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BiggerPockets Money Podcast Archive
Every episode of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast, from the beginning of time. Thank you for listening, and for coming to our website!
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Post Traumatic Broke Syndrome: How Your Financial Past Is Running Your Financial Present
In yesterday’s episode, personal finance educator Tiffany Aliche, known to millions as The Budgetnista, put a name to something a lot of people have been quietly living with for years: Post Traumatic Broke Syndrome. It ‘s the idea that past financial hardship, whether you grew up counting quarters for the electric bill or blew your…
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Are You Underinsured? You Need to Review Your Homeowners Policy RIGHT NOW
It started as an ordinary evening walk. My husband and I were strolling through our neighborhood when we noticed smoke. Within minutes, a house down the street had flames pouring from the garage. By the time the first fire truck arrived, the fire had already taken hold. We stood on the sidewalk and watched three…
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Chapter Seven: The Investment Order of Operations (Or: Stop Overthinking Where Your Money Should Go)
At some point, everyone pursuing FIRE asks the same question. I have money to invest. Where should it go first? Should it go into the 401(k)? The Roth IRA? A taxable brokerage account? Should I pay off my car loan first? What about that student loan at 4%? And wait, didn’t someone say something about…
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Dear Me, You Have My Permission: A Letter to Every Overthinking Optimizer Out There
Somewhere out there, a person who has saved diligently for fifteen years, paid off their mortgage, and accumulated a net worth that would make most financial advisors weep with joy is sitting at their kitchen table agonizing over whether it is okay to buy the slightly nicer olive oil. This is the FI community in…
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Why You Need to Think About Decumulation Now (Even Though You’re Nowhere Near Retirement)
Here’s a question almost nobody asks when they’re starting their FIRE journey: how am I actually going to get this money out? Most people are so focused on getting money into their accounts that they don’t think about the getting-it-out part until they’re a year away from retirement. Then they panic-Google “how to withdraw from…
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Chapter Six: The Accumulation Phase and Your Investment Options (Or: Where Your Money Actually Goes to Work)
Saving money is necessary. Investing it is what actually gets you to FIRE. You can save $30,000 a year for twenty years and end up with $600,000 in cash. That sounds impressive until you realize that inflation has quietly eaten away at its purchasing power, and you’re still a decade or more away from Financial…
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Sequence of Return Risk Isn’t Just a Retirement Problem
If you’ve spent any time in the Financial Independence community, you’ve probably heard about sequence of returns risk. It’s one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot, usually in the context of retirement withdrawals and why you shouldn’t retire into a market crash. The basic idea is simple: the order in which you…
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Chapter Five: Income Boosting Strategies (Or: How to Run Faster Toward the Finish Line)
Cutting expenses moves the finish line closer. Increasing income makes you run faster. The fastest FIRE journeys usually involve some combination of both, but income growth deserves special attention because it has far fewer hard limits. There’s only so much you can cut from a budget before quality of life starts to suffer. You need…
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Chapter Four: Expense Reduction Strategies (Or: Where the Big Wins Actually Live)
If FIRE had a fast-forward button, it would be reducing expenses. Not because cutting expenses is glamorous. (It’s not.) Not because it’s fun to track every dollar. (Also not.) But because expense reduction works immediately, it’s available to almost everyone, and – as we covered in Chapter Three – it pulls double duty in a…