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#753: New York City is short roughly half a million homes, yet at least 60,000 rent-regulated apartments sit empty. Under current rules, many owners lose less money by leaving them vacant than by fixing them up.

Kenny Burgos is CEO of the New York Apartment Association, which represents owners of rent-stabilized buildings, and a former New York State Assemblymember from the Bronx.

In this episode, we discuss:

How New York's rent rules work, and why they've lasted since 1969

Why the typical New Yorker pays about $1,600 while listings ask $5,500

Why some buildings now sell for $50,000 an apartment, and why that isn't a deal

How a rent freeze pushes costs onto market-rate renters and delayed repairs

Why a targeted rent freeze for seniors and disabled residents works better

What Vienna's housing model accounts for that New York's doesn't

What aspiring landlords should weigh before buying rent-regulated property

Whether you own rentals, hope to, or just want to understand the rent-control debate, this episode shows what happens when costs keep rising and rents can't.

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Ready to buy your first rental property, or get more out of the one you already own? Join the waitlist for Your First Rental Property. You'll be the first to know when enrollment opens: courses.affordanything.com

👉 New York Apartment Association: https://housingny.org

👉 Housing New York podcast with Kenny Burgos: https://housingny.org/housingnypodcast

👉 Kenny Burgos on X: https://x.com/KennyBurgosNY

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(03:44) Why New York's 1969 emergency rent rules never ended

(04:58) The surprisingly low rent most New Yorkers actually pay

(23:33) Why buildings now sell for $50,000 an apartment

(25:12) Costs rose 4.5%. Rents were frozen at 0%.

(31:39) The rent-freeze program that actually works

(39:38) Who really pays when rents are frozen

(47:13) Why 60,000 apartments sit empty during a shortage

(01:01:53) Buyout or pressure? The $150,000 question

(01:06:52) What Vienna gets right that New York doesn't

(01:16:18) Should you buy a rental in New York?

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#752: A caller's rental is performing fine, but a late-paying tenant and a roof replacement have her ready to sell it before she moves to Madrid for her MBA. Paula argues the real fix isn't selling — it's a hire she hasn't made yet.

This week, Joe joins Paula to help a caller decide whether to sell a rental property from abroad, then dig into new data on why women's labor force participation dropped in July while their share of new jobs surged in August.

In this episode, we discuss:

How to tell if you're making the right call for the wrong reason

Why a new roof or a set of windows can be a form of forced investing

The one hire that can solve the same problem as selling your rental

A simple way to estimate a rental property's real return

What to weigh before selling a working investment on gut feel alone

Why women's labor force participation fell in July even as their job gains led the year

Why the trades are becoming a stronger bet than a four-year degree for some new grads

This one's for anyone facing a big financial decision that feels more emotional than mathematical — whether that's a rental property, a career move, or a job you're not sure is worth keeping.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(01:45) Why she wants to sell a rental that's "objectively good"

(03:25) When it's actually okay to sell a good investment

(10:03) One hire that stops panic-selling a rental property

(14:44) The simple math to compare rental returns vs. stocks

(17:31) Paula's own confession about hating her first rental property

(22:22) Why doing what you're best at beats doing everything yourself

(30:11) 100% of last month's labor force drop was women

(31:54) The real reasons women are leaving the workforce right now

(32:18) Why women got 85% of new jobs created this year

(47:00) The industry that could fix jobs and housing at once

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Torn on selling a rental? Get our free 10-day guide, which includes a deal-analysis exercise to help you decide with the numbers, not just your gut: https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Sign up for our newsletter (get the new site first): https://affordanything.com/newsletter

👉 Leave us a voicemail with your own money question: https://affordanything.com/voicemail

👉 Read the BLS jobs report Paula cites in this episode: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

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#751: The belief that’s quietly sabotaging your progress might not even be true. Free worksheet to question it: https://affordanything.com/turn-it-around

Two people can grow up with the exact same test scores — and as adults, one of them ends up earning double the other. Psychologist Marisa Franco says the deciding factor isn't intelligence, and it isn't luck. It's whether you actually believe good things are allowed to happen to you.

Dr. Marisa Franco is a psychologist and professor at the University of Maryland, and the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic. She's back to talk about her new book, Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment.

In this episode, we discuss:

How self-worth — not intelligence or family income — predicts how much you'll earn as an adult

Why some people quietly sabotage their own portfolio right before they hit financial independence

The difference between "good" and "bad" high self-esteem, and why one of them wrecks relationships

Why getting more love or praise than you expect can make you pull away instead of lean in

How to actually process a hard emotion instead of shoving it down

Why hitting a big financial goal can leave you feeling strangely empty once you get there

How to rebuild your sense of self after losing an identity you were attached to

Whether you've ever undermined your own progress right before a finish line, or wondered why reaching a goal didn't feel the way you thought it would, this episode gives you a framework for understanding — and changing — that pattern.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(02:05) The two very different types of high self-esteem

(04:36) Self-esteem vs. self-worth: the real difference

(05:37) Why self-worth predicts income more than SAT scores

(12:21) Sabotaging your own portfolio right before you hit FI

(14:15) The self-fulfilling prophecy behind financial fear

(23:36) Why too much love can make you pull away

(25:05) How low self-worth blocks promotions and job offers

(36:13) The memory trick that can change your brain

(46:19) Why self-worth matters most in a bad market

(1:06:10) Does self-worth actually drive your net worth?

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment: https://drmarisagfranco.com/worth-the-book/

👉 Marisa's website (speaking, articles, more): https://drmarisagfranco.com

👉 Marisa on Instagram (for signed copies via Lost City Books): https://www.instagram.com/drmarisagfranco/

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#750: Free worksheet: question the belief that might be keeping you stuck — before reality forces the update for you: http://affordanything.com/turn-it-around

Alec Litowitz spent three decades building one of the world's largest hedge funds, and he says the highest-IQ people in the room are often the last to notice the world has changed. His answer isn't more intelligence — it's the willingness to be wrong, quickly, and update before everyone else catches up.

Alec co-founded Citadel alongside Ken Griffin and later founded Magnetar Capital, one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world. His new book, The Adaptability Quotient, is out September 15.

In this episode, we discuss:

How adaptability quotient (AQ) differs from IQ and EQ — and why it matters more now

What a doomed Antarctic expedition reveals about real adaptability

Why AI makes knowledge abundant and judgment scarce

How to stop needing to be right so you can update faster

The real reason Blockbuster lost to Netflix (it wasn't a bad decision)

A 4-part test for telling a temporary shift from a permanent one

Why a "diversified" portfolio might secretly be one big bet right now

This episode is for anyone whose career, portfolio, or plans feel less certain than they used to — a way of thinking that doesn't require predicting the future, just noticing when your old model has stopped working.

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#749: Michael Hingson was on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit on Sept. 11.

He felt the impact, but couldn’t see it. Michael has been blind since shortly after birth.

Alongside his guide dog, Roselle, they descended 1,463 steps – escaping just before the South Tower, 100 yards away, collapsed. They then helped a woman who was temporarily blinded by the dust.

Michael's story answers the question – What do you do when something terrifying is happening, you don't have enough information, you cannot control the outcome, and everyone around you is beginning to panic?

Michael's answer is surprisingly practical.

1. Prepare before you need the preparation.

2. Know what you know, know what you don't know.

3. Stop mentally rehearsing outcomes you cannot control

4. Keep acting on the part that remains within your control.

He had deliberately learned the World Trade Center's exits, emergency procedures, physical layout, and systems long before Sept 11 because he believed that was part of being responsible for his office.

When the building was struck, he describes that preparation as a “mindset” that simply kicked in.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(00:00) Life before September 11

(24:34) The plane hits the North Tower

(34:03) Fear takes over in the stairwell

(1:04:01) Turning tragedy into a new career

(1:28:02) Challenging attitudes about blindness

(1:38:01) Supporting guide dog organizations

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

michaelhingson.com

guidedogs.com

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