Best Personal Finance Podcasts

Posted on by in audio, education, investing.

What are podcasts?

 

Well, before I talk about best personal finance podcasts, let me explain to you what podcasts are. Podcasts are digital radio and video shows that are available on your mobile devices completely free of charge. Unlike radio stations, they’re recorded offline, and uploaded for everyone’s enjoyment. Most mobile devices (iPhone/iPad, Blackberry, Android phones, etc.) have an app that allows you to search, subscribe, and listen to a podcast of your choosing. Think about them like your favorite TV show - once a new episode of Top Gear comes out (which happens to be one of my favorite shows), your iPhone downloads that new episode automatically and signals you it’s ready for your enjoyment. You can even listen to them on your laptop or PC, but I prefer a mobile device.

 

best personal finance podcasts

best personal finance podcasts

 

There is a mind boggling number of podcasts out there on different topics. Comedy, philosophy, business, education, etc. Basically, pick a topic, and there’s probably a podcast about it - even if it’s raising bunnies for food in captivity:)  Most of them are audio-only, but there are some video podcasts as well. Just hit “Podcasts” app on your mobile device, and you’ll see thousands of them ready to be downloaded. My data plan on my phone is pretty pricey, so I always download all of my podcasts over WiFi. There are settings to manage that aspect on both Blackberry and iPhone.

Personally, I love podcasts. For some reason, it’s easier for me to listen to things as opposed to reading - that includes podcasts, talking to people on the phone, or listening to audio books. For that reason, podcasts are ideal for me. Listening to some of them became almost a ritual to me and a very good habit. Just one of the things I do to keep myself educated.

 

Why are podcasts so awesome?

 

First of them, they’re free. Second, they’re educational in nature. Third, they let you transform the time you’re wasting into time well-wasted. For example, one of my habits is washing the dishes and tidying up our living room at the end of the day. It’s almost like a ritual for me before winding down for the day. Instead of simply washing dishes, I listen to a podcast AND wash dishes. Keeps me from getting bored - and also keeps my wife happy as she hasn’t touched the dishes in years.

I also spend considerable time driving sometimes - nothing like having 3-4 hours of entertainment and education saved up for a long trip.

 

Best Personal Finance Podcasts

 

Following are some of my favorite podcasts on the subject of personal finance. Hosts of these podcasts are very educated individuals, podcasts are very educational in nature, and bring a lot of value to listeners. Best of all, they’re all free. Some of them have commercial spots, but they’re easy to ignore.

 

Motley Fool Money

 

Motley Fool Money is a great resource on investing. They cover major events in investing world, economy, and business news. Their weekly podcast comes out on Friday, and covers major events that took place that week. They also have an interview or two on different subjects, and some rather entertaining banter. After listening for a while, you start to understand how some of the publicly traded companies perform, learn to make educated guess about investments, and simply stay “in” on business news. Highly recommend!

They also publish Market Foolery podcast - this is a daily podcast about stock market events. If something major is happening on the stock market, they’re probably discussing it in these very short (10-15 minutes) daily podcasts.

 

Brian Preston’s “Money Guy”

 

Brian Preston runs a wealth management company somewhere in the south of US. Every other Friday, they put together a podcast about personal finance and investing. Unlike Motley Fool described above, they mostly cover topics of personal finance and investing from the point of view of average people. They put together podcasts full of useful information. Though their personal finance philosophy is a bit different from mine, I listen to these guys religiously. My only grumble about them - being from US, a lot of their information on taxes and investing is very US specific. But general advice and tips and tricks are absolutely fantastic. I consider it to be one of the best personal finance podcasts out there.

 

The Dave Ramsey Show

 

Dave Ramsey is an award-winning author of several books and a host of Dave Ramsey radio show with an enormous and cult-like following. Though not very known in Canada, his books are absolutely fantastic for somebody who is stuck when it comes to personal finance. Motivational value of his books alone is out of this world. His philosophy on money and personal finance is very old-fashioned, and very simple - yet very effective. His daily podcasts are about 40 minute long recordings of his daily radio show and features callers with specific questions and Dave’s advice on how to solve their money problems. Sometimes some of his rantings too!

He can be a bit controversial for some people, but overall it’s a great podcast to listen to keep yourself motivated while fighting through money problems. Nothing like listening to people scream “I’m debt free!!!” to keep yourself going!

 

Stacking Benjamins (added January 31, 2015)

 

Here’s what I love about Stacking Benjamins podcast. Two fellas by the name of Joe and OG mastered the perfect balance between a serious show that talks about personal finance and entertainment. A lot of personal finance podcasts tend to be overly dry. Stacking Benjamins on the other hand makes the process of learning about money fun and entertaining.

I love the fact they go outside of the normal financial advice and talk about alternative investing and matters related to personal finance such as career development and education. They don’t try to sell you on services or products, and offer genuinely great personal finance advice.

If you want to pick just one personal finance podcast to listen to, I would absolutely pick Stacking Benjamins. You won’t be disappointed.

 

Money Plan SOS!

 

Money Plan SOS is a podcast of  Steve Steward, who is a personal finance coach. His weekly podcasts are more about an average person fighting for his money. He doesn’t touch much on business in general, more on things about how you personally can improve your personal finance well-being. While he closely follows Dave Ramsey’s teachings (being one of his approved coaches), Steve injects a lot of his personal thoughts into his teachings that make this podcast very valuable. Unlike other financial coaches, he shares his mistakes and struggling as well as successes - and it tends to be very personal.

 

Derek and Carrie’s Better Conversations on Money and Marriage (added July 15, 2014)

 

Why haven’t I discovered this podcast before? I’ve recently discovered this podcast and just had to add it to my list of best personal finance podcasts. It would make my life so much easier! In all honesty, it took way too much energy and time for me and my wife to work out the best way to deal with money as a family. Heck, I didn’t even know how to talk about money at the beginning. Many days were lost to heated discussions on how to spend money and how we can improve our financial situation. Thankfully, we were able to work out all the kinks without cutlery flying across our house, but there were a few close calls.

Derek and Carrie run a podcast with focus on how people relate to money in their marriages. They discuss topics of talking about money with your spouse, creating budgets, pros and cons of combining finances, and many other topics. If only I knew about this podcast sooner! If you want to improve your marriage and communicate better with your spouse on money topics, this podcast will be invaluable to you.

 

Listen, Money Matters! (added July 15, 2014)

 

Sometimes one can find the process of learning a bit tough if they can’t relate with the person presenting the information. For example, I’m a younger person (ok, younger’ish), and I can’t listen to a boring university lecture about compounding interest or mutual funds. In most cases, I’d like to learn from people just like me, who have same challenges, fears, and inspirations.

Well, Listen Money Matters podcast is right up my alley. Matt and Andrew speak about personal finance without holding anything back. They’re not university professors teaching economics, they’re your average everyday dudes who just happen to discuss personal finance and investing world. They speak my language and I can relate to them on many levels. Heck, they even discuss drinks they’re consuming at the moment!

If you’re looking for people you can relate with and learn some valuable lessons about money and investing, give Matt and Andrew’s podcast a try!

 

 

How do I start listening to podcasts?

 

best personal finance podcasts

best personal finance podcasts

Just hit Podcasts app on your iPhone or Blackberry. At this point, the app will let you browse the entire library of podcasts, or search for specific ones. I highly recommend you to check out these specific shows as I consider them the best personal finance podcasts. Hey, you have nothing to lose - all of them are free. Think of your car as a university on wheels - instead of just driving to work, might as well drive to work and educate yourself. Or wash dishes - whatever is it you’re doing can be used as a chance to educate yourself on personal finance.

I love the fact they go outside of the normal financial advice and talk about alternative investing and matters related to personal finance such as career development and education. They don’t try to sell you on services or products, and offer genuinely great personal finance advice.

Jolly good financial habits that can make you rich – Only reading won’t help

Posted on by in personal finance.

Who do you actually think of when you hear the word “rich”? Evening gowns, traveling, yachts? Are these the only words that come to your mind? Well, that’s true to such an extent but not all rich people lead their lifestyles in such a way. “Rich” should be defined as a state having excess of money and there is a huge difference between ‘rich’ and ‘lavish’. Those who are self-made rich, are the different breed of people as they live differently and think differently. The financially wealthy are the ones who follow certain habits which should be incorporated by all those who wish to be rich but aren’t being able to get back on track. Although you might be able to find different financial blogs that will teach you ways in which you can become rich but do you think that only reading those financial tips will help you become rich? Certainly not! You require incorporating them in your day to day lifestyle. Here are some habits that the rich follow and those that the “wannabe-rich” should follow.

 

Good financial habits

Good financial habits

Build wealth by saving cash:

 

Yes, this might be hard to believe, but the rich people do save money. Rather than eating out, they keep tucking in their dollars into different financial assets that pay them in the near future. As per an opinion by Jean Chatzky, 60% of the self-made rich are there due to their high savings rate. Write down all those areas where you spend money where you don’t need to spend. Be honest and get serious to find out all those cheap alternatives. If you’re someone who loves to shop Starbucks every morning, stop there and change this habit. When you’ve built your fund, invest them in the financial assets and watch it grow with time.

 

Don’t pay your dollars for things that you don’t need:

 

You might see your neighbor spend a lavish lifestyle but don’t try to outdo them. Rather stay within your budget when it comes to spending for all those things like your car and house. Are you presently paying $400 for your SUV and do you think that it is simply drinking down your dollars? If answered yes, pare down and cut down your dollar expenses. Determine whether or not you really need an SUV? Could you move on with a mini-van? Would that be a cost-effective alternative? Take a close look at all those lavish upgrades that you have done to your home and then check where you need to cut back. While doing the assessment, if you’re not honest, then you’re simply wasting your time.

 

Set financial goals and try to achieve them:

 

Taking steps will be a lot more productive when you know what your financial goals are. The rich are always sure about what they earn and they’re always ready with their plan before they go out to take any step. They always research on the ways in which they can earn the money that they want and they keep setting goals around it. Set financial goals that you can easily achieve as the moment you obtain them, this will boost your confidence. Once you reach your goals, set new ones so that you can always look forward to a new horizon.

 

Believe in “simple living high thinking”:

 

Yes, you might not believe this but the truth is that the self-made rich are the ones who lead simple lives than most other people. They don’t have 100 pairs of shoes and they don’t strive to possess them as they know that they won’t require them. So, you should take a close look at your house and get rid of all those things that you don’t need. Think twice before spending your dollars and always go for the simple.

Therefore, only reading the personal finance tips to become rich and build wealth won’t help unless you incorporate them in your daily life. Follow the above mentioned tips and keep debts at bay. Although there’s enough of debt help options in the market, you should try to be safe than sorry.

Guest Posted by Trenton

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Best Bank for Saving Money

Posted on by in banking, personal finance.

Why do you need more than one savings account?

 

Best Bank for Saving Money

Best Bank for Saving Money

We have a number of saving accounts. While some people are quite happy with having just one saving account, I like having a number of them for all our needs. To me, it just makes your saving goals clear and defined. You need to save some money for a new TV? Well, figure out how much money you need and make sure by certain date there’s that much money sitting in your “New TV fund” account - as opposed to lumping your savings into one account and not knowing what goals still need to be reached.

- Investment account or what I call “Paying Ourselves First” account. This is where we transfer a set percentage of our income to be later invested.

- Emergency fund. This is our rainy day fund - anytime we have an emergency, we have access to our own safety net as opposed to borrowing money or using credit cards. I already covered the importance of having an emergency fund a while ago. Last time our dryer broke down, the money came from our emergency fund without breaking the bank or monthly budget.

- Gifts. My wife is one of the kindest and giving women I’ve ever met. She loooooves giving presents - and she gives a lot of thought to presents. Her brain has a built in calendar for birthday dates of anybody we’ve ever met. I on the other hand have terrible memory and can never pick anything meaningful - partly because I’m a practical kind of a guy. To make sure gifts and presents never throw our budgets out of whack (how it used happen right before Christmas), we’ve came up with a monthly figure we contribute towards gifts. It accumulates there month after month, and my wife can spend it anytime she needs.

- New Car account. Our car is closing on 20 years by now - but it is in excellent shape and fairly low mileage of just over 200K. There’s not a single thing wrong with it, and for its age it looks absolutely fabulous. Honestly, it will be hard for me to say goodbye to our Donkey (that’s what we call it between me and my wife). But you never know what happens, and there might be a day when the engine completely gives or it gets stolen. Just in this case, we’ve been saving money for a new car - if the need for a new car arises. By now it’s almost fully funded, so we can just write a check and buy a new car - but for now we’re perfectly happy with our Donkey.

- Annual property taxes. We own our condo, and one of the pleasures home ownership comes with is the annual tax bill. Thankfully, our condo if quite affordable when it comes to taxes, and we just have to save around $90/month. Once a month we transfer $90 into this account, and come July pay our taxes. Easy, peasy, nice and breezy.

- Annual car insurance and condo insurance. These are pretty self-explanatory.

On top of it, sometimes I open accounts for small things we’re saving towards, for example a new couch or anything else we might want to buy that we have to save towards over few months.

 

What is the best bank for saving money?

 

Here’s how I define “the best bank for saving”:

- It has to be absolutely free. I haven’t paid any service fees in years, and would never pay for banking. No, even free banking in exchange for a min. balance won’t cut it - it has to be absolutely free!

- Funds have to be guaranteed by Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). If your bank goes bankrupt, CDIC will cover your funds up to $100,000.

- It has to be flexible. If we need to open an account, it has to be done quickly. Transferring money should be quick and painless.

- Money should be accessible at any time. Online, over the phone, or through an ATM.

 

Why I’ve chosen ING DIRECT?

 

I’ve been an ING DIRECT client for over 10 years by now, and I still consider them the best bank for saving money. I still remember their cheesy TV commercials when they first came to Canada - energetic fella telling us to “Save your money!” with a Dutch accent. It sounded so fresh and different from other banks, I had to check it out! Well, a mind-boggling interest amount paid out they’ve been proudly displaying online didn’t hurt.

1. ING Direct is absolutely free. No fees, no minimum balances.

2. ING Direct has an absolutely awesome mobile app to access your account along with online banking, phone banking, and access to ATMs. I’ve never had problems with getting a hold of customer service people, and their mobile web site is top notch. As a younger person, it is especially appealing to me - as transferring money on my iPhone sounds way easier than a trip to the bank branch.

3. ING Direct actually pays interest. While it’s not super high (1.35% last time I checked), it’s still higher than any “brick and mortar” bank such as RBC or CIBC.

4. You can deposit checks into your account (if you happen to have a checking account with ING) in your bedroom! By taking two pictures of a check with their app, you can deposit money straight into your account without the time-consuming trip to an ATM.

5. You can create as many accounts as you want. They all appear instantaneously online once you create them. Just as easy you can close them, move money between then, and set up savings goals. Every time me and my wife decide we have to start saving for something, we instantly open up an account and set up a monthly transfer goal.

On top of it, they also offer other products such as no-fee checking account (Thrive account), GIC’s, mutual funds, business accounts, and mortgage loans. On a side note, they happen to be the only bank in Canada that posts their real mortgage rates, as opposed to playing “bait and switch” game that other banks are famous for. I’m not familiar with their other products, so I’m not going to say much about them.

 

If you want to open a new account with ING…

 

It is surprisingly easy to open a new account - just go to their website, and have your SIN number ready. You’ll be surprised at how you lived without them after a while! And I know they’ve been bought out by HSBC recently, but personally I have no issues or worries about it. It’s a great business, and people who run it take a great pride in helping people save their money and reach their financial goals.

 

FREE MONEY???

 

1. Go to Tangerine Bank

2. Locate “Tangerine Savings Account” in the list and click “Enroll Now”

3. When filling out all the personal information, enter my Orange Key 14213984S1

 

Best Savings Account

Best Savings Account

 

 

Both you and I will enjoy some free money. No work involved besides signing up for an account. Life is beautiful, eh?

 

I am Financial Underdog, and I highly recommend having multiple bank accounts for your savings!

 

Should I Be Saving Money If I Won’t Be Living Long Enough to Retire?

Posted on by in personal finance.

What if I won’t be living long enough to retire?

 

On one of the forums I check out from time to time, somebody asked a question:

” - My brother-in-law puts very little thought into retirement savings. He has a tiny amount being funneled to a 401k and a small emergency fund. He isn’t a spendthrift, but isn’t interested in making a bigger effort. When I brought up my own plans, he told me he isn’t going to live long enough to retire.”

 

Is there a point to saving money then?

 

Well, here’s my personal opinion.

To me, saving money, improving your financial situation, and slowly building up your estate (portfolio, assets, whatever you want to call it) is not about living long enough to retire. The whole retirement thing as presented most of the time isn’t appealing to me at all - working hard all your life, saving up money, just to play golf all day and go on cruises once in a while? That’s just depressing if you ask me.

Living Long Enough to Retire

Living Long Enough to Retire

To me, having money is not about retirement. Heck, I don’t think I will ever retire. I think I will always work on something - if it’s not me working with my two hands, it might be an online business. If it’s not working on my own gig, it might be helping somebody with their company. Bottom line, the way retirement is portrayed most of the time is not something I am looking forward to, and it’s not why we’re working so hard on improving our finances.

 

What if I won’t be living long enough to retire?

 

Will everything I will do to that point be pointless? Of course not. If I do die early, my family won’t have to worry about money. My kids’ education will be taken care of so they can obtain their degrees. My wife won’t be forced to re-marry just because she can’t make it on her own - she will have enough money to make wise choices, not forced choice.

Having money will allow us take care of our parents and relatives - so we can always help them and not just find them a cheap retirement home where they won’t be treated right.

Having money is about freedom to do whatever you want to do - without worrying about your bi-weekly paycheck. There are things, I’m sure, you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t because it would mean an end to your income. For example, I always wanted to cross Canada on a motorcycle. What if you didn’t have to worry about working 50 hours/week and bringing that paycheck? What if you could focus on your own personal interests for a while - money can make it possible.

Living Long Enough to Retire

Living Long Enough to Retire

Money is about helping others and sharing your wealth - and if you have plenty of money you can share it with a lot of people, and help a lot of people. You don’t have to retire to do that, and you can enjoy doing it way before that gray “near retirement” age.

And lastly, money is about being independent from circumstances. All of a sudden, you don’t have to worry about your car transmission. If it goes out, you just go ahead and fix it - or buy a new car altogether. You don’t have to put up with bad treatment at work - cause you can’t quit anytime, and take your time finding a better place to work for yourself.

None of these things have anything to do with living long enough to retire. And it’s not about being able to buy luxury cars or other “toys”. All of them mean comfort to your family, being able to take care of them, and just enjoying your life in general. Even if you don’t live long enough to retire in a traditional sense, money can greatly benefit your life. And that’s why I focus on working hard, managing money wisely, and investing for the future.

Have you ever asked yourself what money means to you?