Most retirements in the U.S. aren’t voluntary. Layoffs, health problems or caring for a family member decide the date for most people, so real financial planning has very little to do with skipping lattes.

Paula and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy answer three listener questions. The first is from an Air Force major with $2.5 million saved whose parents both have early-onset Alzheimer’s. The second is from a 58-year-old early retiree deciding whether to rent or buy her next home. The third is from a couple weighing whether to pay down a 6% mortgage.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why to buy disability and long-term care insurance before you take a genetic test
• How to plan for long-term care costs without draining the rest of your family
• Which estate documents to sign now, and the trust step most people skip
• Why the person raising your kids and the person managing their money shouldn’t be close friends
• How to use the price-to-rent ratio to decide whether to rent or buy
• Whether paying down a 6% mortgage really earns a guaranteed 6% return
• Why extra mortgage payments won’t hurt you if you refinance later

If you’ve been treating personal finance as a budgeting exercise, this episode shows what planning ahead looks like. It also shows why planning makes you more flexible, not less.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(00:00) Why most retirements aren’t your choice

(06:57) What Charlie Munger regretted at 99

(15:35) $2.5M saved and a family history of Alzheimer’s

(17:11) Why to buy insurance before a genetic test

(29:46) How to handle the sticker shock of long-term care

(32:21) Estate paperwork to sign before you need it

(38:53) Why your kids’ guardian and money manager shouldn’t be friends

(54:56) The one ratio that tells you to rent or buy

(1:07:39) Is a 6% mortgage a guaranteed 6% return?

(1:14:03) 15 families could pay off their mortgage. None did.

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

IS YOUR FAMILY COVERED IF YOU CAN’T WORK? MAP YOUR INSURANCE, SAVINGS AND RETIREMENT ON ONE FREE PAGE AND FIND THE GAPS 👉 http://affordanything.com/cornerstone

👉 Joe Saul-Sehy’s show, Stacking Benjamins: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com

👉 Lacey Langford’s MILMO Show (money planning for military families): https://laceylangford.com/expert-resources/milmo-show

👉 Our interview with estate planning expert Andrea Baumann Lustig: https://affordanything.com/725-what-most-families-get-wrong-about-passing-down-wealth-with-andrea-baumann-lustig

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over half of young Americans avoid looking at their money to cope with stress, and the CEO of Acorns says he was one of them. In his twenties, even a guaranteed 2.5% return felt too scary to touch, and it cost him a decade of growth.

Noah Kerner is CEO and chairman of Acorns, the automated saving and investing app whose customers have invested more than $33 billion, often starting with spare change.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why avoiding your money feels like relief, and what it quietly costs you
• How to make saving so small you can't talk yourself out of it
• Why so many people feel pessimistic about money despite a long bull market
• How the app you use can change what you do when markets drop
• Why the best investing strategy is usually the boring one
• How to tell patience from prediction when betting looks like investing
• How a founder copes when his body forces him to stop working

If you've been putting off looking at your accounts, or you're tempted by faster ways to grow your money, this conversation offers a calmer path forward.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(00:00) Over half of young people avoid their money

(02:39) How fear cost him a decade of investing

(04:44) Why money feels more taboo than sex

(11:12) Why saving 13 cents beats saving nothing

(13:54) Why people feel broke during a long bull market

(17:48) Same $10,000, different app, different behavior

(22:54) Why the best investing is boring

(28:49) Patience vs. prediction: how wealth really grows

(46:48) When his body forced him to stop working

(54:20) Living with the odds that most businesses fail

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 AVOIDING YOUR MONEY COST HIM A DECADE. FIND OUT IF YOU'RE AN AVOIDER TOO: https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Noah Kerner: https://www.acorns.com/noah

👉 Acorns: https://www.acorns.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A bond fund that lost 38% feels like proof you should have bought individual bonds instead. But individual bonds would have lost value too; you just wouldn’t get a statement telling you so.

Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins Paula to answer three listener calls. The first comes from an executor deciding whether to move his late father’s $500,000 brokerage account to cash during probate (the court process of settling an estate). The second is from an investor whose bond fund lost 38% in six years, and the third is from a 401(k) plan manager of 23 years who pushes back on Joe’s take on target-date funds.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How an executor can protect an estate’s value without market timing
• Why splitting the money 50/50 between stocks and cash can work, if every heir agrees
• Why individual bonds lose value when rates spike too, even when no statement shows it
• How a bond advertising 6% can still lose you money if you overpay for it
• When a bond fund makes more sense than individual bonds, and vice versa
• Why short-term bonds can drag down a long-term portfolio
• Whether target-date funds are a smart default or a first step to outgrow

If you’re settling a parent’s estate, second-guessing your bonds, or wondering whether your 401(k) default is good enough, this episode gives you a way to weigh the tradeoffs instead of reaching for a one-size-fits-all rule.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

Note: Timestamps may vary slightly depending on dynamic ad placements.

(00:00) Why disability insurance costs so much

(09:10) An executor’s $500K dilemma: stay invested or cash out?

(11:41) Why Joe would move the estate to cash

(15:13) The 50/50 split both hosts can live with

(24:56) Her bond fund lost 38%. Now what?

(27:33) Why individual bonds wouldn’t have dodged the loss

(32:48) How a “6%” bond can still lose money

(35:20) Why Paula bought her first bonds at 5.2%

(53:54) A 401(k) plan manager defends target-date funds

(1:05:40) Why so many people ignore their own money

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

OUTGROWING YOUR TARGET-DATE FUND? HERE’S WHICH ACCOUNT EACH NEW FUND BELONGS IN 👉 https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

Free executor checklist from Stacking Benjamins 👉 https://stackingbenjamins.com/estate

Buy Treasury bonds directly from the government 👉 https://www.treasurydirect.gov

Share your worst investment mistake for a future episode 👉 https://affordanything.com/voicemail

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.