So Money with Farnoosh Torabi (Farnoosh Torabi)

This week’s Ask Farnoosh: The pros and cons to overpaying a credit card for the sake of budgeting for big expenses; how to create an exit strategy from an industry that you don’t love; should I work with a financial planner if I don’t need investing help? Plus: Farnoosh’s favorite money apps. (This episode's questions originally aired on April 21, 2023.)

Check out this week's episodes with Donovan Ramsey and Farah Sharghi.

Pre-order A Healthy State of Panic and immediately access her Scared Smart video and workbook lesson plan.

Financial expert and author Lauren Greutman returns to So Money after several years. She opens up about the struggles that led to her recent divorce and why it's motivated her to have more challenging conversations about money with her audience. She's the host of the new podcast Hard Money Talks which tackles topics such as financial abuse, spending addictions, financial infidelity, hidden addictions and mental health.

Want more articles and videos by Farnoosh? Check out www.cnet.com/somoney.

Subscribe to her weekly So Money newsletter for the latest updates and advice.

Catch her weekly money videos on YouTube. 

This episode originally aired July 15, 2021.

For generations, we’ve been taught there are two ways to succeed—either from talent or practice. But in his new book, Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success, award-winning social psychologist Ron Friedman shares a powerful third path—one that has quietly launched icons in a wide range of fields, from artists, writers, and chefs, to athletes, inventors, and entrepreneurs: reverse engineering. Farnoosh and Ron discuss the technique behind reverse-engineering, ways to apply it to your financial and career success and why humans are so fascinated – and obsessed with – success.

This Friday: Questions about getting out of the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, investing for a child’s future (outside of college), Roth IRA penalties, and negotiating more money at your job right now.

Farnoosh's CNET article referenced; What to Do After You Lose Your Job. 7 Timely Money Moves

Creative professionals - from coaches to designers to many self-employed individuals - sometimes have a harder time managing money. Questions about how much to charge for their goods and services and how to establish a business for long-term financial success is not always readily available. Our guest Ilise Benun offers practical advice for creatives on how to distinguish their "worth" from their "value," bake-in retirement savings into their pricing model and establish a successful operation year-round.

More about Ilise: She is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," 3 online courses via CreativeLive and The Simplest Marketing Plan – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast. For access to Ilise's Simplest Marketing Plan, which includes her 3 most effective marketing tools for creative professionals, click here.

On today's episode: How to brag about your accomplishments without sounding pompous? How to get ahead at work with an effective "bragging" strategy?

Meredith Fineman is the author of Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion. She is an entrepreneur, writer, and media expert with over a decade of experience training individuals to use public relations as a catalyst for positive career change. She is the founder and CEO of FinePoint, a leadership and professional development company with a focus on visibility and voice. She speaks and trains a number of topics, and is best known for her speaking and training on women and bragging. She is also the creator and host of the second-hand and sustainable fashion podcast, It Never Gets Old.

To learn more about Meredith check out:

www.brag-better.com

www.meredithfineman.com

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche, is back again with important financial advice, as we navigate life's uncertainties. How do we get financially creative to solve current economic challenges? What's the best way to prepare kids for managing an inheritance? What are some items we tend to overlook when estate planning?

Tiffany's latest financial tool is a new workbook called Made Whole: The Practical Guide to Reaching Your Financial Goals, which offers a practical approach to transforming financial dreams into reality.  

Misha Esipov is the CEO and co-founder of Nova Credit, the mission-driven fintech company building a fair and inclusive financial system for the world. The consumer-permissioned credit bureau helps U.S. newcomers to use their international credit history to apply for credit cards, auto loans, rental properties and more with the Credit Passport™. Through this offering, the company has built partnerships in over 20 countries to gain real time access to over a billion credit profiles. Misha holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Finance from New York University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Want more articles and videos by Farnoosh? Check out www.cnet.com/somoney.

Subscribe to her weekly So Money newsletter for the latest updates and advice.

Catch her weekly money videos on YouTube. 

Though nearly half of working women in the United States are now their household's main breadwinner, most women still aren't raised to think like breadwinners. Financial expert Jennifer Barrett wants to change that. In her new book THINK LIKE A BREADWINNER Barrett aims to break barriers down and help close the gender gaps—in wages, wealth and leadership—for good.

More about Jennifer: She is the Chief Education Officer at Acorns, a financial wellness app with more than 8 million users, and the founding editor of its popular money site, Grow.

Today’s episode is one of two bonus shows dedicated to answering your student loan questions, a collaboration with TIAA, a leading provider of financial services in the academic, research, medical, cultural and government fields.

TIAA has been working hard to help its participating employers provide student loan repayment solutions to workers. They’ve created a collaboration with Savi, a social impact technology startup that’s working to solve the student debt crisis by helping workers discover new repayment and loan forgiveness options. The solution helps individuals with their student debt, specifically their Federal Public Student Loan Forgiveness program enrollment.

My guest is Snezana Zlatar, Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Wellness and Innovation for TIAA. We navigate some of your student loan questions - from how to negotiate lower rates on your private loan and whether it’s wise to put extra money towards your student loans or a retirement plan?

Snezana also shares more about the TIAA Savi collab and how it’s saving workers with student loans who take advantage of the solution an average of $1,900 a year.

To learn more visit www.TIAA.org/savi

This week, we're joined by Georgia Lee Hussey, co-founder of Modernist Financial, to help answer audience questions about student loan repayments (should I pay them down fast or not?), the most tax-efficient ways to invest for retirement and what to do when a male co-worker earns more than you (but is more junior and has fewer qualifications?)

Apply for Farnoosh's mentorship program here.

Learn about Farnoosh's Will Work For Books Program here.

Pre-order A Healthy State of Panic and receive Farnoosh's video course Scared Smart for free.

Sign up for her newsletter here.

How much are you paying in 401(k) fees?

A lot of us listening to this show, we have 401(k), or 403(b)’s and the like. These are retirement plans typically offered through our employers. Have you really ever taken the time to figure out how much you’re being charged in fees to invest to these portfolios?

Today’s guest is Josh Jenkins-Robbins. His mission in his career, and in his life really, is to pull back the veil on all the excessive fees he claims these 401(k) plans charge. He is the Chief Strategy Officer at America’s Best 401(k). There, they try to save investors up to 40% in fees.

On the show, we talk about why the 401(k) market needs disrupting and how we can all reduce our fees, and maybe even play some catch up in our retirement accounts if we feel behind. It’s worth mentioning that Josh is also Tony Robbins’ adopted son. As we know, Tony is the number one life and business strategist in the country. He was also my very first guest on So Money. I had to ask Josh what it was like growing up with Tony as head of the household and how their relationship influenced his money mindset.

To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

How to effectively make a financial impact towards the causes you care about most? Guests Christen Brandt and Tammy Tibbetts, who built the wildly successful nonprofit She’s the First from the ground up, discuss how to create meaningful impact in a world that so desperately needs it. Where do you begin? What causes should you focus on? How do you know if a non-profit is legitimate?

In their new book Impact, Brandt and Tibbetts share stories and interactive activities to help readers find their focus, identify partners, and plug into movements for long-term, systemic change. The authors will donate all their future proceeds from book sales to She’s the First indefinitely. Learn more at planyourimpact.com.

Actor, activist and author Annabelle Gurwitch joins to discuss her latest bestselling book, You're Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility. The book is a collection of raw and honest essays that capture the issues Gurwitch grapples with in midlife, from divorce to financial fragility.

As the Library Journal says, "Gurwitch’s perspective on both the major and the mundane will be relatable to anyone who understands how the American Dream has devolved into a fever dream. Her stories are as personal as they are universal...The latest from Gurwitch will have readers rolling with laughter one minute and picking up the phone to commiserate with friends or family the next."

You can learn more about Annabelle and her work here.

We're taking a deep dive into how Gen Z consumes and advice on how they can make better financial choices. 

Joining the show: Josh Rosenberg, Co-Founder of Day One Agency who, together with researchers at USC Annenberg Center of Public Relations, examined how Gen Z consumes -- from information and news to purchases. Also, Aja Evans, a licensed therapist who helps clients relieve money anxiety to achieve financial wellness.

We discuss: How does Gen Z defines "influence," the financial challenges that come with relying heavily on social media and the best sources to trust when it making purchasing decisions.

CNET's European Correspondent Katie Collins joins to share key take-aways and insights from the recent United Nations climate summit, aka "COP26," held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The event, a gathering of world leaders and dignitaries, activists and corporate leaders, yielded a number of surprises, as the world works to adapt to a climate-changing world. What role did the U.S. play at the conference? Were the voices of the younger (mostly female) activists offered a platform? What was Amazon's Jeff Bezos doing there? How will oil and gas companies adapt to climate change? Katie breaks it all down.

More about Katie: She is CNET's London-based news reporter. She is passionate about innovation, great design, privacy issues and tech for good. Katie nerds out over maps and planes, both of which she uses to navigate her way around the world on epic adventures. In a previous life, she wrote for Reuters, Wired and Ars Technica. She loves CNET so much that she has worked for the site twice.

Stemming from Friday's episode which focused on the possibility of a recession, Farnoosh invites money coach Nicole Stanley to share her advice on how to manage the stress and anxiety around the volatility and uncertainty hanging over the stock market and economy. How to build confidence right now? How to re-examine your budget to feel more in control?

Nicole is the founder of Arise Financial Coaching, a company dedicated to helping professionals who have tried everything finally ditch debt, save more, and enjoy financial confidence. In five years, she went from battling financial anxiety to building her family's net worth to over $250K on an annual salary of $56K. In 2020, after her husband became furloughed, Nicole officially started her coaching practice and became the sole breadwinner in her household. She speaks candidly about that pivot and the initial challenges.

Fun fact: The average Arise client saves $20K in six months without giving up the things they love. Nicole lives in Denver, CO with her husband and two children.

Learn more about Nicole on her website and Instagram.

Minda Harts is the author of The Memo, a roadmap for women of color to not only navigate but change the system they are working within. The top-selling book is packed with strategic and tactical wisdom, including a chapter devoted to white readers and what they can do to actively create inclusive work environments.

Learn more about Mind at MindaHarts.com and MyWeeklyMemo.com. And connect with her and The Memo on Facebook, on Instagram @MindaHarts and on Twitter @MindaHarts.

Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International. It is a grassroots organization that helps women in the most devastatingly damaged communities in the world. To fund this, the concept is simple: one woman here can sponsor one woman there to help her receive the business and life skills that will transform her family and community. This model has grown and they’ve been able to help over 478,000 marginalized women in eight conflict areas. For her work creating Women for Women and her global journalism, Zainab was recently awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Award. 

Today, Zainab's work in journalism and media has led to the creation of several shows including: #MeToo, Now What? Original series on PBS (2018); The Zainab Salbi Project, original series on Huffington Post (2016); The Nidaa Show with TLC Arabic where she started with the historic first interview of Oprah Winfrey in the Arab world; and her latest Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi at Yahoo News. She frequently appears on MSNBC as a commentator on current news.

Zainab is the author of several books including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, If You Knew Me You Would Care, and her latest, Freedom is an Inside Job.

You can learn more about Zainab on her website ZainabSalbi.com and learn more about Women for Women at WomenforWomen.org. Connect with Women for Women on Instagram @womenforwomen, Facebook @womenforwomen, and Twitter @womenforwomen.

When we think of extraordinary investors, names like Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Ray Dalio might come to mind. But how about Jim Simons, founder of Renaissance Technologies? He's referred to as the greatest money maker in modern financial history, generating over $100 billion in profits....yet his life story has been a relative secret to many.

In his new book, The Man Who Solved the Market, author Gregory Zuckerman looks into the world of Simons, who is now 81 years-old, and how his data-driven, algorithmic approach to investing has had unexpected, and far reaching implications on our world. 

Zuckerman is a Senior Writer at The Wall Street Journal and a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award.

Learn more about Zuckerman on his website GregoryZuckerman.com and connect with him on Twitter @GZuckerman.

How can you get the obstacles and adversities that are working against you...to actually work for you? My guest today is Laura Huang, a professor at Harvard Business School who has spent her career studying implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. Her new book is called Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage. Laura describes EDGE as that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it.  But the rest of us can create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor....including financial challenges.

Learn more about Laura on her website https://laurahuang.net/ and connect with her on Instagram @LauraHuangLA and Twitter @LauraHuangLA

Many of you have expressed interest in attending graduate school, so today's episode is all about how to go for FREE.

My guest today is a listener who reached out and suggested that we focus on this topic.

Danielle Forbes has a PhD in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From that school, she also holds a Master’s in Education Policy Studies. She also has two bachelor’s degrees in English and African-American studies from Penn State.

Clearly, Danielle is passionate about education. She's even more passionate about helping others get to school affordably within their means, possibly even for free. Danielle was able to attend graduate school for free, so she’s going to talk not just from her personal experience but also her research, and all the different ways that you can bank on going to college or graduate school for much less than the sticker price - from scholarships to fellowships and tuition waivers. 

I’m a first generation Iranian-American. And so the beginning of this year was especially worrisome when we learned that the our president had ordered the assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani, the leader of the Foreign Wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, raising already heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S.

Like many I was really scared about a war erupting...and more lives being sacrificed over something that I honestly don’t think can be solved on the battlefield. Subsequent to this, Iran admitted to accidentally taking down the the Ukrainian jetliner that killed all 176 people on board.

In its aftermath, as this is a financial podcast, I thought, what could I share here that was of relevance to us?

Well, I recently came across an NPR interview with Farnoush Amiri, who is an Iran-born U.S. citizen, and thought she would be a fantastic guest. In the NPR interview she described a great secret that she and her family kept after a terrifying incident in their home in 2005.

She shares this in our conversation, too, but the bigger takeaways from our discussion are her immigrant experiences - lessons both unique and universal, as well as her life today as a financially independent Millennial living in New York City. Listen to learn how she’s creating a SO MONEY life in the context of all that is happening between the two countries she knows and loves.

More about Farnoush: She is Iranian American journalist at The Associated Press, based in New York City. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of five, where she grew up in Orange County, California, with her parents and younger brother. Farnoush has reported from across the country and in Puerto Rico, where she covered the intensive aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She currently serves on the board of the South Asian Journalists Association. 

Connect with her on Instagram @FarnoushAmiriNYC and on Twitter @FarnoushAmiri

Tapping has become a fast-growing, simple way to address both the emotional and physical problems that tend to add stress to our lives. Guest Nick Ortner is the CEO of The Tapping Solution, a company designed to bring the effective and simple healing method, Tapping, to the mainstream. On the podcast, Nick describes Tapping as a mix between the ancient practice of acupuncture and modern psychology. He takes listeners through a tapping exercise on the podcast and claims this can provide us with financial clarity.

Learn more about Nick at TheTappingSolution.com and connect with him on Instagram @NickOrtner and on Facebook @nortner

What kind of impact can we expect from the global spread of the Coronavirus on our personal finances? Guest Caleb Silver shares his perspectives. Caleb is the Editor in Chief of Investopedia, the world's leading source of financial content on the web, ranging from market news to retirement strategies to investing education.

More about Caleb: He began his career producing wildlife documentaries in South America and the American southwest. His career in business news began at Bloomberg, where he worked as a senior television producer and was nominated for a 2003 Emmy Award.

Caleb then joined CNN, serving as a Senior Producer for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, as well as the Executive Producer of CNNMoney.com. Caleb and his team at CNNMoney were nominated for an Emmy Award for New Approaches to Business & Financial Reporting. He then returned to CNN as the Director of US business news.

Caleb left CNN in 2014 to form Frog Pond Productions, a digital production and consulting company, and then joined Investopedia in January 2016 as the VP of Content. He also serves as the treasurer of the executive board of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.

Caleb is frequently featured as a markets, economic and consumer trends expert on NBC, MSNBC, ABC Radio, Marketplace Radio and Cheddar TV, in addition to markets commentary in his daily newsletters. 

Dr. Joy Lere is a psychologist who focuses on money and mindset. Through her work she has seen that lack of money knowledge combined with discomfort talking about money create a perfect storm for relational discord, underearning, overspending, lost investment opportunity, and crippling financial stress. But it really doesn’t have to be this way for any of us. I’m excited to welcome Joy to the show and hear how she helps clients to work through their mental money roadblocks. 

Learn more about Joy on her website: www.JoyLere.com

Kimberly Lucht is a business coach who helps women make their first six figures doing what they love. Degree-trained in psychology, she previously directed and tripled the growth of a woman-focused non-profit. Now she’s committed to helping female entrepreneurs have their first six-figure year through in-person workshops, online programs, and one-on-one coaching. One of the focal topics of the episode is how small business owners can attempt to earn more money this year with all the economic uncertainty right now.

Kimberly's been featured in Money, Business Insider, Create & Cultivate, Well + Good, and Greatist and currently lives in New York City.

Staying indoors is currently best for the public's health, but how can we be sure to take care of our personal health at the same time? Finding time to workout and eat healthy can feel especially challenging during these stressful and overwhelming times. And as the saying goes, health is wealth.

Tracy Campoli offers some great advice for listeners, as well as her own journey to building her business. She is a lifestyle and wellness coach that helps women lose weight and get fit without dumb diets or boring boot camp workouts or burpees. Her YouTube channel has over 20 million views.

We are in conversation with the one and only David Bach, financial expert and 10-time New York Times Bestselling author. I trust and appreciate David's advice and his perspectives SO MUCH, ever since he wrote his first book The Automatic Millionaire and saw him appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

David has since become a friend, a mentor and a frequent guest on So Money. He has kindly stopped by this podcast a bunch of times and now more than ever, I'm excited to have him join to share his reflections on all that's happening amidst the Coronavirus.

Did you know that David's been living in Italy for the past year? We discuss his day-to-day life with the entire country in quarantine, and how to keep our mind and money healthy during these challenging times.

To learn more about David and his 5-day challenge, visit DavidBach.com

In uncertain times, we grow even more uncertain about our choices, our self-worth, and direction in life. I wanted to invite back one of my best friends and mentors Susie Moore to share her wisdom and reflections on how we all can feel more in control during of our lives right now. Susie has a new book that is deeply relevant, considering all that we are experiencing right now. The book is called Stop Checking Your Likes — Shake Off the Need for Approval and Live an Incredible Life. Visit StopCheckingYourLikes.com where you can receive some bonuses if you purchase the book now through the end of April.

On the show Susie and I discuss how to stop intentionally making life harder. We sometime do this (myself included) - whether it’s with work or parenting — because we think harder equals better, more worthy. It doesn’t. We discuss how to have a healthier relationship with social media and Susie’s own practices that allow her to overcome the social and economic challenges of her childhood and be in the driver’s seat of her own happiness. 

My guest today is a wealth manager who says despite the downturn in the market, his clients didn't lose any money. How is that possible?

Caleb Guilliams is the founder and CEO of BetterWealth, a company committed to showing people how to have more efficiency and control over their money today while maximizing their future wealth potential. At an early age, Caleb read every financial book he could get his hands on and was fascinated with the idea of ordinary people being able to achieve extraordinary wealth. While still in college, he was promoted to take over the entire investment division at a local community bank where he committed to finding a better way to wealth for his clients. He traveled across the country for over two years learning from top financial experts. He eventually discovered proven strategies and principles that can empower anyone to create and protect real wealth.

More about Caleb: He is the author of The AND Asset, and host of the BetterWealth Podcast. Learn more about BetterWealth.com.

As CEO of his company, Dan Price went from earning $1 million a year to $70,000 to now $0…as his business Gravity Payments struggles to stay afloat amidst the current economic crisis

You may remember Dan who joined us on the show back in 2015 to share news of how he'd raised the minimum salary at his company to $70,000 and he, himself taking a massive pay cut to $70,000.

Now, facing a 55% drop in revenue in a matter of weeks, Gravity Payments, like so many businesses, had to make quick financial decisions to avoid bankruptcy…rather than layoff his employees, as many businesses do and have done…Dan has managed to keep everyone on staff…with a unique strategy, he’s here to talk about…and something I think can be a lesson for many employers.

Shaun T is a world-renowned health and fitness motivator, husband, father of twins, TV host and social media influencer (over 3 million followers). On today's episode Shaun T shares his financial experiences from childhood, how he built his fitness empire and his advice for staying motivated and focused on health in these challenging times.

He is the creator of the best-selling fitness programs INSANITY, HIP HOP ABS, FOCUS T25, INSANITY MAX:30, CIZE, SHAUN WEEK and his new record breaking mega-hit, TRANSFORM :20. – a 20 minute dynamic step workout that will transform you physically and mentally.

Through personal appearances, his SAFE SPACE online support group and academy, his podcast Trust and Believe with Shaun T, and his self-help memoir T IS FOR TRANSFORMATION, Shaun T is focused on affecting positive life changes in people around the world and proving that becoming the best version of yourself is attainable.

Learn more about Shaun T on his website and be sure to check out Farnoosh's interview on his podcast, Trust and Believe, today.

Letting go of expectations - personal, professional and financial - is a great challenge for many of us right now. This podcast focuses on how to continue to create forward momentum for yourself, even as it may not feel like much is in our control right now. Guest Erika Gerdes is an authenticity advocate speaker, coach and writer. She is the designer of The Art of Undoing, which helps people undo their limiting beliefs and reactive patterns to unlock greater confidence, joy and impact.

Erika is a former global business executive at Google, where she worked for 12 years before leaving at the height of her career, as a single mom, to pursue her mission for helping people live into their full range and amplify their impact.

To download her free guide, visit erikagerdes.com/so-money

Exploring the future of college and millennials, as well as the trickle-down impact of the $2 trillion stimulus on corporations, individuals and the economy. What will the college experience look like and how much will it cost? What is the opportunity for Millennials right now, as they grapple with how to add value and become financially secure in the years to come?

Guest Scott Galloway is a Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches brand strategy and digital marketing. He is also the co-host of Pivot, a podcast produced by Recode and Vox Media.

More about Scott: He was named “One of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors” by Poets & Quants in 2012. He is the founder of Red Envelope, Prophet Brand Strategy, and L2 Inc., acquired by Gartner (NYSE: IT) in March 2017. Scott’s books The Four (Portfolio Penguin, 2017) and The Algebra of Happiness (Portfolio Penguin, 2019) debuted on The New York Times and Apple bestseller lists. Scott has served on boards of directors including The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN), and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He received a B.A. from UCLA and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley.

Follow Scott on Twitter @profgalloway

Real estate expert Ilyce Glink answers all of our top questions about buying and selling in the current market. How has the pandemic impacted housing prices and is now a good time to buy?

This episode originally aired on May 6, 2020.

We are experiencing grief in all forms these days. Whether it's grieving the loss of a loved one, the loss of connection with others or the loss of a job and financial grief...Navigating a tremendous loss is one of the hardest things in life. My guest Sarah Nannen helps us find our way through and offers a new way of thinking about grief that may leave us far more hopeful and at peace.

Sarah Nannen is a transformation teacher and guide as well as an author, speaker and podcast host. She became a military widow and solo mother of four in 2014 when an aviation accident claimed her husband’s life. Her journey through grief informs her renegade work with those navigating painful life transitions who seek to live extraordinary lives. She’s devoted her career to teaching sustainable well-being and a new paradigm of deep, systemic integration of mind-body healing, with a specialization in grief and trauma support and recovery. Sarah is the founder and co-owner of Renkon Yoga Studio, a community-focused studio rooted in the power of human connection. Her expertise will be featured in two upcoming docu-series on the topics of trauma and conscious parenting; a collaborative production between Hay House, Well.org’s Urban Monk Productions and The Sacred Science, releasing in 2021. Sarah lives in central Illinois with her fiancé Brad, their four children and their rescue pit bull, Luna. 

From how to spend the stimulus check to mortgage forbearance and rent negotiations, Lauren Silbert, VP and General Manager of personal finance website TheBalance.com shares some of the top searches on the site - and answers to people's biggest money questions.

More about Lauren: She was named a “Corporate Champion” in Folio Magazine’s 2019 Top Women in Media Awards. She also appears in print, broadcast and streaming media as a personal finance and careers commentator and expert. 

The Balance makes personal finance easy to understand. It is home to experts who provide clear, practical advice on managing your money. Whether you’re looking to invest, buy a home, save for retirement, or achieve another financial goal, The Balance will answer your questions with straightforward personal financial advice.

Dr. Nicole Garner Scott is the Atlanta-based founder of Amount Financial Services. She is dedicated to creating financial breathing room for households of underrepresented communities. She has created wide-scale programs to empower others to change their financial trajectories, focused on legacy building and generational wealth. 

Dr. Scott is a sought-after speaker and received an honorary doctorate for her work in business from the Obama Association. 

Together we explore some of the historical barriers to wealth that have continued to be road blocks for people in the Black community, as well as how the financial expert community can be more sensitive and mindful when offering advice.

To learn more about Dr. Scott, please visit www.amountfinancial.com.

Today’s guest is my former editorial assistant and right hand guy, Donovan X Ramsey, who first appeared on the show in 2015. As a friend and accomplished journalist focusing on the topic of black identity, politics and patterns of power in America, I wanted to catch up with Donovan for my #BlackWealthMatters series.

Key takeaways from our interview:

1. How Donovan's upcoming book, When Crack Was King, chronicles the 1980's and 1990'se pidemic, its misperceptions and the way policing changed during those years.
2. Donovan's own experiences with racial discrimination in graduate school and beyond.
3. The truth about what publishing pays. Donovan and Farnoosh disclose their book advances.
4. 
   

More about Donovan: He is called "an indispensable voice on issues of racial identity, politics, and patterns of power in America," by American culture critic Rich Benjamin. Donovan's commentary on racial politics during the Obama era has been featured in The New York Times and his reporting and commentary on the criminal justice system have appeared in outlets including WSJ Magazine, The Atlantic, GQ, Gawker, BuzzFeed, Vice, and Ebony, among others.

Donovan served most recently as the commentary editor at The Marshall Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization dedicated to the U.S. criminal legal system. Before The Marshall Project, he worked as an editor and writer at a number of outlets including Complex, NewsOne, and NBC's theGrio.com.

Donovan holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Morehouse College. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently completing his first book, a history of the crack cocaine epidemic for One World—an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher.

You can learn about Donovan on his website www.donovanxramsey.com and follow him on Twitter @iDXR.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, 15.7% of NFL players have filed for bankruptcy within twelve years of retiring. A Sports Illustrated article reports that 78% of NFL players and 60% of NBA players face major financial challenges post retirement.

Dominique Stapleton is not only a sports agent, she is a financial educator to her clients who desperately need literacy and guidance. After working with athletes on their money for a few years Dominique wanted to offer her clients more. This year, she became a Certified NBA sports agent and vows to be the bridge between athlete success off and on the field.

In our final installment for Black Wealth Matters, we welcome Tiffany Dufu. She is founder and CEO of The Cru. Their algorithm matches circles of women who collaborate to meet their personal and professional goals. She’s also the author of the bestselling book ​Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less​. According to foreword contributor Gloria Steinem, Drop the Ball is “important, path-breaking, intimate and brave.”

Tiffany and I discuss how she was able to raise $1 million for her startup when only .0006% of Black women receive tech venture funding. She also shares pivotal money memories from childhood....and also, what to make of the Girlboss movement and its recent criticisms for not being inclusive enough?

Named to Entrepreneur's 100 Powerful Women and Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women, Tiffany has raised nearly $20 million toward the cause of women and girls. She was a launch team member to Lean In and was Chief Leadership Officer to Levo, one of the fastest growing millennial professional networks. Prior to that, Tiffany served as President of The White House Project, as a Major Gifts Officer at Simmons University, and as Associate Director of Development at Seattle Girls’ School. 

Rodneyse Bichotte is the first Haitian-American woman elected in New York City, representing Brooklyn as the Assemblymember and State Committee Woman / District Leader for New York State’s 42nd Assembly District. She represents Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood and Ditmas Park in Brooklyn. 

We discuss how a life-changing accident at the age of ten led Rodneyse to a career in public service, key initiatives she is working to pass to better the lives of the most vulnerable in New York City, and her economic predictions for the future of the Big Apple.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Rodneyse is the first Engineer elected to the New York State Legislature; and the first woman to chair the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee.

To learn more about Rodneyse and visit the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises Center check out: https://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Rodneyse-Bichotte

Establishing a healthier mindset and management around money requires reconciling with the past, and facing any potential childhood money trauma head on. Financial author Leisa Peterson, author of The Mindful Millionaire, opens up about her early years, depicted as “white trash” and the learnings and (un) learnings that helped her heal and grow her wealth.

Says Leisa, “Somehow I found a way to break free of thinking of myself as white trash which is how people thought of our family in our neighborhood. Some kids told me they couldn't play with me because their parents didn't feel like my family was safe. It went deep and was classism at its worst. I'm still breaking through the shame of what I felt when I was young.”

Blog: www.wealthclinic.com

Podcasts: Art of Abundance on iTunes and Mindful Millionaire

Book: The Mindful Millionaire (click to access book trailer) is available for pre-order on Amazon, B&N and IndieBound

What is the LEAST amount of money you could spend each month, while staying current with bills and other financial responsibilities? Guest Jully-Alma Taveras is the founder of Investing Latina on Instagram and YouTube, an online community for financially powerful women. She is also a Contributor to Next Advisor where she's provided a strategy for how to live on the smallest budget possible. She, herself, has calculated she can live on less than $600 a month. How? You'll have to listen!

More about Jully: She is a writer and producer and you can find her on Youtube where she creates videos to educate women about personal finances, investing, and entrepreneurship. 

Check out Jully's work;

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/investinglatina

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/investinglatina/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/investinglatina

This week I’m chatting with a number of people who identify as members of the FIRE movement, which stands for Financial Independence Retire EarlY. The mission is to intensely save and invest —over half your income—so you can retire sometime by 40 or sooner. The movement is often associated with white men who have high earning careers in software engineering or finance. And as a result the FIRE saving and investing advice and pursuit of FIRE  can be inapplicable to many..  So this week we’re speaking to the minority members of the FIRE group that are making the movement more diverse, more inclusive and more relevant.

Today we’re speaking with Paula Pant, a prominent leader of the Financial Independence Retire Early movement and an enthusiastic investor with a soft spot for spreadsheets. She is the Founder of Afford Anything, a personal finance and financial independence website and host of the award-winning Afford Anything podcast.

Paula’s core belief that “you can afford anything, but not everything” is the backbone of Afford Anything. Through expert interviews and bi-weekly “Ask Paula” episodes, listeners learn to think critically about how they spend limited resources like time, money, and energy.

Paula survived Covid 19 earlier this spring so our conversation starts there…and we dive into her financial belief systems in this unusual time…have they changed? 

We cover it all today! From how businesses can (and should) be more inclusive, the fight for equal pay at work and how to create generational wealth. My guest is Daisy Auger-Dominguez, Chief People Officer at Vice Media Group. For over twenty years, Daisy has made it her mission to make workplaces more equitable and inclusive. A human capital executive and expert on diversity, equity and inclusion, Daisy inspires and equips global leaders and organizations to think inclusively, lead with purpose, embrace courage and shape the future of work. She's consulted mega-watt companies including Google and Disney.

In our conversation we discuss: today's blueprint for creating a more inclusive culture at work, how to teach empathy, Daisy's childhood, as a Dominican-Puerto Rican-New Yorker, of being "close to wealth" but not wealthy and how she's creating generational wealth for her daughter and siblings.

More about Daisy: Her TEDx talk Inclusion Revolution and upcoming book with Seal Press by the same title calls on everyone, from an individual contributor to a CEO, to take on the work of dismantling inequity in the workplace.

Learn more at https://www.daisyauger-dominguez.com.

In his new book, Die with Zero, Bill Perkins challenges the notion of passing down your wealth. In fact during a health screening, his doctor asked in the evaluation about financial stress: “Do you have fears of running out of money?” Bill said, “I hope I run out of money!”

We discuss the merits of spending more money in your living years, how to calculate getting to "enough" net worth and how to balance taking care of children and dependents with the notion of dying with zero.

Bill is the CEO of BrisaMax Holdings. After training on Wall Street, he made his fortune in Houston as an energy trader. He has been Reuters, Financial Times, TIME magazine, Cigar Aficionado, BusinessInsider, and appears frequently on CNBC.

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women in this country in terms of unemployment, stress and family care. Guest Lacy Garcia, founder of financial startup Willow, discusses the challenges and the long-term impact of the toll.

Willow’s mission is

Women face a unique set of challenges when it comes to navigating life events and transitions such as divorce, loss of a spouse, career changes, family planning and finances and retirement – particularly in the new reality we find ourselves today. Women have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the unemployment rate for women was lower than for men. Now, it is the opposite. Women are bearing more of the burden when it comes to childcare, homeschooling and taking care of aging parents. More women’s longer-term career prospects are at risk as they are having to either leave or remain out of the workforce for longer. It is no surprise that the financial stress combined with quarantine is pushing many marriages to a breaking point and an increase in divorces is expected.

Lacy Garcia is the daughter of a Cuban refugee who says her money mindset was shaped early on. She combined her work in education and financial services to launch the virtual fintech company Willow and financially empower women throughout their life journeys including divorce, retirement and more.

Learn more about Willow and Lacy Garcia at www.trustwillow.com.

If you’ve ever felt like budgeting just doesn’t work for you, my guest Kumiko Love can relate. Frustrated by traditional budgeting methods, she created her own technique to pay off almost $80,000 of debt in eight months. And this technique helped launch her business, The Budget Mom.

A few years ago Kumiko was struggling to pay down her debt. As a single mom, she knew that she needed to get out of the cycle of making minimum debt payments each month, but she had tried and failed to stick to a budget numerous times. So, she created a method that she could actually stick to. She calls this her Budget by Paycheck method and as she was using it to get out of debt, she started a blog to share her journey. That blog has now turned into a business that just launched its first physical product, the Budget by Paycheck Workbook™.

You can learn more about Kumiko on her website https://www.thebudgetmom.com/ and you can follow her on Instagram @thebudgetmom on Facebook @thebudgetmom

Can asking just three questions transform your relationship with money? Our guest today is called the father of financial life planning. George Kinder is a Harvard educated economist turned CPA, turned financial adviser. He’s known for revolutionizing financial advice for now 30 years. He’s trained over 3,000 professionals around the world in the field of financial life planning where he has three questions to help clients figure out what they value most and how to design their financial life around their values.

He’s the founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning and his recent book is called A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness, drawing on 50 years as of mindfulness practitioner and over 30 years as a mindfulness teacher.

George has been named one of the 35 most influential people in financial services.

George’s website: www.georgekinder.com

His company website: www.kinderinstitute.com

Book and Movement website: www.AGoldenCivilization.com

Ali Katz is a personal finance expert, seven-figure entrepreneur, and lawyer who as made over a million dollars of financial mistakes in her life. Her experiences have helped her to establish a new way of thinking about money and steering one's financial life. She talks about the biggest mistakes we may be making with our money right now, why we need to change our thinking around debt, the pursuit of financial sovereignty and how to heal personal financial trauma in our lives.

To learn more about Ali, visit www.thealikatz.com

I first came across Suzanne Somers in the summer of 1986, as I was watching reruns of the early episodes of Three’s Company with my mom in our living room in Massachusetts. I was 6 years old, maybe too young to be watching a sitcom BUT old enough to recognize and appreciate that the actress who played the bubbly Chrissy Snow was hilarious and captivating. Years later I would watch this actress reveal more than just her performing skills…but also her brilliance as a savvy business woman, serial entrepreneur, world-renowned health advocate and multi-bestselling author….

Suzanne Somers is now 73 years young, and in the current chapter of her life, she is a leading voice on anti-aging. Her latest book - A New Way to Age - is now in paperback and it presents a revolutionary philosophy for a longer and better-quality life with easy-to-understand lessons and doctor interviews.

Hear Suzanne discuss her storied career, getting fired from Three's Company and they keys to her 50-year marriage.

More about Suzanne Somers is the author of twenty-seven books, with millions of copies in print globally, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Sexy Forever, Knockout, and Ageless. She lectures all over the world and received an honorary doctorate from National University.

There’s plenty to be frustrated with, as a parent to a child experiencing school virtually this fall. Same for teachers, administrators and students. These are unprecedented times and the path forward is unclear. All are struggling. But, what are the bright sides? How can families navigate this challenging academic year with more success (regardless of income)? This show is dedicated to offering positive solutions to an otherwise challenging school year with guest Ana Homayoun, noted teen and millennial expert, author, speaker, and educator. Her work focuses on helping students develop empathy and executive functioning skills in today’s tech and social media world.

More about Ana: She is the author of three books: That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week, The Myth of the Perfect Girl, and Social Media Wellness. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News, as well as on Fast Company, CNBC, and ABC News, among others, and she is a frequent guest on NPR.

In 2001, Ana founded Green Ivy Educational Consulting, LLC, an internationally recognized organization that works with parents, students, educators, and employers. She works with schools, universities and corporations consulting with parents, students, educators and employers about promoting intrinsic motivation, authentic engagement, and overall wellness. In early 2019, with the support of the Foundation for the Carolinas, she launched the Life Navigator Middle School Program, a school advisory curriculum and school coaching program designed to promote executing functioning skills and student wellness as well as social and economic mobility.

A lot of Americans are choosing to relocate in the pandemic, but as my guest Chris Browning, host of the podcast Popcorn Finance explains, moving to a new part of the country can be challenging when you're Black or a person of color. Worrying about being accepted and safe is something he and his wife have experienced when thinking about whether to relocate from Los Angeles.

More about Chris: He is the creator and host of the award-winning, short-form podcast Popcorn Finance & the call in, money advice show This is Awkward. Each week Chris discusses finance in about the time it takes to make a bag of popcorn. Topics range from understanding the basics of investing to his love of tiny homes.  Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance with an emphasis in financial planning and still maintains his position as a financial analyst specializing in revenue analysis.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and in the pandemic, as families struggle to address the education gap for their kids, a group of moms got together to create an essential platform for parents and teachers to connect called The Learning Match. Julie Plake McMinn and her co-founders built The Learning. Match to connect families to trusted, qualified and experienced educators in their local community and virtually nationwide. Access to The Learning Match is always free for educators, and during the current beta testing is also free for families.

With more than 15 years of experience, Julie is an all-around marketing, branding, and PR pro. She is equally at home planning a major event, creating marketing strategies and

communications plans, or engaging top editors and producers. A move to New York City after she graduated from Penn State University, marked the start of her communications career: She began as a marketing and advertising assistant at Niche Media, a luxury-lifestyle magazine publisher. Working on Niche titles such as Gotham and Hamptons, Julie was thrown head first into the world of networking and relationship-building for the jet set. As a result of Julie’s own networking, entrepreneur and business owner Bethenny Frankel reached out when she needed an assistant. In 2008, she became Bethenny’s right hand—coordinator of chaos—handling everything from scheduling to marketing to product launches to the development of the Skinnygirl Brand.

Learn more about The Learning Match.

This episode is part of a two-episode series in partnership with FICO. Our initial episode tackled all of your top credit score-related questions. FICO's Joanne Gaskin joined to co-host. You can listen to the full episode here.

Today we welcome Sally Taylor, Vice President and General Manager of B2B Scores at FICO. As a product executive in the predictive analytics and decision management space, Sally has many years’ experience shaping, managing and delivering products that help businesses improve their operations and generate high ROI. She's been part of amazing transformations – such as leading the FICO Scores adoption to revolutionize the mortgage industry, to initial business uses of mathematical optimization in the credit industry – to currently making analytics accessible and consumable via the FICO Analytic Cloud Marketplace.

In her current role, Sally manages a team of 60 professionals responsible for business development and partner relations, product strategy and management, marketing, analytic and software development, analytic delivery and project management for global business-to-business FICO score products.

Learn more about Sally:

• FICO Blog: FICO Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the FICO Score Spotlighting global financial inclusion innovation at 2019 FICO World
• VIDEO – Fox Business: What is a FICO Score?
• Forbes byline: Top Three Data Trends Helping To Transform Lending
• Thrive Global: FICO VP Sally Taylor: “As with any social movement, walls come down when people respect and understand each other.”
• Yahoo Finance: 10 Powerful Women in Finance Share Their Ideas on Achieving on Gender Parity

If you're considering making a big move - personal or professional - in this strange moment, my guest today will offer inspiration and guidance. Chanie Wilschanski is a friend of the podcast, first visiting the show in 2018 to discuss her role as the breadwinner in her marriage, raising four children and running her own company. Today Chanie talks about why and how her family decided to move to Florida this summer, against all fears and uncertainty. For them this move required a giant leap of faith. Chanie's mindset and strategy towards this shift is commendable.

More about Chanie: She is an Early Childhood Leadership Coach and CEO of Schools of Excellence where she has worked with hundreds of EC Directors and School Owners who are working to build a School of Excellence with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership and a collaborative culture.

Chanie began her journey over a decade ago, teaching toddlers at the acclaimed Preschool of the Arts in New York City for 8 years until she continued her path into high studies and earned her Masters in EC and Special Education.

Can you *really* ask for a raise right now? In a recession? Our guest Alexandra (Alex) Carter says it's not impossible. She's spent that last 11 years helping people negotiate successfully in all realms of life. Her first book Ask for More: Ten Questions to Negotiate Anything, was published May 5th by Simon & Schuster and became an instant Wall Street Journal bestseller — the first negotiation book solo-authored by a woman to make that list.

More about Alex: She is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School. She has spent the last eleven years helping thousands of people negotiate better, build relationships and reach their goals. In 2019, Alex was awarded the Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, Columbia University’s highest teaching honor.

When Broadway went dark in March 2020 following the pandemic, countless artists and performers found themselves suddenly out of work, including Margaret Skoglund, a Broadway show manager. Her pivot in the following months would not help her to rebound, but many of her creative colleagues. She founded Virtual Broadway, a platform that connects people to the world's most successful performers with professionally-produced, custom video experiences for your business or for your friends and family. 

More about Margeret: A former Duke Women’s Basketball manager, she traded games for performances and practices for rehearsals when she moved to New York City to manage Broadway shows. Over a dozen years later, favorites include Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia!, What the Constitution Means to Me, and Once On This Island as well as The Lion King and Newsies First National Tours. Other credits include Executive Producer of The Seagull (2018 Tribeca Film Festival) and Associate Producer of the inaugural Festival of New American Musicals in Los Angeles. In her spare time, she served on the Duke University Alumni Association Board of Directors and co-founded Open Stage Project, a non-profit that introduces high school women from underserved communities to backstage jobs.

We're separating fact from fiction and learning the science and savings to healthy skin. What does our skin need to thrive, and can all skin types have the same care routine?

Guest Dr. Mireille "Mimi" Vega is a respected chemist, public speaker, and pioneering figure in skin microbiome studies. She is on a mission to share the truth about healthy skin and simplified routines. Drawing from 30 years of trials and discoveries and her daughter's skincare struggles, she realized that the traditional multi-step approach to skincare simply didn't add up. This realization sparked a revolutionary idea that finally bridged the gap between skincare and scientific understanding: the ONE HUMAN SKIN Approach to skin health. Learn more about her work and award-winning skincare solution here.