Episodes

  • Your IQ Won't Save Your Career. Your AQ Might. – with Liz Tran

    Your IQ Won't Save Your Career. Your AQ Might. – with Liz Tran
    Feb 20 2026
    #691: Your IQ used to be your biggest career asset. Then AI scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, the SAT, and the MCAT — and suddenly the cognitive skills that once set you apart became something anyone can access for free. Executive coach Liz Tran joins us to talk about what actually drives career success and earning power now. Her answer: AQ, or agility quotient — your capacity to handle change, learn new skills fast, and keep moving when your industry shifts beneath you. The personal finance implications are real. The average half-life of a technical skill is five years. In tech, it's closer to two. That means the expertise you spent years building — and the salary that came with it — can become obsolete faster than a mortgage term. Tran argues the people who protect their earning power long-term aren't necessarily the most credentialed. They're the ones who can unlearn old ways and adapt quickly. We walk through her four AQ archetypes — the neurosurgeon, the astronaut, the firefighter, and the novelist — each with a different default approach to change. Knowing your type helps you understand where you might freeze up during a career pivot, a market downturn, or a high-stakes financial decision. Tran points out that analysis paralysis, something many real estate investors and career changers know well, often comes down to archetype — and there are practical fixes. We also cover her ABCD framework — anchors, bets, classroom, and discomfort — which maps out how to stay functional and decisive during volatile periods. And we get into the six thinking hats theory, specifically how pairing black-hat (downside) thinking with green-hat (future-focused) thinking can sharpen any major financial or career decision. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro to AQ — agility quotient defined (03:19) IQ vs. EQ vs. AQ — how the three differ (04:09) Origins of IQ — born from industrialization (04:41) Birth of EQ — rise of the knowledge worker (05:01) Why AQ matters now — the tech revolution (06:19) AI and IQ — cognitive skills are now commoditized (07:51) Technical vs. durable skills — and why both matter (10:48) Half-life of skills — technical skills expire fast (13:41) Measuring durable skills — how to spot your gaps (15:59) The four AQ archetypes — neurosurgeon, astronaut, firefighter, novelist (25:08) Improving your weak spots — run toward discomfort (30:59) The ABCD framework — four pillars of high AQ (43:56) Anchors — people, places, routines that ground you (54:25) Six thinking hats — six ways to approach any problem (01:04:28) AQ is changeable — it's never too late to grow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Q&A: Should My Teen Go to College?

    Q&A: Should My Teen Go to College?
    Feb 17 2026
    #690: Blanca (01:28): Blanca, an immigrant mother raising a 14-year-old, wants her son to think critically about college—not just as an experience, but as a financial decision. With the rising cost of higher education, she’s wondering how families can assess whether an undergraduate or graduate program is likely to pay off over time. Brandon (30:05): Brandon in his forties, recently left full-time work to pursue per diem work and a side project. Planning to draw down his taxable brokerage account for supplemental income over the next 20 years, he’s wondering whether to continue reinvesting dividends or take them as cash for flexibility. Anon (40:15): Anon has been following Paula’s advice on financial advisors. They’ve heard her recommend fiduciaries and caution against the assets-under-management (AUM) model. They’re eager to understand the reasoning and want guidance on finding trustworthy advisors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Your Brain Is Your Most Important Asset, with Dr. Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD

    Your Brain Is Your Most Important Asset, with Dr. Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD
    Feb 13 2026
    #689: Most people think forgetting a name means their brain is failing. Dr. Majid Fotuhi, a neurologist who taught at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, sees thousands of patients convinced they have Alzheimer's – only to discover they're dealing with poor sleep or stress. Dr. Fotuhi joins us to break down the difference between cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He explains why chronic stress physically shrinks your hippocampus — the thumb-sized memory center in your brain — and how twelve weeks of lifestyle changes reversed cognitive decline in 84 percent of his patients. We talk about the five hidden taxes draining your brain: sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, junk food, chronic stress and mental laziness. Scrolling social media after work counts as mental laziness, even if your day job involves intense focus. Dr. Fotuhi offers a different framework: five pillars that compound over time. Exercise ranks first because it multiplies mitochondria in your brain cells, reduces inflammation and generates new neurons in your hippocampus. Walking 10,000 steps daily cuts Alzheimer's risk by 50 percent. Sleep comes second. Your brain rinses itself during deep sleep, flushing out amyloid — the core protein in Alzheimer's disease. One night of poor sleep increases amyloid in your brain. We cover nutrition (skip the junk food debate), mindset (heart rate variability breathing reduces Alzheimer's footprints) and brain training. Dr. Fotuhi memorizes 70 names in a single lecture and explains his technique for remembering credit card numbers using mental imagery. The conversation covers London taxi drivers who grew their hippocampus by memorizing 10,000 streets, why stress management beats supplements, and how Swedish students learning Arabic increased their brain volume in three months. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising segments. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Defining cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease (05:19) Why cognitive issues don't always mean Alzheimer's (07:24) Thinking of your brain as an asset to manage (07:51) The five hidden taxes draining your brain (10:45) How poor sleep prevents brain rinsing and causes inflammation (14:20) Oral health and brain health connection (16:40) Brain plasticity and the Broca lobe (27:02) The five pillars of brain health (35:23) Cardiovascular fitness versus strength training for brain health (38:51) Sleep as the second pillar of brain health (48:05) When exercise beats sleep (51:33) Different types of intelligence beyond IQ tests (1:03:53) Reversing brain damage from decades of bad habits (1:10:25) Nutrition and avoiding junk food (1:25:09) Mindset and stress management as pillar four (1:33:35) Breathing exercises for stress reduction (1:39:24) Brain training as the fifth pillar (1:51:52) Memory techniques for names and numbers (2:02:46) Nootropics and supplements for brain health Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your that person whose name you can't remember: https://affordanything.com/episode689 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 2 mins
  • Q&A: I'm Burned Out But Not Quite Ready to Retire

    Q&A: I'm Burned Out But Not Quite Ready to Retire
    Feb 10 2026
    #688: Anonymous: "Anonymous Sheryl" is 38, mortgage-free and exhausted after 15 years of teaching. She’s torn between pushing a few more years toward FIRE or switching to relief teaching now for better work-life balance. How do you trade speed to FIRE for sustainability without blowing up the plan? Anonymous : "Anonymous Ray" hired a bank portfolio manager but isn’t sure how to judge the results after just a few years. With mixed performance, dividend-heavy funds and higher fees, when is it fair to evaluate a manager — and would a simple index ETF outperform? Nathan: Nathan’s 14-year-old just earned his first W-2 income, and Nathan wants to jump-start his son’s investing journey with a Roth IRA. But with household income above the Roth limits, is there a legal way to make this work without sacrificing the child tax credit? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    47 mins
  • First Friday: The Retirement Rules That Changed While You Weren't Looking

    First Friday: The Retirement Rules That Changed While You Weren't Looking
    Feb 6 2026
    #687: Your tax refund might be $300 to $1,000 bigger this year, and that's just the beginning of what's changing with your money. The Tax Foundation estimates most Americans will see significantly larger refunds thanks to seven major tax cuts. The child tax credit increased by $200. The standard deduction jumped by $750 for individuals or $1,500 for couples. The state and local tax deduction cap now sits at $40,000. Seniors get an extra $6,000 deduction, and deductions for auto loan interest, tips, and overtime work all increased. Retirement accounts saw major changes too. Catch-up contributions for high earners now must go into Roth accounts, which pushed thousands of employers to add Roth options to their 401k plans between 2024 and 2026. Kevin Warsh, the new Fed chair nominee, thinks the Federal Reserve has been doing it all wrong. The former Fed governor and Wall Street banker believes the Fed focuses too much on backward-looking data and reacts too slowly. He wants strategic, forward-thinking policy instead of chasing lagging indicators. President Trump clarified he never asked Warsh to lower interest rates and wanted to "keep it pure." The labor market shows serious cracks. Job openings dropped by nearly one million year over year to 6.5 million. Unemployment claims jumped to 231,000 last week. January layoffs hit 108,435 people — up 118 percent from last year and the worst January since 2009 during the Great Recession. Big Tech continues its massive AI spending spree. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Oracle will collectively spend over $500 billion on AI infrastructure this year. Google's spending alone doubled from 2025, reaching up to $185 billion focused on data centers and Gemini development. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your tax preparer: https://affordanything.com/episode687 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    43 mins
  • Q&A: Are AI Stocks About to Crater?

    Q&A: Are AI Stocks About to Crater?
    Feb 3 2026
    #686: Rachel: Rachel is new to investing and has noticed the stock market being dominated by AI companies. She wants to make sure her portfolio is balanced without overexposing herself.Should she rethink her index fund strategy to protect against a potential AI bubble? Sarah: Sarah just turned 65, owns her home outright, and has been relying on credit cards since losing her job last year. She’s weighing whether to claim Social Security now, pay off debt, remodel her home, or convert her traditional IRA to a Roth.How should she prioritize these major financial moves while balancing income, debt, and retirement accounts? Anonymous “Julie”: This listener is on COBRA after her spouse took a federal buyout and is exploring starting a small business with her two young kids to teach them entrepreneurship.Will employer-provided health insurance fade away, and how can she test business ideas before fully committing? Resources Mentioned: Books: So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport The E-Myth by Michael Gerber Traction by Gino Wickman The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • 10 Rules for Building a Portfolio That Actually Works for Your Life, with Cullen Roche

    10 Rules for Building a Portfolio That Actually Works for Your Life, with Cullen Roche
    Jan 31 2026
    #685: You're not an investor. You're a saver. That's the first of 10 principles Cullen Roche shares in this conversation about building what he calls "the perfect portfolio." Roche, the founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, argues that when you buy stocks on the secondary market, you're not actually funding companies or making investments in the traditional economic sense. You're just swapping your cash for someone else's stock position – reallocating your savings. This reframe matters because it changes your entire approach. Instead of trying to beat the market, you focus on the boring, prudent work of allocating your savings across different time horizons. We walk through all ten of Roche's principles. He explains why you are your portfolio's worst enemy – not just because fear makes you panic-sell during crashes, but because FOMO during bull markets leads you to chase performance at exactly the wrong time. He breaks down why diversification is the only free lunch in investing, why costs matter more than you think, and why real returns are the only ones that count after you strip out inflation, taxes, and fees. Roche introduces some concrete strategies most people have never heard of. The 351 exchange lets you swap concentrated stock positions into diversified ETFs without triggering immediate capital gains taxes. The "defined duration" approach matches specific pools of money to specific future expenses—like pairing a six-month treasury bill with next year's bathroom remodel. He also tackles the hardest allocation question: what to do with money earmarked for three to ten years from now. That awkward middle timeframe sits between "keep it in cash" and "put it in stocks," and Roche explains why traditional approaches like sixty-forty portfolios don't always work. The conversation covers everything from why long-term bonds make terrible matches for long-term goals to why thinking in time horizons beats thinking in investment styles. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths.

(00:00) Principle 1: you're a saver, not an investor (04:48) Real wealth comes from direct business ownership (06:43) Principle 2: you are your portfolio's worst enemy (09:58) FOMO during bull markets vs fear during crashes (12:43) Principle 3: beating the market is hard (15:18) The 5 percent "fun money" allocation debate (16:18) What to do when your position explodes (17:18) The 351 exchange tax strategy explained (20:28) Should you rebalance concentrated stock positions (22:18) Principle 4: diversification is the only free lunch (31:03) Gold and stock market both high simultaneously (35:43) When diversification becomes diworsification (40:03) Principle 5: the cost matters hypothesis (44:23) HSAs, 401ks and unavoidable fee structures (47:03) Why ETFs beat mutual funds on taxes (51:03) Principle 6: real, real returns matter most (1:00:58) Principle 7: risk is uncertainty of lifetime consumption (1:06:18) Longevity risk and unpredictable healthcare costs (1:13:03) Principle 8: asset allocation as temporal conundrum (1:24:43) The 3-10 year allocation problem explained (1:28:03) Principle 9: past performance doesn't predict future (1:31:18) Principle 10: set realistic expectations, stay the course Resources: Cullin's website and newsletter: https://disciplinefunds.com Grab the FREE handbook: https://affordanything.com/financialgoals Share this episode: https://affordanything.com/episode685 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Why You Should “T-Bill and Chill” Instead of Using a Savings Account, with Cullen Roche

    Why You Should “T-Bill and Chill” Instead of Using a Savings Account, with Cullen Roche
    Jan 27 2026
    #684: Most people search for the perfect portfolio — the one allocation that works in every market, at every age, for every goal. This interview starts by explaining why that portfolio does not exist. We talk with Cullen Roche, founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, about why copying someone else’s portfolio can backfire, and why portfolio design works better when it starts with your own constraints instead of rules of thumb. We walk through real portfolio models. The conversation begins with the classic 60-40 portfolio. You hear where it came from, how it held up during the Great Depression, and why it became so widely adopted. We also talk about its trade-offs — why it feels boring in strong markets and comforting in crashes, and how that emotional balance plays a role in investor behavior. Next, we shift to a Buffett-style portfolio. You hear why the takeaway is less about stock picking and more about structure. The discussion covers why Buffett keeps a small allocation to cash-like assets, how that “dry powder” functions during downturns, and why psychological stability matters as much as returns. The episode then turns to cash management. We talk about high-yield savings accounts, money market funds and Treasury bills. You hear how many cash products are built on T-bills, how banks capture part of the yield, and when managing cash directly may make sense. The concept of “T-bill and chill” comes up — along with when the extra effort may or may not be worth it. Finally, the conversation zooms out to time horizons. We discuss why income from a job functions like a bond allocation, how that changes risk capacity when you are younger, and why the early years of retirement carry the most danger. The episode closes by explaining sequence-of-returns risk and why portfolios need to work not just on paper, but in moments of fear. Resource: Cullin's website and newsletter: https://disciplinefunds.com Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro (02:00) No perfect portfolio (03:34) 60-40 portfolio starts (06:38) 60-40 keeps calm (08:00) Buffett portfolio basics (12:11) Stocks vs cash fear (13:34) T-Bill and Chill (18:22) TreasuryDirect is clunky (23:42) Income as bond proxy (25:33) Bond tent buffer (29:12) Sequence risk explained (31:42) Early retirement mindset (32:36) COVID panic calls (42:49) Three-fund portfolio basics (58:41) Get-rich-quick trap (1:18:21) Risk parity and All-Weather Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your preferred financial advisor: https://affordanything.com/episode684 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 24 mins