Money and Marriage Podcast

Back in March, the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418,000,000 to settle a series of lawsuits about realtor compensation.

Longtime listeners of the podcast will know that I've had quite a bit to say about how the real estate industry operates over the years... and while I had initially planned to wait until some of the details were ironed out before weighing in, there were a few things I needed to get off my chest. Enjoy this episode of the podcast!

"What happens if _____ changes in the future?" is one of the most common questions I get from my financial planning clients. In this episode, we discuss three of the most common future changes I get asked about - college savings, retirement savings, and Social Security.

In this week's episode, we discuss the one question I'll never answer for a client, and why I won't answer it. We then shift gears to focus on how to think about the underlying question in a way that is more in line with the goals in your plan.

Additionally, we discus a scheduling change - episodes will now be coming out every other Thursday, but they will be significantly longer than previous episodes. Love the format change? Hate the format change? Either way, email me (bill at pacesetterplanning dot com) and let me know!

In this week's episode, we highlight four of the most common financial questions and issues that couples face, and reference several statistics and academic research findings that I often see cited in each of these areas.

Unfortunately, I often see people draw false or incomplete conclusions from these data points. My hope is that by adding some context based on what I’ve seen work for hundreds of couples, you and your spouse will be able to avoid some of the most common money and marriage problems I see.

Want help working through these items? You can book a free, no-obligation intro call at https://pacesetterplanning.com/contact

Roughly 80%-90% of New Year's Resolutions fail. The data varies from study to study, but research consistently shows that New Year's Resolutions are not an effective way to create lasting change.

In this episode, we discuss a strategy to make your 2024 financial goals much more likely to stick.

Overspending, emotional spending, or "retail therapy" is a topic you'll hear plenty about on financial blogs... but I like to think this is a little bit of a different twist on the subject.

In this "throwback" episode of the Money and Marriage Podcast (originally published three years ago!), we explore some strategies to handle emotional spending. Enjoy!

There are two ways to make money: by working for income (getting paid by others), or by building assets (getting paid by things that you save or build).

In this week's episode, I take you behind the scenes to share my perspective on the difference between these two types of incomes, and share a change I'll be making to this podcast in early January based on this concept.

If you (or your partner) were presented with a great job opportunity, but it required you to relocate halfway across the country... would accepting the job be a no-brainer decision, completely off the table, or something to discuss?

There's no universally right or wrong answer to this question, since it involves balancing multiple priorities for your family. This week's episode will help give you a framework to work through this issue if it were to ever arise for your family.

You might not think of Charles Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol" as a good place to learn investing principles... but there's one line of the book that highlights the importance of international diversification in a way you might not expect. Tune into this week's episode to learn more!

"If you don't make a change, bad things are going to happen in the future." You often hear financial planners use this sort of language to try to inspire you to pay down debt, increase your retirement savings, and so on.

The problem with this sort of sentiment is that it often does very little to actually *inspire* change. This sort of sentiment ignores a key step in the process to create meaningful and lasting change. We dive deeper into this concept - with an assist from a famous story - in this week's episode.

Most of us are hard-wired to focus more on our financial stresses and anxieties than our financial successes. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with spending most of your energy working on your financial stresses, spending too much time focusing on the negative can burn you out, make you disengage, or lead to money fights.

In this special Thanksgiving edition of the Money and Marriage Podcast, I talk through the benefits of starting financial conversations with what's going *well* rather than what's going wrong.

Done right, financial planning protects your family's future - and sometimes, that means addressing questions that aren't fun to discuss. In this week's episode, I walk through a trend I'm seeing among the millennial couples I meet with, and why you might want to reconsider following this trend. Tune in to learn more!

Improper financial boundary issues can take many forms. Boundaries can be too rigid, too fluid, or not exist at all. Financial boundary issues can involve two spouses, their parents or in-laws, and their children.

We discuss all of these boundary issues - and more - in this week's podcast episode.

We throw around the word "risk" a lot in the financial planning world, but we don't always do a good job at having a multi-faceted discussion on the nature of financial risks and how to address each of them.

In this week's episode, we talk about the various types of risks that you face financially and discuss a framework for how to appropriately balance these risks.

Anger is a normal human emotion. If money is one of the primary sources of stress and conflicts for couples, it is only to be expected that anger related to financial decisions or situations in your family will arise from time to time.

In this week's episode, we talk about how to explore what your anger is trying to communicate to you, and how to appropriately navigate this emotion.

Back in episode 97, we covered common mistakes I often see couples make with Roth IRAs. After this episode went live, I got a listener question about opening Roth IRAs for children. I respond to that question in this week's episode.

If you're in a rush to make big financial changes - especially if you've been struggling to do so for awhile - you should consider making your next step forward a smaller one. Tune into this week's episode to learn more.

The right bank account structure will solve a lot of financial challenges for your family, all else equal. And this includes maintaining your savings rate while being able to go on vacation. Turn into this week's episode to learn my favorite strategy to keep vacations and holiday travel from slowing down your financial progress.

I had more fun recording this episode than I have recording the previous 101 episodes combined. You should start listening to this episode to learn how to handle high(er) interest rate environments as a homebuyer and what two BIG mortgage traps to avoid right now, and you should stick around until the end to hear the (mostly unscripted) fights I ended up picking with mortgage brokers, realtors, and the city of Philadelphia (in no particular order). Enjoy!

What's the rush? Retirement savings is important... but it shouldn't be your only financial priority.

What if, rather than being in a rush to retire, you focused on creating a life that you don't want to retire from? We discuss all of this, and more, in this week's episode.

In this week's episode, we discuss five common "red flags" that I commonly see in the way couples manage money together. If one or more of these are present in your relationship, I highly recommend reaching out (bill@pacesetterplanning.com) and I will connect you with the appropriate resources to help.

Why has it taken me two weeks to talk about the Silicon Valley Bank failure, when it seems like everyone else in the financial planning world is worried about it? Turns out, there's a very simple reason - tune into this episode to learn more.

Grab a copy of my book, Marriage-Centered Money: http://marriagecenteredmoney.com/book

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In this week's episode, I talk about the common "cash flow crunch" I see couples go through a few years after they get married, and how to handle it.