level of debt. This marker is critical to long-term investing. Income: The current dividend yield, its volatility, and sustainability. There is another factor that SWS looks at that many investors and advisors overlooks; management. How long has the board been serving, is the CEO grossly overcompensated, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We get a lot of listener questions, and sometimes we get the same question several times. When that happens, we know a five questions episode is in order! Today we bring you give questions on profit sharing, tradelines, 403Bs, 401ks, and paying off debt. Question One: Can you guys explain the difference between a regular 401k vs. profit sharing 401k? What’s the difference between the two and can you withdraw from both early? Profit Sharing is solely employer-funded. You’re not putting money from your paycheck into it like you would a 401k. It is your employer making contributions towards your retirement. Contributions are usually based on the percentage of salary – higher salary = higher profit sharing. As for withdrawal, the plan administrator has a lot of decision making power in determining pre-withdrawal requirements. For a 401k, the employee is the primary contributor to account. Some employers will match contributions, but not a requirement. Even if they match in given year, an employer can suspend matching in future years. Your contributions are wholly vested right away, but employer contributions can have vesting requirements such as having to work a minimum amount of years. There are certain circumstances where there are penalty-free withdrawals like for hardship, but most early withdrawals will cost you. Question Two: Are trade lines even a legit way to build credit? Or is it just a scheme? Im a late bloomer with my credit and I’m looking for a way to build it up. And where should I put money? I am saving for a vacation. In a capital one 360 savings account, mix in with my betterment build wealth account, Acorns, or some other strategy? Tradeline is an industry term for an account or line of credit. If you Google tradelines all the top result are marketplaces for trade lines or credit accounts. So why would you buy a line of credit? Let’s say Andrew has a Capital One credit line that he has been paying on time for five years which puts the account in good standing. Thomas, on the other hand, has only one line of credit for a year with some late payments and now he wants to build his credit. In this case, Thomas can go to one of these tradeline marketplaces where Andrew is selling his good tradeline. This allows Thomas to purchase his credit line to help build his credit. Andrew would add Thomas as an authorized user. Then, Thomas would remove Andrew as an authorized user and viola, Thomas now has a five-year credit line in good standing and credit score increases. Yes, this is some shady shit, and we do not recommend this. There are many other ways to increase your credit. Try applying for a secure credit card or use a third-party rent reporting service, so your on-time rent payments count towards your credit. As for the second question, if you are planning on traveling soon, there isn’t a need to put your vacation savings into an investing account. Any short-term savings are better off in a checking or savings account. Question Three: So I stopped my contribution to my 403b today (teacher) because the returns on it sucked a bag of dicks. I was getting guaranteed 3% and paying fees, which I’m confident I can improve upon by managing my investments myself. The money I’ve contributed thus far is less than $3,000, and I’ve been putting into it for a while. I’d like to roll it over into something else, but the company I have the 403b with, Great American) hits me with MASSIVE fees if I move the money before the contract with them is up, and I can’t move that money to anything other than another 403b according to the IRS. All that to say, I am willing to just cut my ties with that money for now, still have it in my tiny portfolio but just stop funding it. Now, I can spare about $150 to throw towards investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are many ways to make money on Amazon, and retail arbitrage is one of them. I know, it sounds pretty badass. We’ll teach you how it’s done. We have Jessica and Cliff from The Selling Family on the show to talk about their experience using FBA to create a successful lifestyle business. They started in 2010 and now make 300K in sales a year bringing in 100K in profits. What is FBA? FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon allows anyone to sell goods on the Amazon platform and store inventory in their fulfillment centers. Simply put, you buy items you want to sell, and Amazon will list them, store them and ship them to your customers. They also handle most customer service inquires, refunds and returns. Interestingly, more than 40% of Amazon’s total sales come from third-party sellers. Amazon is the go-to place to buy anything from vitamins to dog tu-tus. It’s trusted name with a highly trafficked marketplace (understatement) which makes it a perfect place for your products to gain visibility to millions of buyers. FBA gives everyone the tools they need to start a small online business. They now have warehouses all over the U.S. making same day and next day shipping available to many people across the country. Based on what you are selling, Amazon will have you ship your items to whichever fulfillment center would sell the most of your product. If you use FBA, your products are eligible for free shipping which will increase your chances of getting into the “Buy Box.” What Can You Sell? There’s a surprisingly short list of items you can’t sell on Amazon. Unless you are trying to push imitation weapons, baby crib bumpers or foie gras, you can sell just about anything you want. However, you need to be smart when choosing your items. If Amazon itself is listing the same item that you are listing, they obviously are going to take the sale. Jessica and Cliff sell mostly health and beauty products as well as some grocery. They look for items that Amazon no longer carries or that have run out of stock. You have to do your research and test the waters before finding what works best for you. Also keep in mind that to list certain types of items, you may need a Professional Seller account. A Pro Sellers account will run you $39 a month but is entirely worth it if you are selling forty plus items a month. Finding Your Items The Amazon Sellers App offers mobile tools that help sellers search and scan barcodes of items, check prices, sales ranking, and reviews, list items, as well as communicate with customers. You might find the best deal ever on passion fruit candles, but it won’t necessarily bring in the profits your are looking for. Amazon does a 30% cut so you’ll need to find products with high-profit margins. Jessica and Cliff set a minimum of five dollars profit on any one item they sell. It’s important to make sure there is a healthy gap between my purchase price and profit after Amazon’s cut. Make sure the item has good reviews. The profit margin might be 300%, but if it has terrible reviews, you will have less chance of selling it. The size and weight of the items is also something to consider. You do have to pay for shipping to the Amazon warehouse. Although it is heavily discounted, the price still depends on weight. Know the best time to shop. Learn when the stores around you have sales or push things to clearance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tax-loss harvesting is a term you’ve probably heard but don’t know what it means. It may seem obscure, but it’s a good weapon to have in your investing arsenal. So just what the f**k is tax-loss harvesting? Dan Egan, the Director of Behavioral Finance at Betterment is joining us to talk about Tax Loss Harvesting. We discuss what it is, how it works and what sort of benefits it provides you as a long-term investor. Tax-loss harvesting is the selling of securities at a loss to offset a capital gains tax liability. What is Tax-Loss Harvesting? Losing money on an investment stinks but there is a way to soften the blow a little; tax-loss harvesting. TLH means you sell an investment that has lost money. By harvesting investment losses, you can offset taxes on short-term gains and income. You replace the investment that was sold with a similar one to keep your asset allocation the same. Okay, that’s a little confusing for us lay people. Keep reading. Here’s an example of how it works. You bought $100 worth of Apple stock. After six months, it’s only worth $70, so you sell it at a loss of $30 and buy a similar stock, like Microsoft. At tax time, you let the IRS know that you had that $30 loss, and they will reduce your taxable income by that $30. TLH used to be something only very high worth investors could take advantage of because it’s such a labor-intensive process. It takes a lot of tax planning. If you use a personal financial advisor or tax advisor they should offer this benefit to you. Now computer algorithms can do it in seconds. If you invest through Betterment, this is done for you behind the scenes automatically and for free. Benefits of Tax-loss Harvesting TLH is a form of tax deferment. You will have to pay taxes on that $30 you lost in Apple eventually because you embedded a future gain when you bought a similar stock, Microsoft. But you won’t sell that for a year or more so you’ll be charged the long-term gains rate, which is lower than the short-term rate. For tax purposes, inflation works in your favor here because that $30 is worth more now than it will be in the future when you pay your tax bill. Because of inflation, paying taxes later is better than paying them sooner because it erodes the actual value of the taxes you will eventually pay. You know how people tell you that getting money back on your taxes (thrilling as it is) is a bad thing because of that money, your money, has been loaned to the government tax-free? Well, you can use TLH to turn the tables. TLH is like getting a loan from the IRS on which you’re earning money on over time. Realized losses on investments can offset gains and reduce ordinary taxable income by as much as $3,000 per year. Taxes Everywhere! You pay income tax of course, and there are various types of taxes you pay on your investments too. Capital Gains A capital gain is a difference between the price you paid for an asset and the higher price you sold it for. The IRS wants a cut off that profit, and they take it in the form of a capital gains tax. There are realized and unrealized capital gains. Gains are not realized until the asset is sold. The government wants their cut, but they also want you to be a long-term investor. If you hold an investment for less than one year, it’s considered a short-term investment, and you will pay a higher tax rate, the same rate that your income is taxed at. Selling investments in the short term are considered a job in a way, and you’ve taxed accordingly. If you wait more than a year to sell, you will be taxed at a much lower rate, no more than 15%. That’s a substantial difference so be sure you take that into account capital loss when you’re deciding whether or not to sell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While weddings are a wonderful way to celebrate the love between two people, it can come with a hefty price tag. But it doesn’t have to. You can have the wedding you want without going broke. I did. Here’s how beautiful party without blowing your wedding budget. It is important to bear in mind during the whole process that a wedding and marriage are two separate things. What is crucial on your wedding day is you, the one you love, a marriage officiant and your wedding license – everything else is extra. Your wedding will last a few hours, but your marriage is for a lifetime. With that said, who doesn’t want to have a party and share that special day with all the people they care about? There is a lot of planning and money that comes along with it, and it can quickly become out of control. Who is Paying? Your wedding is probably the priciest party you’ll ever throw in your life. As of 2015, the average wedding in the U.S. ran about $32,000. Of course, it depends on where you live and what kind of wedding you want to have. Last year in NYC, the average wedding cost $86,000. Yup, that’s a down payment for a home. Who is dishing out that kind of money? In the past, it was traditional for the bride’s parents to pay for the wedding, but lately, more couples are paying for their wedding giving them control over how and where the money is spent. Couples paying for everything themselves have maximum flexibility. Just like you have dreamed of what your big day will look like, so do your parents. If they are paying, they can have a say in planning as well. If mom wants to invite 45 of her closest friends, then she can. Many couples make concessions to make their family happy but it’s so important to remember, this day is about the two of you, not the whole family. Paying your way is much easier because you can make all the decisions. If the family is paying, make sure there is clear communication and expectations are set. What To Spend On Day Of Coordinator You want to enjoy the day as much as possible and having a day of coordinator will help you do that. I had one, and it was the best thing I ever did. Everything happened seamlessly while I danced, drank and had a great time. A coordinator is a cheaper alternative to a wedding planner. Although they are not with you for months planning the whole event, the day of they act as a liaison between the DJ, caterer, florist, and coordinate the logistics of your wedding day to make sure that everything goes as planned, so you don’t have to. They can also act as a “Brides Guard” to help fend off anyone trying to steal your attention when you need a minute to yourself. You don’t necessarily have to hire someone to do this; it could just be a friend who likes to take control. Photographer After all the food is eaten, drinks drank and favors given out, the only thing you two walk away with are photos of the day (and a whole lot of envelopes filled with money). Those the memories you’ll have forever so don’t skip on a photographer. You can find one for a great price, just make sure to look at their portfolio. Check that they have experience taking photos of people moving. If you only see still life pictures in their portfolio, they probably won’t be the best fit for your wedding. We ended up getting a friend of the family who was a wedding photographer on the side and spent next to nothing. We have wonderful memories and even saw things we missed! Also, check out an app called Wed Pics where guests can join your party and take their pictures and videos that are shared with you and all of your guests. Food & Booze (but mostly booze) Don’t skimp on the bar! People are coming to a party and expect to have a drink…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices