Erica joins this week's podcast, and we discuss predatory marketing and sales tactics to avoid. We share the history of advertising and public relations and delve into everything from strategic marketing to unethical marketing to predatory marketing to illegal scams. We discuss aggressive upselling, high-pressure sales tactics, bait and switch, hidden fees and fine print, misleading claims, exploitative lending, Ponzi schemes, phishing emails, fake customer service numbers, and other internet scams. The more you know these tactics and manipulations, the better you’ll be able to protect your decisions and finances. Most importantly, we end with specific tactics and tips on how to avoid predatory marketing tactics and scams. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/034-predatory-marketing-tactics-and-scams-how-to-spot-and-avoid-them/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, and we lay out a step-by-step approach to building and growing wealth. Andrew calls this the “investment walk,” we discuss the specific order we suggest and why some of the ordering is subjective. We walk through the steps of spending less than you make, building up an emergency fund, paying off all debt except your house, funding your 401K up to the employer match, funding a Roth IRA up to the max allowed, maxing out your 401K, funding an HSA, contributing to a 529 for college if you have kids, paying down your mortgage, and investing in the market (in index funds of course!). Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/033-step-by-step-path-to-grow-wealth-the-investment-walk-to-financial-freedom/

Liz joins this week's podcast, and we review all the financial things you need to do before the end of the year. It’s important to take some time before the end of the year to review your 401k allocations, consider contributing to a Roth IRA or IRA, contribute to your HSA if you’re eligible, and use up your FSA or dependent care account dollars. We also discuss things like optimizing doctor appointments and medical benefits, leveraging any expiring credit card benefits or rewards, making charitable donations, tax prep, and more. This is also a great time of year to review your expenses from the year and do some goal-setting for the following year. And we encourage you to find an accountabilibuddy to keep you accountable. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/031-end-of-year-financial-sht-you-need-to-do/

This week, we have a guest discussing how to prepare for and pay less for college; Dr. Rebecca Sandidge, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Oglethorpe University, joins and shares her perspective and knowledge from an expert in college admissions and enrollment. Rebecca shares how to maximize your aid across various buckets of money available to college students and their parents. We discuss the alphabet soup of federal loans and grants and explain FAFSA, EFC, and SAI. Rebecca also explains the discount rate at private universities, which was 56% in 2022-2023. She wraps up by sharing how parents and kids can mentally and financially prepare for the college admissions process mentally and financially, and what parents vs. students should focus on to divide the labor. We discuss the ROI of investing in SAT or ACT test prep, how early to get started, if the cost of college is negotiable, and more! Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/035-does-anyone-actually-pay-sticker-price-for-college-expert-dr-rebecca-sandidge-answers-that-and-more/

Greg joins this week's podcast, and we discuss Mint shutting down and our review of other budgeting and expense-tracking software and tools. We tried out Tiller, Monarch, YNAB (you need a budget), and Copilot. We share our thoughts on each tool and the pros and cons. After many years of using Mint, we reveal what we’re choosing to switch to now that Mint is merging into Credit Karma. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/032-rip-mint-expense-budgeting-tracking-software-review/

Erica joins this week's podcast, and we discuss the concept of simple joys and the importance and value of recognizing and appreciating simple joys in our lives. When we find glimmers of joy in our everyday lives, we’re less dependent on the dopamine hint from buying new things, and we’re better able to appreciate what we already have. We discuss the importance of mindfulness, being present, gratitude, and how to find more joy in our lives. We also dig into using this energy to declutter, and the concepts of death cleaning and our new term, mid-life cleaning. And we share a detailed list of questions to ask yourself while decluttering. Get the full show notes, decluttering questions, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/030-simple-joys-and-the-art-of-saving-money/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, and we discuss the pros and cons of paying off your mortgage early. We share our mortgage payoff stories and various considerations for deciding whether or not to pay off your mortgage. If you want to pay off your mortgage early, we discuss key tactics and what helped us on our pay-off journeys. Although we both paid off our mortgages early and feel very good about our decisions, we also share some regrets if we could go back and do things over again. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/029-the-great-mortgage-debate-payoff-or-invest/

Greg joins this week's podcast, and we share nine tips for navigating and mastering financial communication in a relationship. Talking about money effectively with your partner has a substantial positive impact on your relationship. We share advice for implementing and improving your financial discussions, from setting money dates to establishing shared goals to compromising and being flexible. We also share how we met, started talking about finances and deciding to retire early, and more about our money story. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/028-love-and-money-navigating-finances-in-a-relationship/

Liz and Erica join this week's podcast, and we discuss Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett. We share some of the book's central themes and our top insights and takeaways. We discuss the impact of social media, whether money buys happiness, the power of gratitude, love, the importance of hard work and patience, death, and much more. The author debunks many topics around finding your passion and the binary boxes in which we try to put people. We also get some fun tangents discussing The Golden Bachelor, Bachelor in Paradise, and the Atlanta Braves. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/027-happy-sexy-millionaire-book-review-two-thumbs-up-one-thumb-down/

Maggie’s mom joins this week's podcast and shares many financial lessons and stories from her and Maggie’s childhood. She shares how she learned the importance of saving at a young age and how credit cards and debt were not typical when she was a kid. She shared some of her financial memories, how they impacted her into adulthood, and what she taught her children. She talks about not worrying about money and how that comes from knowing she has enough. We also discuss separate finances, the importance of getting your kids to have some financial “skin in the game,” having agency over our money, and advice for the grandkids. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/026-how-to-raise-a-millionaire-according-to-maggies-mom/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, and we share our biggest financial regrets and all the things we wish we had gotten right when we were younger. We hope you learn from our mistakes and realize the many benefits of tax-advantaged accounts and compound interest. And most importantly, take advantage of these things as early as possible so time is on your side. We discuss investing in index funds, Roth IRAs, 401Ks, 457Bs, HSAs, 529s, and more. Andrew also convinces Maggie to sell her Bitcoin and gives her some homework. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/025-our-biggest-financial-regrets-and-what-wed-have-done-differently/

Greg joins this week's podcast, and we share how we’re both feeling 500 days into early retirement. We share some surprising truths about what’s working, what’s not working, and what we’re committed to changing for the future. We discuss the concept of value and how we’re striving to feel accomplished, and we wrap up by answering some listener questions about how early retirement is going. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/024-the-surprising-truth-of-early-retirement-500-days-early-retired/

Liz joins this week's podcast, and we delve into the many reasons why HSAs, or Health Savings Accounts, are awesome! We explain what an HSA is, the requirement of a High-deductible health insurance plan (HDHP) to participate, and the annual limits the IRS sets. Additionally, we share four reasons why HSAs are an incredible financial tool and how to maximize their benefits. We explain the triple-tax advantages that HSAs provide and some often overlooked benefits and loopholes. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/023-4-reasons-hsas-are-awesome-and-how-to-maximize-the-benefits-of-health-savings-accounts/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, and we answer a common question: How much do you need to retire? The quick answer is it depends, and we discuss the various factors it depends upon. We explain the 4% rule, the Trinity study that it originated from, and some of the flaws we see in that study and rule. Maggie shares how she prepped for and planned her early retirement financials, and Andrew shares how he’s preparing for his. We discuss various withdrawal strategies, Maggie’s personal withdrawal strategy, and how building some flexibility into your proposed spending can significantly reduce your risk of running out of money in retirement. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here:  https://www.insideoutmoney.org/022-how-much-do-you-need-to-retire-flaws-in-the-4-rule/

Erica joins this week's podcast, and we discuss the existential topic of enough. What is enough money? What is enough stuff? How do we feel like we are enough? We discuss the concept of enough and related topics of Consumerism, Minimalism, Stoicism, Conscious Consumerism, Hedonic Adaptation, and the Hedonic Treadmill. We also explore how the concept of enough is related to early retirement. We end with tactical recommendations for being more of a conscious consumer and realizing you are and have enough. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here:  https://www.insideoutmoney.org/021-what-is-enough/

Liz joins this week's podcast for a bonus episode, and we talk about how awesome meditation is and our personal meditation commitment for September. We share the many benefits of meditation, from reducing anxiety to improving your sleep, and even how it can impact your finances. We talk through various types of meditation and share some favorite tools and apps. We end with our commitment to each other to improve our consistency with meditation, and we invite you all to join us! Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/020-meditation-will-fix-that-sit-with-us-september/

Greg joins this week's podcast, discussing our rental properties and why and how we self-manage them. We share what criteria are important to us in selecting a rental property and how we got into self-managing them. We share our best tips and tricks for how we have created efficient approaches to finding tenants, screening tenants, writing and executing leases, communicating with tenants, managing vendors, and more. We also discuss our division of labor and how we work together to manage our rental properties, and the financials associated with running an LLC. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/019-rental-property-management-why-and-how-we-self-manage/

Liz joins this week's podcast, and we talk about anxiety and money. We start with a definition of anxiety, how it’s related to money and your finances, and how people respond to financial anxiety. We share how anxiety has impacted our relationship with money and finances. We wrap up with actionable tips for effectively managing your anxiety around money. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/018-9-ways-to-manage-money-anxiety/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, and we share three superpowers to financial success. Three superpowers can supercharge your finances and significantly improve your overall financial situation. We share what they are, why they are crucial to your finances, and some personal stories of how they have helped each of us. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/017-three-superpowers-to-financial-success/

Perhaps what matters most is figuring out what matters most. Erica joins this week's podcast, and we discuss the value of knowing your why and whether it truly matters. We discuss how defining a why can impact and influence your finances. We then talk through what a why could look like, how to work on defining yours, and if your why can change and evolve. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://www.insideoutmoney.org/whats-your-why-and-does-it-matter/

Chris Hutchins from All The Hacks joins this week's podcast and shares his best financial hacks from years of podcasting and interviewing top financial experts. We discuss the importance of automation and simplifying your finances, why renting is often better than owning a home, how to invest successfully, and how putting money rules in place can improve your financial life. Chris shared his favorite life organization tools, travel hacking thoughts, and much more! Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/015-all-the-financial-hacks-with-chris-hutchins/

Liz, Andrew, and Greg join this week's podcast and share what we spent in the first half 2023. We discuss why we believe tracking expenses is essential to our financial health and the tools and methods we each use.  We then share our total spend, top spend categories, what we feel good about, and what we’d like to improve upon. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/014-lizs-700-dinner-maggies-17k-medical-expenses-and-andrews-18-on-coffee-mid-year-expense-review/

Greg joins this week's podcast, where we share why travel hacking isn’t working for us and why we’ve decided to take a break and adjust our approach. We discuss why we got into travel hacking in the first place, how we earned 1.5 million points in 18 months, and what we’ve learned along this journey. While we like trying new things, we’ve tried this, and travel hacking isn’t working for us. We share the pros and cons we’ve experienced, lessons learned, and how we plan to adjust our approach going forward. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/013-are-we-quitting-travel-hacking/

Andrew joins this week's podcast and we talk about what we’re each doing to set up our kids for financial success. The first step is teaching and educating your kids about money, and part of that is leading by example. We also discuss holding kids accountable to earn and spend money themselves, and teaching them about choices and tradeoffs. We wrap up by explaining 529 college savings accounts and custodial investment accounts and how we encourage family members to consider gifting to these accounts instead of physical gifts. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/012-setting-your-kids-up-for-financial-success/

Liz joins this week's podcast and we discuss Bill Perkin’s book Die with Zero. We share our top takeaways and insights from Die with Zero as we talk about validating the decision to early retire, memory dividends, giving your kids money before you die versus waiting for an inheritance, annuities, optimizing for net fulfillment, and more. While we would both recommend this book, it’s for different reasons. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/011-die-with-zero-5-takeaways-from-the-anti-frugal-book/

Erica joins this week's podcast, discussing what we consider “out of sight out of mind” spending. Maggie feels strongly that if you’re not tracking your expenses, 100% of your spending is out of sight, out of mind. We discuss a few spending categories that may be more out of sight and out of mind than others, such as subscriptions and memberships, insurance products, and expenses on autopay. We wrap up with some actionable tips for more mindful and intentional spending. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/010-out-of-sight-out-of-mind-spending/

Greg joins this week's podcast, and we finally share why and how we bought a Tesla. We sold our 2016 Prius and bought a 2023 Tesla, and we were out of pocket about $10K! We share Greg’s new side hustle that gave us such an affordable upgrade path and what we think of the Tesla so far. Greg also shares his personal stories, experiences, and insights. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/009-we-bought-a-2023-tesla-for-10k-yes-theres-a-little-more-to-the-story/

Erica joins this week's podcast, discussing intentional spending and where we each choose to save or splurge. Intentional spending is all about a values-based, mindful, and conscious approach to your spending. We discuss how we intentionally spend across clothing, shoes, books, restaurants, groceries, travel, toiletries, home decor, commodities, and more! We both appreciate quality over quantity, especially as we’ve gotten older, and we enjoy splurging more on travel and experiences. We encourage you to think about what matters to you and what tradeoffs you’re willing to make financially with your spending versus your goals. It also significantly helps to track your expenses to see if your spending aligns with your values and intentions.   Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/008-save-or-splurge-being-intentional-with-your-spending

Liz joins this week's podcast, and we introduce the concept of lifestyle inflation or creep and share how our lifestyles have inflated in the last 10-20 years. We discuss the research on what makes people happy, the concept of hedonic adaptation, and the hedonic treadmill, and we go deep on whether we can genuinely admit or realize when our ego is driving our purchase decisions. Lifestyle inflation isn’t always bad, though we both strive to be intentional with our spending. We then dig into individual spending categories and reveal how our lifestyles have inflated over the years.  Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/007-do-118-yoga-pants-make-you-happier-lifestyle-creep-and-lifestyle-satisfaction/

Andrew joins this week's podcast, discussing our top 10 foundations of personal finance. We share how we’ve made progress against these categories, what we wish we had known sooner and did better when we were younger, and our advice for what to focus on to get your finances in the best shape possible. We discuss each of these 10 foundations: (1) Spend less than you make. (2) Create and stick to a budget. (3) Make savings automatic. (4) Accumulate assets that appreciate in value. (5) Avoid assets that depreciate in value. (6) Invest your savings early and often. (7) Live almost debt free. (8) 80% of personal finance is behavior 20% is knowledge and the numbers. (9) Your retirement is YOUR responsibility. (10) To be successful, you and your partner must agree on these principles. Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/006-10-foundations-of-personal-finance

Greg joins this week's podcast, and we discuss our reflections and finances one year into early retirement. First, we share advice our campFI friends have given us along the way as we share how the first year of early retirement has been going. We then share what’s working well, what we’d like to improve, and the journey of feelings and experiences we’ve been through in our first year not working after each of us spent 20+ years working in Corporate America. We wrap up the episode by sharing what our family of 5 spent during our first 12 months early-retired and how our net worth looks a year later.   Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/005-reflections-on-one-year-of-early-retirement/

We talk about the parallels between physical fitness and financial fitness, both taboo topics to many, and how they are both quite different yet also similar in some ways. Co-host Liz from @lizgetsloaded introduces herself as one of the rotating hosts and shares her passion for getting loaded and how she and Maggie met. We start off with sharing the easiest way to be thin and rich, while we delve into the systemic, psychological, genetic, and environmental factors that influence both. To close, we share thoughts on how you can make this discussion actionable and intentional.   Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here:  https://insideoutmoney.org/004-the-easiest-way-to-be-thin-and-rich/

Investing in index funds and dollar cost averaging are the boring yet effective ways to invest. Co-host Andrew introduces himself as one of the rotating hosts and shares his passion for personal finance, sourdough bread baking, and cycling. We discuss the history of index funds, the benefits of investing in index funds, and how dollar cost averaging works. We share the key messages from John Bogle’s book “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.” We also delve into the concept of dollar-cost averaging, explaining what it is and why it is so powerful and how the psychology of it can help you avoid decision fatigue.   Get the full show notes, show references, and more information here: https://insideoutmoney.org/003-how-and-why-to-invest-in-index-funds/