Oh My Dollar!

Lillian and Will walk through the basics of the home office deduction – and how things have changed under the new tax plan for 2018! You don’t need to have an LLC or own your home to take the home office deduction, but there are some things you need to know! We’re a big fan of this episode’s sponsor, Haven Life. If you’re interested in getting financial peace of mind for your family for an affordable price, get a quote at welcome.havenlife.com/omd  

Jessica asks if she should buy a house or keep renting in her cheap apartment longer, and more listeners share their experiences with homeownership. Episode Links: My favorite calculator to determine your monthly mortgage payment The NYtimes Rent Vs Buy Calculator The Get Your Money Together Giveaway including a Passion Planner, RescueTime Pro for a year, and a cat bowtie: ohmydollar.com/giveaway/ Welcome to our new sponsor, Haven Life Insurance Company. If you’ve been putting off getting life insurance, it’s an excellent time to get a quote quickly online – and you help out Oh My Dollar! too! Check it out here: https://welcome.havenlife.com/omd

Lillian & Will share their own post-graduation money mistakes and give some tips for new college graduates on dealing with student loans, budgeting, and getting established. Get a copy of Get Your Money Together for the new grad in your life that could use some fur-iendly cats explaining finance http://www.ohmydollar.com/book/ 

Variable Income. We’ve mentioned it a lot on this show because the more variable your income, the less traditional finance advice helps you. Today we talk about how to handle variable income when you’re anxious or neurotic (like Lillian!) So we’ll walk through a few things you can do to handle it. Lillian book Get Your Money Together – a cat-filled illustrated guide to purrsonal finance is shipping now!

Will and Lillian dive into a meta-episode about Oh My Dollar! at Outlet PDX for the launch of the Get Your Money Together book in front of a live audience and answer some questions about the show. Grab a copy of the book here!

Listener Eva asks a question about picking investments in her 401K – should she stick with just a stock index fund or also a bond index fund? Here’s the J Collins Stock Series that Eva referenced (and I recommend) for an entertaining but illuminating view on investing (it’s more fun than it sounds). For more on investing allocations explained by cats, grab a copy of Lillian’s cat-filled purrsonal finance book, Get Your Money Together at ohmydollar.com/book/   

This bonus episode is probably one of my favorite dense episodes that’s a departure from our normal topic: Malcolm and Simone Collins are a married couple and tour de force for figuring out your values with brutal pragmatism – your objective function, as they call it. We cover topics like “what are logical fallacies people make with money?” and “how do emotions help you actually find your values?”  and “if your number one value is family, how do you relate that to career and money?” If you want to dive into their book, which I loved for all it’s weightiness, it is $.99 on Amazon: The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life: A Guide to Creating Your Own Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions  and their foundation The Pragmatist Foundation.

Author and illustrator Jason Porath, of the Rejected Princesses series, joins us to talk about some financially savvy women in history we might not know about, and talks about his experience making a living as a creator online. This is a longer version of what aired on radio, just for you, podcast listeners! Check out Rejected Princesses to see more of Jason’s work. Grab a copy of Tough Mothers: Amazing Stories of History’s Mightiest Matriarchs here.

Lillian walks through a lot of the misconceptions about homeownership – including the idea that you haven’t “adulted” until you’ve insta-bragged about buying a house. Buying a house can be a great decision, but don’t get caught up in some of the myths about homeownership. Resources: jlcollinsnh: Why Your House is a Terrible Investment? Afford Anything: Renting is Throwing Away Money…Right? (contains the Rent:Buy calculation) NYTimes Rent Vs Buy Calculator Join our launch party! http://www.ohmydollar.com/booklaunch/

A free form episode where Will & Lily talk about the Get Your Money Together book, when the right time is to follow up on an unpaid invoice, how to pay for big business purchases, and their biggest single expenses. ever. Get the book at www.ohmydollar.com/book/

Many people wonder how to figure out how to find a financial advisor without getting screwed over. Michael Dinich helps us untangle all different types of financial professionals out there. You can find out more about Michael Dinich at Yourmoneygeek.com If you’re in Portland, please join us at an adorable cat-filled launch party on May 17th for the Get Your Money Together book. RSVP here: ohmydollar.com/booklaunch/

Money mistakes. We’ve all made them. Those blunders or miscalculations that end up costing you money – and maybe upset a financial stability you’ve worked to build. Jen Hemphill, the author of Her Money Matters, joins us to talk about messy money mistakes and money stories. Check out her book and podcast here: https://jenhemphill.com/book

One of the wonderful things about modern society is that when I have have a material need, if I have some money, I can usually exchange money to help fulfill that need. But comments on Lillian’s monthly financial reports prompted her to examine what money really solves. Get Your Money Together, Lillian’s illustrated purr-sonal finance book comes out next week on tax day (4/17): pre-order at ohmydollar.com/book

We answer two listener questions: How to figure out if you should be a non-profit, LLC, or become a corporation?  and L asks how to set their patreon tiers (16:45) to make sure they can take money home. Reminder! You can pre-order the cat-filled Get Your Money Together workbook right meow at ohmydollar.com/book

Allison writes in to ask about what to do with a “medium” inheritance, and Lillian helps explain how PHD students might not qualify to save in a Roth IRA. Don’t forget, you can pre-order Get Your Money Together workbook at ohmydollar.com/book