Almost exactly a year ago, we cut the cord and ditched our cable. Along the way, we learned a few things that might be helpful to you as you consider cutting the cord. The fact is, nobody needs a 200-channel cable package; you’re just paying for extra channels that you’re never going to watch. So, why not streamline your budget and only pay for the TV that you actually watch. Come join the groundswell of cord cutters that are challenging the status quo and getting the same series, sports and movies they were used to, but for only a fraction of what they were paying to the cable company. This episode talks about how to do it.
Read MoreMM015: How to Create a Money Binder
If you manage your family’s personal finances, what would happen if the worst happened and you were no longer “available” to manage the household finances? In our house, I manage the finances, and Mrs. Modest is perfectly okay with that. If something happened to me, I don’t know if my wife would know the location of all our assets. Enter, the money binder. In today’s episode we talk about the importance of a money binder and how to create one today.
Read MoreMM014: The Simple Math of Calculating Inflation in Retirement
Figuring out how to calculate how inflation affects your retirement savings is made out to be a super-complicated process, requiring advanced math skills. What’s frustrating is that calculating how your retirement savings is impacted by inflation isn’t all that difficult. In today’s episode, we talk about the simple math of calculating inflation in retirement.
Read MoreMM013: The Power of Small Dollars for Personal Finance
There’s this misperception out there that you need to have a bunch of money socked away before you can invest in either a retirement account or taxable account. Some of this advice comes from popular pundits who promote a debt-free-first lifestyle, some of it comes from the legacy model of investment advisors that only work with clients with a minimum threshold of investable funds. The fact is, the sooner you start investing, no matter how small that number is, the more exponential the growth of your nest egg. The math is crazy!
Read MoreMM012: Price is What You Pay Value is What You Get
As a proud budgeteer, I’ll be the first to admit that I say “no” more often than I say “yes” when it comes to budget decisions. But sometimes, you need (or want) to flex your budget to make room for various purchases. So, how do you figure out the best option? It’s easy to look at the bottom line and make a decision from there, but it’s more important to make a decision based on what’s the best value, rather than the best price.
Read MoreMM011: A Tribute to Moms
Let’s take a quick departure from our regularly scheduled personal finance programming to talk about moms, specifically about the two most important moms in my life, Mama Modest and Mrs. Modest. It’s because of the money management principles that my mom (tried) to instill in me early on in life that set the foundation for my interest in personal finance and money management. So, today’s episode is a quick tribute you, Mom.
Read MoreMM010: Setting SMART Personal Finance Goals
That which is measured improves. Easier said than done when you’re trying to figure out your personal finance goals for the next 30 years. So how do you keep you personal finance goals on track? It all starts with SMART goal setting. In this episode we’ll work through the foundations of setting big and small SMART personal finance goals so you can stay on track to reach your modest millions.
Read MoreMM001: Breaking the Rules of Retirement: A Manifesto
On today’s inaugural episode, we talk about the goals and objectives the podcast, household budgeting, the difference between “retirement” and “personal finance” one of the first tools I used while getting a handle on our personal finances and I’ll give you a little background info as we chart our household’s journey to Modest Millions.
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