Oh My Dollar!

We answer listener questions about budgeting. Tamás asks how to reduce his budget when he can’t figure out what’s too high, and Sara asks how to recognize emotional spending & help curb it. (We’re back on a Monday posting schedule, thanks for your patience.)

Oregon is trying to start a retirement planning revolution- every single business in Oregon will be required to offer a retirement plan of some sort by 2020. Joel Metlan joins us to discuss “Oregon Saves” and the behavioral economics built into the plan. And why it might be coming to your state soon, too!  Check it out at Oregonsaves.com (Apologies for the inconsistent episodes the past two weeks; we had some scheduling challenges but we’re back on track!)

Listener Riah asks how much she should save up to have kids, and special guest Kim Dubois Harrison, discusses parenting choices about money, expensive childcare, and the time value of money as a parent.

Journalist Alden Wicker, author of “Multilevel-marketing companies like LuLaRoe are forcing people into debt and psychological crisis” for Quartz.com joins us for a discussion on the cost of MLMs. Read the article here.  Oh My Dollar! has a cat-filled purrsonal finance illustrated workbook raising funds on kickstarter! We can use your help. Check out http://www.ohmydollar.com/kickstarter/ to back.

We have a special guest Katie Bovitz from the Portland Housing Center to talk about considerations for buying & financing your first home. (Let us know if you want the 1 hour version of this show!) Oh My Dollar is launching a purr-sonal finance workbook, check it out at http://www.ohmydollar.com/kickstarter

A short episode just to say hello after Fall Break to give an update on Lillian’s travels. Oh My Dollar! is launching a cat-themed purr-sonal finance workbook: http://www.ohmydollar.com/kickstarter/

We’re back from our week break with an episode on Social Security featuring economist Jon Rork. Will it be around in 25 years? How does it work? Should you factor it in to your retirement planning?

Lillian walks through the three things you can do to improve a bad (or nonexistent) credit score, and why it might not matter.

We talk about what to when you unexpectedly come into “extra” money – how to allocate it, and listener stories about how they used their windfalls.

A live show from the Oh My Dollar! and XRAY in the morning crew, Lillian answers two listener questions: Alan wants to know how much to keep in his bank account, and Catherine asks how to plan for $90K of graduate school debt.

We discuss some great splurge ideas, and how to plan for them, include Lillian’s big trip from Dublin > Shanghai by train, and Will’s fantasy of crossing the Pacific on a cargo ship. (H/T to Paula from affordanything.com for the great exercise.)

It’s totally possible to get to retirement money early! Lillian walks you through the legal ways to get money without paying crazy penalties. Plus – why you shouldn’t do that!

What should you do about health care when you leave your job? Why does COBRA cost so much and why does it sound so scary? And how to figure out healthcare.gov premium assistance with variable income.

We talk about life insurance policies – and what the difference between term and whole life insurance policies are. And what being “self-insured” really means.

If you’re in your 20’s or 30’s, you’re might be getting invited to weddings. Possibly lots of them. Just attending a wedding, let alone standing up in one, costs money! How do you make a budget for that?