Listen Money Matters - Free your inner financial badass. This is not your father's boring personal finance show.

 Today we speak to legendary Instavest investor Jay Yoon. We’ll learn his strategies and add ourselves to his growing number of groupies. When we interviewed Instavest founder Saleem Khatri, he told us about Jay Yoon, their most successful investor. So we went to the source to learn his secrets! Jay invests in a stock and writes a one page summary of why he did so on the Instavest site. Others can follow his recommendation and “tip” him for the suggestion. Just like tipping, it’s not obligatory, just a gesture of appreciation. The average tip amount Jay receives is 10% of the profit the investor made following his recommendation. Jay has invested about $17,000 with Instavest. He uses other platforms as well. He was doing something similar on another site when Saleem reached out to him. Jay spent ten years working on Wall St before leaving to start his own investment company. He sees what he does on Instavest as a way to promote his business. Jay doesn’t choose obvious companies that everyone already knows about when he’s on Instavest. He chooses small and mid cap companies that are a bit under the radar. He’s been using the site for about six months. Just like LMM, Jay believes in buy and hold and recommends index funds for the average investor. And to focus on smaller stocks after putting in a lot of research if you’re going to do it on your own. Jay looks at each company for over 100 hours before he invests initially and five hours a week once he’s made the investment. These are just for the “winners” though. He can tell within about the first 30 minutes if a company is a good investment and so worthy of more of his time. If you don’t have hundreds of hours to research individual stocks, you can use an index fund like Betterment or mirror Jay over on Instavest! Show Notes Instavest: Follow the investor. LMM Community: Join the conversation! Featured Image Photo Credit: “Money and Magnifying Glass” by Images Money on Flickr

Early retirement sounds ideal but is it always? Retire or not to retire with Roger Whitney, the retirement answer man. Roger believes rather than setting retirement goals, we should set retirement priorities. Not that you shouldn’t have goals. But when retirement is decades away, priorities are more flexible. The closer you get to retirement, the more you can concentrate on making concrete goals. Roger believes you should decide what your ideal retirement would be, not what you think you can afford. This allows you to see what your priorities really are and you can work harder towards those and spend less energy on the things that are not as important to you. Even if you retire at 65, you may still have twenty or more years of life ahead. You don’t want to get bored! Roger suggests crafting a life you don’t want to retire from. You don’t have to stay at your 9-5 but you don’t have to give up working for money forever either. But try out the life you don’t want to retire from before you retire! It’s a romantic notion to start your own farm and may help you make it through the crappy times at your job, but what if you don’t know anything about farming? Dip your toe into the life you think you want before you just dive right in. We don’t think you need a financial advisor. You can figure all this stuff out on your own with some educating and research. But if you must, make sure you use a fiduciary. They are held to certain standards that those advising under the blanket term “financial planner” are not. It’s never too early to start planning for retirement. Show Notes River Horse Hipp-O-Lantern: A carbonated pumpkin beer. Roger Whitney: The retirement answer man.

We receive a lot of questions on these topics so we brought in an expert. Today we discuss wills, trusts, and estate planning with Tyler. This is a big topic so we brought in a member of the LMM Community Forums who deals with this for a living. Tyler and is estate planner and a lawyer in the military. Put simply, estate planning is deciding where you want your stuff to go when you die or are incapacitated. Do you need a will? Probably. Do you need a will if you have a kid? Absolutely. You can’t count on the state or sometimes even family, to carry out your wishes. An asset that doesn’t have a next owner listed, some checking accounts for example, has to be assigned by a probate judge. A non-probate asset, like a life insurance policy or some brokerage accounts, bypass the process and are paid out pretty quickly. If you die in debt, creditor’s get first crack at your estate. But your family will not be held responsible for that debt unless they have co-signed for the debt. A living trust can help to take some of the burden off your family when you die. It takes some of the work and hassle out of the probate process. Power of attorney gives someone else the power to make financial decisions for you. They can handle things like paying your bills. Health care power of attorney allows someone to make medical decisions for you. You can leave money in a trust and set the parameters under which it will be distributed. Tyler recommends age, the age of 30 as the parameter. Having a big life event is a good time to check in with your estate planner to find out if you should update your will. You can have a will drafted for between $400-1500. A trust is more expensive because they’re more complex. This topic brings up things that none of us like to think about but making sure that your family is taken care of is worth it. Show Notes Estate Planning: A Primer: Tyler’s in depth article on the subject. Featured Image Photo Credit: “Fountain pen nib” by Ben FrantzDale

Today we welcome Forum member Chloe to discuss her finances. We’ll tell her what she’s doing well and where she needs some improvement. Chloe is a 28 year old nurse who recently got her masters and has been looking for a full time job with benefits. Even working part time, Chloe is doing pretty well. She went to small, inexpensive colleges on scholarships, federal aid, and one small loan. Most of her loan was forgiven due to her public sector work. Chloe made an incredibly detailed pro/con list of the two job offers she received in our Forums. She got some great advice and that helped her make her decision. In the end, she chose the lower paying job with better quality of life and better future prospects. It’s not always about the money! Chloe uses Mint to budget. Like most of us, food is her biggest budget problem. She maxes her 401k and Roth IRA but doesn’t have a lot of room to save for things like a wedding or a home. Chloe has a net worth of $140,000! She attributes this to having priorities. Saving and travel. And always living below her means. Chloe’s dad started an investment account for her to use for college but because of scholarships, she didn’t have to use it. It wasn’t a large initial investment but because the account is so old, the money grew. As we advise all of you, Chloe has an emergency fund. She invests in a few individual stocks. Lucky for Chloe, her dad introduced her to investing early. One of Chloe’s investments has a high fee. She needs to sort this out, you can lose a big chunk of your money to fees. One of Chloe’s problems is dealing with parental finances. Her mother’s situation is not ideal and it may be something Chloe will have to deal with in the future. Chloe is doing well for someone of her age. She may have some challenges with her parents but she’s on the proper track. Show Notes Yuengling Black and Tan: A rich, malty beer. Shipyard Pumpkinhead: Pumpkin beer season is here! Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby: A pumpkin ale.

You spoke and we listened. Here’s some much-needed clarification on the episode that generated some controversy. Here is part two, Thomas buys a car: an addendum.

Thomas has debt! He bought a car. Not a new car of course but having recently gone through the process, he’ll share what he learned. Thomas went from a “It gets me from A to B” car person to a person who really likes cars and wants a nice, fast, shiny one. He didn’t buy a car he couldn’t afford of course. He still has plenty of money to pay his living expenses and to invest $2,000 a month. You don’t always have to go with the cheapest option as long as you can say the same. Know what you want and do your research before you walk into a dealership. Salespeople will try to sell you on tech and fluffy extras. A lot of the tech stuff you can buy later. Look for things like dependability, gas mileage and maintenance costs. Know your budget and then spend a little less than that on the car because you have to factor in things like insurance, possibly a warranty and maintenance. Do lots of test driving and have a list of what to look for in a used car. You choose the test drive route, not the salesperson. You want the car exposed to a variety of conditions, high way, speed bumps, railroad tracks. If you don’t know cats about cars, there’s no shame in bringing someone with you who does or who is a better negotiator than you. If you aren’t paying cash, research interest rates on auto loans. Thomas got a rate of 2.5%. Also make sure that there is no penalty to pay off your loan early. Debt is not always something to be avoided like Times Square. Not all of us have cash up front for big purchases and even if we did, paying in full is not always the best decision. Show Notes Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Fastenbier: An unfiltered, smoke beer. Must be good with a name like that, otherwise who would bother to remember it?! Kelley Blue Book: A good place to start your research. Credit Karma: Check your score. Car Gurus: Calculate your monthly payment. College Info Geek Podcast: How to buy a car. Featured Image Photo Credit: “Ford Model T 1914” by LibertyGroup25

We interview Chris Clothier from Memphis Invest to explain real estate investments without the mess. Collect the rent check while someone else does the dirty work! Passive Income If you’ve listened to LMM for any length of time, you know how much we emphasize the importance of passive income. One of the keys to building wealth and achieving financial independence is to have more than one source of income and because there are only so many hours in a day, some of that income should be passive. Passive income is income generated with minimal effort on your part. Good sources of passive income can include your investments and retirement accounts, making money from things you already do like driving, shopping, or going out to dinner and our favorite, rental property income. Becoming a landlord can generate significant passive income. But how can owning rental property be considered passive income if you’re searching for homes to buy, tenets to live in them, and handling any repairs that have to be done and the whole list of other things a landlord has to do? The secret to making rental property a source of truly passive income is hiring a management company to deal with the day to day hassles of being a landlord. Turn Key Turn key rental property means that the home is ready to be rented out as is. Any needed repairs or upgrades have been completed and it’s ready for occupancy. This is the best kind of property to buy if you’re going to be an out of state landlord. It’s hard enough to deal with renovations when you’re local, almost impossible if you’re trying to do everything from a distance. There are turnkey management companies too. The right turnkey management company can do nearly everything for you from finding the property and renovating it, to putting a tenant in place and dealing with any repairs and maintenance that might need to be done. They collect the rent and send you a check. They also handle the sometimes protracted process involved when a tenant has to be evicted. You pay a management fee which is typically 8-12% of the monthly rent, some charge additional fees to cover expenses, and some charge a flat monthly fee. You can’t just blindly turn such a big investment over to anyone. You need to do your research when looking for a management company. Are there any real estate centered Meet Ups you could attend either in your local area or the area you want to buy in? It might be worth a trip to talk to some local investors and get recommendations for a management company. If you can’t travel, the internet has plenty of reviews for management companies so you at least have a starting point.   Once you have a few recommendations you can start interviewing companies. The preliminary round can be over the phone but once you have your list further narrowed down, you probably want to make a trip down in person. Some key questions are: * How long has the company been in business in the local area? * What services do you offer? * How many properties do you manage? * Can the renter and I reach someone 24 hours a day? * What are the fees? * Under what circumstances can I cancel my contract? * Do the fees change when there is no tenet in the property? * How do you screen tenets?

  Fights over money are a leading cause of divorce. Andrew’s wife Laura joins us to talk about getting a reluctant spouse on board financially. Laura does a lot behind the scenes for LMM but this is her first time on the show! She was the spender to Andrew’s saver when they met. But after a few years, he whipped her into shape. Laura’s parents aren’t bad with money but they didn’t teach her enough growing up to be good with money. By the time she met Andrew, her wages were being garnished. When the couple moved in together, Andrew said one thing he never wanted to fight about was money so they needed to communicate openly and often about it. Strong arming any topic, especially money, is a fast way to fail. A crash course in what someone should have learned over a few years isn’t helpful either. Addressing money issues as they come up is less contentious and less intimidating. If one partner has a business the other is not involved in, large business expenses can cause problems. You’ll need to “open your books” and help your partner understand things like return on investment for those big expenses. Money inequality can cause resentment on both sides and poison a relationship. This is why communicating often about money is important, to talk these things out before that resentment starts to build. Money isn’t the only way to value things. If one partner takes care of things like cleaning, laundry, cooking, home repairs, the other spouse is getting those things for free. Things like those have value too. Sometimes the problem is one partner thinks about the future much more than the other. If this is the case, show your partner what the future could be like if you’re on the same page with money: early retirement, exotic vacations, starting a business. No relationship should end over something like money. Communicate with your partner, show them why you manage finances the way you do. To help you to both have a better future. Show Notes Betterment: The easy way to invest. Jabbercast: A new way to listen to LMM!  

If you are tired of your time and your income being tied together, you might have considered a career as a freelance writer. But can anyone actually make money writing? You can, and I do. I finally quit my full-time gig and now work for myself. I’ll show you how to become a freelance writer and quit your full-time job. Many people dismiss freelance writing, considering it not a real career. But a career is something you get paid to do. And if you can crack how to become a freelance writer and get paid a decent amount for it, guess what? You can have a career as a writer. How to Become a Freelance Writer You can begin to make money writing by starting your own blog and monetizing it. The problem is, this takes some time. You often hear about “overnight successes” in blogging or lots of other careers, but that is rare, very rare. It’s much much faster to get someone else to pay you to blog. That’s how I get paid to blog. You still need to start a blog though. Your blog is your personal portfolio. It’s a way to show potential clients what you can do. What’s Your Passion? It doesn’t matter. I enjoy writing about money because it helps people, but I wouldn’t call it my passion. If you want to make money freelance writing, find out what people are paying for. If one of those things happens to be something you’re passionate about, great! But telling people, they will automatically make money by following their passion is bullshit. So spend some time on freelancing sites and see what topic people are hiring bloggers to write about and start a blog about that. The more niche your topic, the better. If you want to blog about vegetarian cooking, guess what? A million other people already did it, and there are a handful of big, well-known sites gobbling up all the traffic. A Google search for those words brings up 15,900,000 results. You can still write about vegetarian cooking but how about vegetarian cooking for children or for menopause? Those bring up 2,800,000 and 802,000 respectively. The more niche you are, the faster you can make an impact. You don’t need to be an expert on a topic though. Here’s a secret. I didn’t know hardly anything about personal finance when I started writing for LMM. I listened to tons of podcasts, read tons of articles and books on the subject and learned as I went. You’re Not a Techy Great, you have your topic all picked out, and you’ve been educating yourself about it. Now you need to design your site and get it up on the web. But you don’t know how to do either of those things. You don’t have to be a web designer or developer to start a blog. Your grandmother could make a blog using WordPress. A staggering 30% of all websites were made with WordPress. WordPress offers hundreds of templates to choose from, and you can customize them with your branding. And WordPress is free to use. If you want to use some of the premium plugins, there is a cost but to build your site is free. You need to host your site too. You can do that at HostGator starting for just $2.75 a month, and HostGator is compatible with WordPress. Engage Your Audience Let’s be honest. Personal finance is not the most scintillating subject. It’s a vital one, but it can be pretty dry. But if I do say so myself, LMM takes a dry subject and makes it funny and interesting while providing easy to follow, actionable advice that will improve your finances. That’s what you want to strive for no matter what subject you choose to blog about. Use your own voice. I write as I speak (that’s why there are so many swear words in my articles) and it makes my posts more c...

We haven’t done one of these in awhile! Better Know a Millionaire is back to see if the other 1% really live that differently to the rest of us. Today we interview millionaire Adam Dicker. Adam made his millions by selling domain names, some for as much as eight figures! Adam has been in the business for about twenty years and was a VP at Go Daddy for a few years. Adam buys and sells domains that have expired and tries to stay two to three years ahead of trends, particularly in the medical and tech sectors. You can’t just go and buy a domain name with a trade mark in it. So no, five years ago you would not have been able to purchase Applewatch.com. No need to beat yourself up about that one. This business takes a lot of research. You have to buy a name that in the future, a business would want to buy. Like a lot of millionaires, Adam wanted a business that would make passive income. He once went to dinner before replying to an offer and in the space of that dinner, made an additional $50,000 from an anxious buyer. Doesn’t get much more passive than that. Adam looks at every day like he has to make enough money to pay for food for his family. He may have made $10,000 the previous day, but he forgets that and looks at the current day as an emergency that he needs money for. According to Adam, you always have to budget, all of us. It doesn’t matter if you make $10,000 a year or $100,000 a month. If you have no idea what is coming in and what is going out, you might find yourself going broke. Like nearly all of the millionaires we’ve interviewed, Adam doesn’t live a crazy life of luxury. He would rather watch football on a Sunday afternoon or go to dinner than stay in Five Star hotels across Europe. So again, we see that your average millionaire is not some jack off you see on TMZ, but just a normal person who knows the importance of living within your means. Show Notes Morimoto Imperial Pilsner: The Iron Chef beer! Adam Dicker: Learn to buy and sell domain names. LMM Community: Come join us in the Forums to discuss all things PF! Featured Image Photo Credit: “Proudly made in America. Printing 24/7 in USA.” by Miran Rijavec on Flickr

Do you have kids? What are you doing to teach your kids about money? Adam Carroll joins us to talk about teaching your kids the value of a dollar. Adam is one of our favorite guests here at LMM. We first met him to discuss student loan debt. Today he’s back to talk about teaching kids about money. Under-Educated More than anything, aside from health, money can make or break your life. Not in the sense that money buys happiness but that lack of money, or knowing how to handle the money you have, is a major source of stress. In 2014, 64% of American adults sited money worries as “a significant source of stress” making it number one on the list ahead of work, family, and health. You would think that something so fundamental would be well covered in schools, from kindergarten all the way through high school. Well, it isn’t. Maybe because there are “legacy” subjects taught that leave little room for new ones. Maybe because so much hinges on standardized testing and those tests don’t include a personal finance sections. For us tin-foil hat wearers, maybe because the powers that be like the system just as it is. It makes for good consumers. Whatever the reasons, kids aren’t learning even the basics of how to handle money. So it’s up to their families to instill the personal finance lessons that will carry them through life. What Age To Start Early, even earlier than you might think. By the time children are seven, their money habits are already formed. Age three is a good age to start money lessons. You’re not going to explain what a Roth IRA is to a toddler but even at this age kids can understand basic concepts. Explain that you need money to buy things and you earn money by working. Teach them delayed gratification. You can’t have everything you want now. The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment showed the importance of delaying gratification. Children were given one marshmallow and told if they waited to eat it, a short wait of about 15 minutes, they could have a second marshmallow. The study found that the children who waited had better life outcomes which were measured by things like SAT scores, educational attainment, and BMI’s. The children studied were between the ages of 7 and 9 so it seems to be true that your money habits are set by age 7. Money Isn’t Real How often do you use cash? Almost never for some of us. How often do your kids see you use cash? Maybe never. If your kid never sees cash, it’s hard to understand that you can’t just buy whatever you want because physical money is finite and a credit card is not. Adam devised a clever way to teach his kids about real money. He gave his kids $10,000 in real money to see if it would change the way they played the board game Monopoly. It did. The kids were more careful with the real money. By showing kids that money is a physical thing, you can teach them that once they spend it, it’s gone. Money is no different to cookies. If you have three cookies and you eat three cookies, the cookies are gone. Don’t Raise “Wanting” Kids Having kids is expensive. It costs $245,340 to raise a child to the age of 18. It costs more to raise “wanting” kids. You’ve seen them, the ones having a melt down in Target because they were told no when they asked for a toy. But the reason for the melt down isn’t just th...

  Today we dissect listener Andrew’s finances. What is he doing right, what is he doing wrong, and what can he do better. This financial life. Andrew is a long time listener and today he shares his financial situation with us to get some advice. Before Andrew found LMM he had student loan debt, credit card debt, high fees on what investments he had, no budget AND he bought a new car. Andrew recently married and brought about $75,000 of debt into the marriage while his wife had about $22,000 from student loans. They have paid off about $20,000 in a short amount of time. He moved his investments over to Vanguard to save on fees, and set up a budget. Andrew lives in Minnesota and the couple make about $100,000 a year. They pay just $600 a month in rent on a two bedroom apartment. The monthly living expenses are about $2,000. They want to buy a house but are first working to build their emergency fund and pay off debt. The student loans have a high interest rate, over 6%. He is paying $2,300 a month in loan payments. Andrew should speak to CommonBond about getting a lower interest rate. He is currently using the snow ball method to pay his debt but we recommend the stack method. Andrew has a Roth IRA and is working toward maxing that out by the end of the year. Once the debt is paid off, in about four years, Andrew would like to travel before buying a home. Buying a home should not be a given. A lot of people just do it because it’s the next thing you do but it’s not for everyone. Because he likes his job, Andrew is not in a big hurry to retire early. But it’s not if you don’t have to work no matter how great your job. We’re glad that we were able to help Andrew take control of his finances. Show Notes Sebago Bump: A rich, black ale. Mint: The easy way to budget. Betterment: The smart way to invest.  

  With so much of our personal fiance information floating around the internet, how can you secure your accounts? We’ll give you a few ways to stay safe. Many of us have had some aspect of our life hacked, bank account, credit card, naked photos. You have to protect your on-line information. Some sites are more secure than others. You are pretty safe at Betterment, maybe not so safe at your local carry out restaurant. So don’t use the same password over and over! Use a site like LastPass to manage your passwords. Use tiered passwords, a complicated one for things like bank accounts but a simple one for your Disqus account. Two-factor authentication means you provide two forms of identification, something physical like a key fob and a security code. Prey will use your web cam to periodically take pictures so if someone steals your device, say “cheese” mother fucker. You don’t have to be rich to be ripped off. Hackers don’t want to steal $10,000 from one person, they want to steal $100 from 100 people. Adding numbers and characters to your password helps but not much. Using a nonsensical  string of words is more secure and easier for the human brain to remember than a string of numbers and characters. A user name is almost as important as a password. If you don’t have to use your e-mail address, use something harder to uncover than your own name. When answering security questions, lie or answer accurately but add a code word onto the end of your answer. What happens when you die? Well, you see a white light…No, put a list of your passwords in a secure place like a safety deposit box and give the key to a trusted person. This could be useful not just for death but in case you are ever locked up unjustly in a South American prison. Plan ahead. There is only so much you can do. Ever how clever we are and how sophisticated on-line security is, the hackers are more clever and more sophisticated. But you don’t have to make it easy for them. Show Notes Keymaster Farmhouse Smash Ale: A small brew with a smooth finish. Exile Ruthie: A smooth, gold lager. Betterment: A safe place for your emergency fund. Patreon: Help support LMM.

Most of us are not going to get rich simply from our jobs – we have a limited amount of time for actively working. To reach financial independence, we have to create sources of passive income. Smart real estate investing can bring in big returns and grow your net worth. Like investing in the stock market, real estate investing can seem intimidating. It’s really not though. There are just some key fundamentals you need to know before you get started. Everyone wants to be the Donald Trump of their neighborhood. But with less turnover. Fewer walls. Better inter-neighbor relations. OK, maybe that was a bad example. But, maybe not. “It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.” – Donald Trump Maybe this human candy corn topped with cheese whiz is on to something. Real estate is a physical asset you can touch and is not going out of business any time soon. Unless people all of sudden choose to live off the land again… Nah! No matter how you slice it, real property is here to stay, which is why many choose to put their money into it. Investing in real estate has crossed all of our minds at one point or another. But if this is an investment option you’re considering, you may have no idea where to start. To successfully pursue investment opportunities in the real estate market, you must first do your due diligence to ensure that you understand the intricacies of your local market and the factors that dictate the profitability of what you’re investing in. In this article, I will offer you a broad overview of just about everything you need to know about beginning with investing in property; the very basics. And I promise, no more bear attacks or Trump references. An overview of real estate investments At a basic level, real estate investing is a method of making money by renting, flipping or owning residential, industrial, commercial properties, or parcels of land. Some investors may find these properties on their own, or through the use of an online real estate marketplace like Roofstock, the Multiple Listing Services, or Zillow. Residential real estate investments are the most common forms of real estate investing. These include single-family homes, condos, and townhomes that can be re-sold or rented out to turn a profit. For example, you buy a condo in Beach City 5 miles from you for $100,000, you rent it out on Airbnb for $100 a night, you make a lotta tuna. Simple as that. Well, maybe there’s a bit more to it. But more on that later. Larger residential properties and those that are intended for use by businesses fall under the category of commercial real estate. Owners can make money from commercial properties by leasing out office space or multifamily residential units. The rule of thumb is anything that’s rented out to a business and any residential building with more than 4 units inside it, is classified as commercial. These types of properties have different lending criteria when applying for a mortgage. Regardless of the type of property you own, you can benefit monetarily profit from an investment property in four key ways: rent, appreciation, tax benefits, and interest. Rent The owner of a single-family home, condo, townhome, multifamily property, commercial building, crowdfunded real estate or industrial real estate may generate rental income by leasing out all or ...

  Today we have a This Financial Life episode with listener Lindsay. We break down her finances to see what she’s doing right and where she can use some help. Lindsay is a second grade teacher living in Seattle. We’ll help her get her financial life in order. Lindsay’s salary is a little over $58,000 a year, it’s spread over twelve months and she makes a few extra thousand teaching summer school. Lindsay decided that 2015 would be the year she stopped ignoring her finances, partly thanks to LMM! Lindsay divorced in 2013 and it caused some tax problems. Your marital status matters on the last day of the year. So even though the Lindsay was married for almost all of 2013, for tax purposes, she was considered divorced. She ended up owing $2,400. She had about $20,000 in credit card debt after the divorce. Lindsay got a loan from Prosper to help conquer the debt. She also used Ready For Zero to help pay things back. Within three years she will have killed all that credit card debt! Lindsay also has $56,000 in student loans. Once she has paid off her credit cards she will focus more on the student loans. Lindsay has investments too. She has about $15,000 in a Traditional IRA but she is focused on debt for the time being rather than investing. Her rent is not unreasonable, her car is paid off although she has a bit of a long commute. What can Lindsay do better? Her Prosper loan interest rate is high. She should try Lending Club to see if she can get a better rate through them.  She can contribute more to her IRA to reduce her taxable income. Lindsay has a lot of debt but she also made a plan that she is sticking to. We’re happy that we were able to play a small part in her success! Show Notes Lindsayliving.com: Lindsay’s lifestyle blog. Mint: Find out where your money is going. Patreon: If you appreciate LMM, donate here.