Personal Finance

Let’s take a look at some stats from the holiday weekend. How much are people spending? What does this tell us about the economy? How confident do households feel about their income and budgets? Let’s look at the numbers and see what stories they’re telling us. U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday. That’s up 9.1 percent from last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Holiday shopping is expected to top $1 trillion for the first time this year,

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Which means in 48 hours, your inbox is going to explode with “savings.” Except here’s the thing: most of those “savings” aren’t savings at all. Let me break down what’s actually happening to your brain during Black Friday. Truth #1: You can’t save money by spending it. That 40 percent off Instant Pot you weren’t planning to buy? You didn’t “save” anything. You spent $90 impulsively. Retailers know t

Remember the last thing you bought …. …. that’s now collecting dust in your closet? You thought it was a great deal, but now it’s just making you feel guilty? Yeah, me too. Here’s what nobody tells you about the price tag: it’s lying to you. That $500 treadmill isn’t really $500. It’s $500 plus the corner of your bedroom it’s going to dominate. Plus the guilt you’ll feel every morning when you look at it and don’t use it. Plus the

What did you really buy the last time you made an impulse purchase? ​ I’m not asking you to name the item itself. ​ My question goes deeper. ​ The last time you made an impulse purchase — I guarantee — you wanted to feel a particular feeling. ​ Maybe comfort. Maybe confidence. Maybe security or connection. ​ But there was a feeling that drove that impulse purchase. ​ And here’s the thing: ​ The Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping season is coming up, which means your bra

I’m just going to come straight out of the gate with a hot take: ​ ​If you need a 50-year mortgage, you can’t afford the property. ​ ​ Before you grab your pitchforks, let’s explore the new concept of a 50-year mortgage, which just entered the zeitgeist this week. We’ll run the numbers and math this out. “Seriously, a 50-year mortgage? Is that a thing?” Unfortunately, it looks like it might become the newest thing. ​ In 2014, the Federal Housing Finance Agen

Imagine asking ChatGPT to build you a $1.2 million portfolio … and then actually following it. That’s exactly what one of our listeners considered doing. She used AI to design her entire allocation, then called into the Afford Anything podcast to ask: “How’d the robot do? What would you tweak?” On a recent episode, Joe and I break down her plan — what’s solid, what’s questionable, and what we’d change if this were our money. (Spoiler: her “sp

Hey everyone. Sooo … the Fed cut interest rates on Sept. 17. You’re probably thinking: “Wow, Paula. That news is three weeks old. You’re finally writing about it now?” Yep. Yep. “What are you going to tell us next? Hey everyone — We landed on the moon! Pearl Harbor attacked! Dewey defeats Truman!” Fair point. But here’s the thing: Sometimes there’s value in pausing, taking a breath, and actually assessing the landscape before rushin

I paid rent today. I also collected rent today. Ever since I moved to New York City, I’ve had this uncommon experience on the first of every month. It flies in the face of how society teaches us to adult. ​ The conventional thinking is that a person graduates from college, gets a job, buys a primary residence — without roommates, house hacking, Airbnb, or otherwise monetizing the property — and lives happily ever after. ​ Under the conventional approach, you pay for every housi

So … this is awkward. Someone is pretending to be me via email.  I’ve dealt with Instagram impersonators for years (until I got that blue checkmark — finally!), but this is my first time being impersonated through email. Someone created a fake address and somehow scraped email addresses of my Instagram followers to send out scammy “exclusive trading opportunity” messages. The fake emails are coming from paulapant.mail (at) gmail (dot) com, with subject lines like &#

We cover five pillars: Financial psychology, Increasing your income, Investing, Real estate, and Entrepreneurship. It’s double-ii FiiRE. Today, we’re diving into Pillar Five: Entrepreneurship. Pillar V | Entrepreneurship Earlier this month, we covered the first four pillars in this newsletter. But it wasn’t until Friday that we published our long-awaited interview with Lori Rosenkopf, the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at Wharton Business School. We’d been planning this face-to-face