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Personal Finance Expert | Cumulus Podcast Network

Paula Pant

45 million downloads. One question: what does it actually take to build wealth?

Each week, Paula Pant brings in economists, investors, business leaders, authors, and researchers to dig into the five pillars of financial freedom — financial psychology, increasing income, investing, real estate, and entrepreneurship. Deep insights rooted in economics and behavioral finance. First-principles thinking. No surface-level tips.

Follow or Subscribe to hear new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

Get smarter with money. Build wealth.

Afford Anything

#747: We have good news on multiple fronts to share about the job market, the stock market, the commodities market, and volatile news around the bond market.

And we begin it with some great news coming out of Nepal.

Welcome to the First Friday episode for September 2026.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements. 

(00:00) Rescued workers in Nepal

(04:53) Strong August jobs report

(10:14) Conflicting employment data

(12:27) Strong jobs, weaker stocks

(17:43) Why bonds matter more

(23:17) Inflation drives Treasury yields

(29:45) Hidden risks in bonds

(36:50) Treasury buyback controversy

(43:32) Liquidity versus warning signs

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Build a Life of Financial Freedom with our free workbook: https://affordanything.com/fiire

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First Friday: Hope in Nepal; Trouble in the Bond Market

#746: We begin today’s episode with a discussion of the disastrous flash flooding in Nepal, a personal topic for Paula given her family there. There’s both a human story, one of the resilience of the Nepalese people and the strong community bonds there, and an economic story, where poor infrastructure and a lack of economic development have hindered disaster response and exacerbated the tragedies of recent events. 

Listeners can donate to help the victims here: 

The Prime Minister Relief Fund: https://pmdrf.nchl.com.np/

Caritas Nepal: https://www.caritasnepal.org/donate-now/

Learn more about the ongoing rescue efforts at https://help.ekantipur.com/

A caller wants to put part of her mom's $80,000 home-sale proceeds into an annuity — and it left her financial-planner co-host doing a double take. Turns out it might be the first caller in the show's history the product was actually built for.

This week's Q&A tackles two retirement questions from listeners: when it makes sense to ease off maxing out a 401k in favor of a more flexible brokerage account, and whether a guaranteed-income annuity is the right move for a retiree who isn't great at managing money on her own.

In this episode, we discuss:

 How to know when to stop maxing out your 401k and start filling a taxable brokerage account instead

 The real "deal" you're making with the government every time you use a tax-advantaged account

 Why an insurance company can keep 100% of the money if the annuity holder dies too soon — and how to avoid it

 The one type of person a guaranteed-income annuity is actually built for

 A simple daily habit trick for building consistency, borrowed from a world-class choreographer

 Why doing everything right doesn't guarantee a good outcome, and what that means for your own decisions

 What Nepal's disaster response reveals about the real payoff of economic development

Whether you're mapping out an early-retirement bridge or helping a parent build guardrails around a windfall, this episode will help you think more clearly about the trade-offs each option carries.

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Not sure which investments belong in your 401k, your Roth, or your taxable account? Grab our free guide to figuring out where each one goes: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

 👉 Morgan Housel on the split-second decision that changed everything: https://affordanything.com/488-gut-instincts-and-big-decisions-with-morgan-housel/ 

👉 Our interview with retirement researcher Dr. Wade Pfau on annuities and retirement income: https://affordanything.com/271-retirement-planning-in-2020-with-dr-wade-pfau/

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Q&A: What Nepal Reveals About Wealth and Safety

#745: A friend once asked Sahil Bloom how often he saw his parents. About once a year, Sahil said.

How old are they? Mid-60s.

His friend did the math out loud. If they live to 80, you'll see them 15 more times.

Sahil was 30, living in California and making great money at a venture fund. Within 45 days of that conversation, he quit his job, sold his house and moved across the country to be near family.

He's now managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage fund backing more than 60 startups, and he writes The Curiosity Chronicle, a newsletter read by millions. His book, "The 5 Types of Wealth," is a New York Times bestseller.

His framework starts with a scoring problem. Financial wealth gets measured every day. Time, social, mental and physical wealth run in the background, unmeasured, until something forces you to look.

You'll get exercises for each. Build an energy calendar that tracks which activities charge you up and which drain you.

Map your relationships by how healthy and how frequent they are. Ask what your family and your community need from you. Define what "enough" means in dollars, then write the number down.

Sahil also walks through anti-goals — the things you refuse to sacrifice on the way to a goal — and Memento Mori, the Roman habit of keeping your own death in view.

Two questions run underneath all of it. Think about how you spent yesterday. Would your 10-year-old self be impressed? Would your 90-year-old self?

You don't experience all four seasons in a single day. Sahil argues your life runs on seasons too. Some stretches call for financial growth. Others call for family.

Find Sahil at the5typesofwealth.com.
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The Four Kinds of Rich Nobody Counts -- with Sahil Bloom [GREATEST HITS]

#744: With about $200 and a crypto exchange, historian Joseph Moore turned himself into a legitimate billionaire — a stunt that says more about how money actually works than most financial advice does. It's also a preview of the 300-year argument he makes in this episode: that almost everything we're told about money is newer, and far less permanent, than we think.Joseph Moore, PhD, is a historian and the national bestselling author of How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't). His own self-experiments with historical money strategies helped him become financially independent in his mid-40s.

In this episode, we discuss:

 How "never save your money" used to be completely reasonable financial advice

 Why bonds quietly beat stocks for nearly all of the 1800s

 How to spot when today's "obvious" financial rules are about to expire

 Why real estate booms always show up right alongside inflation spikes

 Why young people's unemployment is outpacing everyone else's — and what history says to do about it

 Why economic optimism and economic data have stopped matching up

 Why building more housing is the only housing-crisis fix that's ever actually worked

This one's for anyone who feels like the rules of money keep changing under them — because they do, and always have. Understanding that pattern is the first step to building wealth in whatever era you happen to be living in.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(05:18) How a runaway slave built his own legal currency

(06:52) How he legally declared himself a crypto billionaire

(13:22) Why a fifth of the Smithsonian's money collection is fake

(15:52) The bestselling book that told readers to commit fraud

(20:10) The decades when bonds quietly beat stocks

(26:04) How his grandfather secretly became a bond millionaire

(31:09) Why that "$10K in 1929" chart is misleading

(48:02) Why wages are up 50% and nobody believes it

(1:06:39) Why most Americans once owned one shirt

(1:23:48) The rent control law that backfired for renters

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Build a Life of Financial Freedom with our free workbook: https://affordanything.com/fiire 

👉 Joseph Moore's site — his book, essays, and more: https://www.josephmoorebooks.com 

👉 Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez: https://vickirobin.com/your-money-or-your-life/ 

👉 The Latte Factor by David Bach: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Latte-Factor/David-Bach/9781982120245
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This Historian Says We're Living in the Best Era Ever, with Joseph Moore

#743: Everyone talks about a loneliness epidemic — but Luke Burgis argues the opposite problem is just as real: we now have so much easy, frictionless community that we never have to develop a solid sense of who we actually are.

Luke Burgis is a professor of business at The Catholic University of America and the founder of the Cluny Institute, and the bestselling author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. He returns to the show to talk about his new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine.

In this episode, we discuss:

 

Why having too much easy community can be just as damaging as having none at all

 

How to tell whether your beliefs are actually yours — or something you inherited without ever examining it

 

Why cutting people off has quietly become the default response to conflict

 

How to stop shrinking yourself just to keep other people comfortable

 

The zero-tolerance rule Luke enforces at his own company to kill passive-aggressiveness before it starts

 

How Luke actually decides who to trust, hire, and build relationships with

 

What an existential crisis at 29 — and five humbling years training for the priesthood — taught a successful entrepreneur about identity

This episode is for anyone who feels the pull between fitting in and standing out — in your family, your workplace, or your online life. Luke offers a way to build an identity solid enough to hold up under pressure, without giving up on real community.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(7:42) Two competing drives wired into every human being

(10:11) Why group pressure breaks some people and not others

(17:39) Why cutting people off replaced working through conflict

(19:39) The real number of close friends you actually need

(26:51) Where your beliefs actually came from

(32:00) You're not responsible for how someone else feels

(36:09) The zero-tolerance workplace rule against passive-aggressiveness

(41:22) How to actually tell who you can trust

(53:33) The existential crisis that sent an entrepreneur toward the seminary

(55:39) The humbling lesson hidden in a vending machine

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 This free 10-day workbook helps you trace your money habits back to whether they're actually yours — starting with your own money mindset — https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Luke's website (books, newsletter, and more) — https://lukeburgis.com 

👉 Luke's new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion — https://www.amazon.com/One-Ninety-Nine-Forging-Identity-Contagion/dp/1250373034 

👉 Paul Graham's essay "Cities and Ambition," on how the place you live shapes what you want — https://paulgraham.com/cities.html

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everyone Wants a Piece of You. Here's How to Stay Whole -- with Luke Burgis

#742: A listener hit her $1.4 million early-retirement goal three years ahead of schedule — and now she's stuck deciding whether paying off a low-interest mortgage is smart, or just fear in disguise. Later, a former financial planner explains why he still won't recommend one of the most talked-about "safer" investing strategies in the FIRE community.

This week's Q&A tackles three listener questions: hiring your first accountant amid a complicated tax situation, whether to pay off a mortgage or retire early once you've already hit your number, and why one half of the show won't touch a popular alternative investing strategy.

In this episode, we discuss:

 How to tell the difference between a CPA, an EA, and a tax attorney — and which one you actually need

 Why software can't keep up once your tax situation gets complicated

 How to interview and choose an accountant with confidence

 How to know if "one more year" at work is a smart plan or a sign of fear

 Why loving your job can change the entire math on early retirement

 Why a former financial planner still won't recommend risk parity investing

 What four well-known investing philosophies get right — and where they disagree

Whether you're hiring your first accountant, staring down an early retirement decision, or trying to make sense of competing investment philosophies, this episode will help you separate genuine progress from comfortable procrastination.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(04:02) Why software can't handle a messy tax situation

(08:02) The three types of tax pros — and who you actually need

(12:46) How to interview and choose the right accountant

(24:42) She hit her $1.4M goal three years early

(32:22) The hidden fear behind "one more year" at work

(38:29) Why loving your job changes the retirement math

(49:39) Why a former advisor won't touch risk parity

(53:46) Four investing legends who all disagree with each other

(59:35) The historian's warning: history doesn't repeat itself

(1:07:57) The cooking analogy that explains your portfolio

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Not sure which investments belong in your Roth vs. your taxable account? Grab our free one-page guide to where each type of investment should sit: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

Karsten Jeske ("Big ERN"): 

👉 "How to Lie with Personal Finance – Part 4: Risk Parity": https://earlyretirementnow.com/2026/07/29/risk-parity-lies/ 

👉 "Can We Increase the Safe Withdrawal Rate with Risk Parity? – SWR Series Part 64": https://earlyretirementnow.com/2026/07/27/risk-parity-swr-series-part-64/ 

👉 #548: Is Your Retirement Safe in Today's Economy?: https://affordanything.com/548-is-your-retirement-safe-in-todays-economy-with-dr-karsten-jeske-big-ern/ 

👉 #643: LIVESTREAM: A Former Fed Economist Reveals What's Really Happening: https://affordanything.com/643-livestream-a-former-fed-economist-reveals-whats-really-happening-with-karsten-jeske-big-ern/

Nick Maggiulli: 

👉 #375: The 2X Rule (and Other Wealth-Accelerating Advice): https://affordanything.com/375-the-2x-rule-and-other-wealth-accelerating-advice-with-nick-maggiulli/ 

👉 #629: The Wealth Ladder Has Six Rungs (and Most People Never Climb Past Four): https://affordanything.com/629-nick-maggiulli-the-wealth-ladder-has-six-rungs-and-most-people-never-climb-past-four/

Frank Vasquez: 

👉 #618: How to Retire at 50 While Supporting Aging Parents: https://affordanything.com/618-how-to-retire-at-50-while-supporting-aging-parents-with-frank-vasquez/ 

👉 His podcast, Risk Parity Radio: https://www.riskparityradio.com

JL Collins: 

👉 #624: JL Collins Part 1 – The Simple Path vs. The "Optimal" Path: https://affordanything.com/624-jl-collins-part-1-the-simple-path-vs-the-optimal-path/ 

👉 #625: JL Collins Part 2 – What Happens When You Don't Need to Work Anymore?: https://affordanything.com/625-jl-collins-part-2-what-happens-when-you-dont-need-to-work-anymore/

Paul Merriman: 

👉 #550: Paul Merriman – The 4-Fund Strategy That Beats the S&P 500: https://affordanything.com/550-paul-merriman-the-4-fund-strategy-that-beats-the-sp-500/ 

👉 #590: Small Cap Showdown! Paul Merriman vs. Dr. Karsten Jeske: https://affordanything.com/affordanything-com-small-cap-value-debate/

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Q&A: I Reached Financial Independence Three Years Early … Now What?

#740: Jack Raines turned $6,000 into $400,000 trading blank-check stocks during the 2020–2021 bubble — and he says it was some of the least fun money he's ever made.

Jack Raines is a writer and investor at Slow Ventures, and the author of the new book Young Money: A Field Guide to Wealth and Purpose in Your Twenties.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why "golden handcuffs" are almost always a choice, not a trap

How to tell if you're staying in a job for the right reasons, or just fear

Why the same decision can be exactly right at 24 and wrong at 34

What actually helps when comparison and "falling behind" turn into apathy

How he turned $6,000 into $400,000 trading a stock bubble, then gave much of it back

Why hitting your number rarely feels like the finish line people expect

Two questions worth asking before you spend years on something that isn't working

This one's for anyone who feels behind, stuck, or unsure if their current path is a smart trade-off or just fear in disguise — Jack's way of thinking about money and time might be the reset you need.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

 Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

 (02:00) He liked his boss on a dating app

 (06:57) Two very different ways to spend your twenties

 (17:56) Why grad school became his built-in sabbatical

 (19:16) Why 30 gets judged harder than 24

 (34:12) The real cause of career apathy

 (39:20) His best fix for feeling stuck

 (46:27) Same decision, right at 24, wrong at 34

 (01:01:43) What's really keeping you in a job you hate

 (01:14:12) Why more money doesn't fix stress

 (01:17:56) Turning $6,000 into $400,000 in a stock bubble

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Take the free 10-day FiiRE money-mindset workbook: if "I make too much to quit" sounds familiar, this helps you find out if that's actually true. → https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Jack's new book, Young Money: A Field Guide to Wealth and Purpose in Your Twenties → https://jackraines.blog/book

👉 Nick Maggiulli's The Wealth Ladder, the six-level wealth framework Paula references → https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Ladder-Proven-Strategies-Financial/dp/0593854039

👉 Freedom, the app Jack and Paula both use to block social media and protect focus time → https://freedom.to

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You Can't Buy Back Your 20’s — with Jack Raines

#740: Paula and Joe rarely butt heads — but a caller's side hustle, which pulled in $5,500 in a single day, sparked their most heated disagreement in months.

This week's mailbag: a couple weighing an early retirement built on $1.2 million, a wedding-dress side hustle deciding whether to go all in, and a listener whose small stock investment turned into a $25,000 tax puzzle.

In this episode, we discuss:

 How to build a bucket strategy so you can retire early and still stay aggressive with your portfolio

 The real markers that tell you it's time to go back to work — not just a number

 How one listener turned a marketplace side hustle into a $5,500 day

 When to leave a stable paycheck for a growing side business, and when to wait

 Why a popular plan to gift a winning stock to your kids usually backfires

 Whether it's worth paying taxes now to raise your stock's cost basis

 Where a single winning stock belongs — taxable, Roth, or a solo 401(k)

Whether you're weighing an early exit from a stable career, deciding if your side hustle is ready to become your main hustle, or holding a stock that's grown far beyond what you expected, this episode will help you think through the tradeoffs before you act.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

 Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

 (00:00) Why a winning stock can turn into a tax trap

 (02:23) A $1.2M portfolio and a plan to retire by 45

 (07:45) Why an aggressive portfolio needs a cash cushion first

 (16:49) The real signal your plan isn't working

 (24:25) A side hustle that made $5,500 in one day

 (33:51) Quit now or wait — two strong arguments

 (39:51) The book that could save a new business

 (54:09) A $200 stock that grew into $25,000

 (01:01:08) The tax rule that blocks gifting stock to your kids

 (01:12:59) A hidden tax that kicks in above $250,000 income

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Grab the free Asset Location Made Simple guide to see exactly which investments belong in your taxable, Roth, and pre-tax accounts: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

👉 Frank Vasquez's risk parity portfolio, explained in depth on episode #618: https://affordanything.com/episode618

👉 Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, the book Joe recommends for setting up your business finances the right way from day one: https://amzn.to/3Sf7Tpo

👉 Julie Wainwright's interview on the Stacking Benjamins podcast, on rebuilding after Pets.com to found The RealReal: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/from-business-idea-to-execution-julie-wainwright-1703
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Q&A: Should We Retire in Our 40s With $4 Million and an 80% Stock Portfolio?

#739: The U.S. just lost 23,000 jobs — and unemployment fell anyway. The numbers were strange enough that Paula broke a years-long, all-stocks habit and bought her first bond, ever.

In this month's First Friday economic roundup, Paula breaks down the jobs report, the bond market, mortgage rates, gold, and a new kind of account for kids.

Topics include:

 How to make sense of a jobs report that seems to contradict itself

 What actually happens when you buy a 30-year Treasury bond

 Why bond yields hitting a two-decade high matters for your money

 Why mortgage rates are climbing again, and what that means for housing

 Why home prices are surging in some states while crashing in others

 Why gold is quietly staging a comeback

 What the new government-seeded kids' accounts actually do

Whether you're deciding where your next dollar should go, watching mortgage rates before a purchase, or wondering if your kid needs a new account this year, this episode gives you the full economic picture in one sitting.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(00:00) Why the jobs report shocked economists this month

(03:24) How jobs can drop while unemployment drops too

(08:03) Why Paula just bought her first bond ever

(09:35) A crash course on why bond yields are spiking

(25:34) Why unemployment claims just hit a 55-year low

(27:57) Why young job seekers have it harder than everyone else

(35:23) Why mortgage rates just hit a one-year high

(51:28) Why gold is rebounding, and who's buying it

(57:47) What the new 530A investment accounts mean for your kids

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Wondering which account should actually hold that bond (or gold, or index fund) you just bought? Grab our free cheat sheet showing exactly where each investment belongs: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation 

👉 Chat about this episode with the community: affordanything.com/community 

👉 TreasuryDirect, where Paula opened her account to buy the bond: treasurydirect.gov

👉 CME FedWatch Tool, for tracking the market's odds of a September rate hike: https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First Friday: We Lost 23,000 Jobs, Yet Somehow Unemployment is Down?!?!

#738: Hackers broke into a real estate closing company's servers and waited three months for the right deal — then intercepted a wire and stole $1.2 million from a couple who did everything right, right down to the closing table.

Dr. Eric Cole was a former CIA hacker, Cybersecurity Commissioner under President Obama, and longtime security advisor to Bill Gates. We're resharing this conversation, originally released in June 2025, in honor of his sudden passing this year and the practical security knowledge he left behind.

In this episode, we discuss:

-How to spot a phishing scam before you click the link

-Why turning on two-factor authentication blocks almost every account takeover

-The simple bank alert setting that can stop a fraudulent transfer

-Why cybersecurity experts sometimes recommend paying a ransomware demand

-How AI-cloned voices are powering a new wave of grandparent scams

-What your phone's app permissions reveal about who's tracking you

-Why "it won't happen to me" is exactly what scammers count on

This episode is for anyone who assumes hackers only go after big companies — because the reality is scammers are counting on you to think that. You'll walk away with concrete, five-minute changes that close the gaps most people don't know they have.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(03:41) Why you're an easier target than a big bank

(06:46) Why cryptocurrency theft is nearly impossible to reverse

(10:59) How one password can move half your savings

(17:35) The fake unpaid-toll text that's made scammers millions

(21:55) Why paying the ransom is sometimes the smart move

(29:05) How AI clones your kid's voice for scams

(37:58) The one thing to never hand a child

(54:57) Why you should mask your location online

(01:16:18) The setting that blocks almost every account hack

(01:18:45) The bank alert that can undo fraud fast

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 See your full financial picture — income, debt, safeguards, and goals — in one place with our free one-page worksheet: https://affordanything.com/cornerstone 

👉 Dr. Eric Cole's firm, Secure Anchor Consulting: secure-anchor.com

 👉 Signal, the encrypted messaging app Dr. Cole recommends for sensitive conversations: https://signal.org

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hackers Waited 3 Months for This Couple's $1.2 Million Deal, with Dr. Eric Cole [GREATEST HITS]

#523: How much is an hour of your time worth?
Google's Executive Productivity Advisor , Laura Mae Martin, joins us to answer that question.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Power of Deep Work, with Google’s Productivity Expert Laura Mae Martin

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