Afford Anything | Get Smarter With Money

#746: We begin today’s episode with a discussion of the disastrous flash flooding in Nepal, a personal topic for Paula given her family there. There’s both a human story, one of the resilience of the Nepalese people and the strong community bonds there, and an economic story, where poor infrastructure and a lack of economic development have hindered disaster response and exacerbated the tragedies of recent events.

Listeners can donate to help the victims here:

The Prime Minister Relief Fund: https://pmdrf.nchl.com.np/

Caritas Nepal: https://www.caritasnepal.org/donate-now/

Learn more about the ongoing rescue efforts at https://help.ekantipur.com/

A caller wants to put part of her mom's $80,000 home-sale proceeds into an annuity — and it left her financial-planner co-host doing a double take. Turns out it might be the first caller in the show's history the product was actually built for.

This week's Q&A tackles two retirement questions from listeners: when it makes sense to ease off maxing out a 401k in favor of a more flexible brokerage account, and whether a guaranteed-income annuity is the right move for a retiree who isn't great at managing money on her own.

In this episode, we discuss:

How to know when to stop maxing out your 401k and start filling a taxable brokerage account instead

The real "deal" you're making with the government every time you use a tax-advantaged account

Why an insurance company can keep 100% of the money if the annuity holder dies too soon — and how to avoid it

The one type of person a guaranteed-income annuity is actually built for

A simple daily habit trick for building consistency, borrowed from a world-class choreographer

Why doing everything right doesn't guarantee a good outcome, and what that means for your own decisions

What Nepal's disaster response reveals about the real payoff of economic development

Whether you're mapping out an early-retirement bridge or helping a parent build guardrails around a windfall, this episode will help you think more clearly about the trade-offs each option carries.

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Not sure which investments belong in your 401k, your Roth, or your taxable account? Grab our free guide to figuring out where each one goes: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

👉 Morgan Housel on the split-second decision that changed everything: https://affordanything.com/488-gut-instincts-and-big-decisions-with-morgan-housel/

👉 Our interview with retirement researcher Dr. Wade Pfau on annuities and retirement income: https://affordanything.com/271-retirement-planning-in-2020-with-dr-wade-pfau/

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#745: A friend once asked Sahil Bloom how often he saw his parents. About once a year, Sahil said.

How old are they? Mid-60s.

His friend did the math out loud. If they live to 80, you'll see them 15 more times.

Sahil was 30, living in California and making great money at a venture fund. Within 45 days of that conversation, he quit his job, sold his house and moved across the country to be near family.

He's now managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage fund backing more than 60 startups, and he writes The Curiosity Chronicle, a newsletter read by millions. His book, "The 5 Types of Wealth," is a New York Times bestseller.

His framework starts with a scoring problem. Financial wealth gets measured every day. Time, social, mental and physical wealth run in the background, unmeasured, until something forces you to look.

You'll get exercises for each. Build an energy calendar that tracks which activities charge you up and which drain you.

Map your relationships by how healthy and how frequent they are. Ask what your family and your community need from you. Define what "enough" means in dollars, then write the number down.

Sahil also walks through anti-goals — the things you refuse to sacrifice on the way to a goal — and Memento Mori, the Roman habit of keeping your own death in view.

Two questions run underneath all of it. Think about how you spent yesterday. Would your 10-year-old self be impressed? Would your 90-year-old self?

You don't experience all four seasons in a single day. Sahil argues your life runs on seasons too. Some stretches call for financial growth. Others call for family.

Find Sahil at the5typesofwealth.com.
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#744: With about $200 and a crypto exchange, historian Joseph Moore turned himself into a legitimate billionaire — a stunt that says more about how money actually works than most financial advice does. It's also a preview of the 300-year argument he makes in this episode: that almost everything we're told about money is newer, and far less permanent, than we think.Joseph Moore, PhD, is a historian and the national bestselling author of How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't). His own self-experiments with historical money strategies helped him become financially independent in his mid-40s.

In this episode, we discuss:

How "never save your money" used to be completely reasonable financial advice

Why bonds quietly beat stocks for nearly all of the 1800s

How to spot when today's "obvious" financial rules are about to expire

Why real estate booms always show up right alongside inflation spikes

Why young people's unemployment is outpacing everyone else's — and what history says to do about it

Why economic optimism and economic data have stopped matching up

Why building more housing is the only housing-crisis fix that's ever actually worked

This one's for anyone who feels like the rules of money keep changing under them — because they do, and always have. Understanding that pattern is the first step to building wealth in whatever era you happen to be living in.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(05:18) How a runaway slave built his own legal currency

(06:52) How he legally declared himself a crypto billionaire

(13:22) Why a fifth of the Smithsonian's money collection is fake

(15:52) The bestselling book that told readers to commit fraud

(20:10) The decades when bonds quietly beat stocks

(26:04) How his grandfather secretly became a bond millionaire

(31:09) Why that "$10K in 1929" chart is misleading

(48:02) Why wages are up 50% and nobody believes it

(1:06:39) Why most Americans once owned one shirt

(1:23:48) The rent control law that backfired for renters

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Build a Life of Financial Freedom with our free workbook: https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Joseph Moore's site — his book, essays, and more: https://www.josephmoorebooks.com

👉 Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez: https://vickirobin.com/your-money-or-your-life/

👉 The Latte Factor by David Bach: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Latte-Factor/David-Bach/9781982120245
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#743: Everyone talks about a loneliness epidemic — but Luke Burgis argues the opposite problem is just as real: we now have so much easy, frictionless community that we never have to develop a solid sense of who we actually are.

Luke Burgis is a professor of business at The Catholic University of America and the founder of the Cluny Institute, and the bestselling author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. He returns to the show to talk about his new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine.

In this episode, we discuss:



Why having too much easy community can be just as damaging as having none at all



How to tell whether your beliefs are actually yours — or something you inherited without ever examining it



Why cutting people off has quietly become the default response to conflict



How to stop shrinking yourself just to keep other people comfortable



The zero-tolerance rule Luke enforces at his own company to kill passive-aggressiveness before it starts



How Luke actually decides who to trust, hire, and build relationships with



What an existential crisis at 29 — and five humbling years training for the priesthood — taught a successful entrepreneur about identity

This episode is for anyone who feels the pull between fitting in and standing out — in your family, your workplace, or your online life. Luke offers a way to build an identity solid enough to hold up under pressure, without giving up on real community.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(7:42) Two competing drives wired into every human being

(10:11) Why group pressure breaks some people and not others

(17:39) Why cutting people off replaced working through conflict

(19:39) The real number of close friends you actually need

(26:51) Where your beliefs actually came from

(32:00) You're not responsible for how someone else feels

(36:09) The zero-tolerance workplace rule against passive-aggressiveness

(41:22) How to actually tell who you can trust

(53:33) The existential crisis that sent an entrepreneur toward the seminary

(55:39) The humbling lesson hidden in a vending machine

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 This free 10-day workbook helps you trace your money habits back to whether they're actually yours — starting with your own money mindset — https://affordanything.com/fiire

👉 Luke's website (books, newsletter, and more) — https://lukeburgis.com

👉 Luke's new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion — https://www.amazon.com/One-Ninety-Nine-Forging-Identity-Contagion/dp/1250373034

👉 Paul Graham's essay "Cities and Ambition," on how the place you live shapes what you want — https://paulgraham.com/cities.html

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#742: A listener hit her $1.4 million early-retirement goal three years ahead of schedule — and now she's stuck deciding whether paying off a low-interest mortgage is smart, or just fear in disguise. Later, a former financial planner explains why he still won't recommend one of the most talked-about "safer" investing strategies in the FIRE community.

This week's Q&A tackles three listener questions: hiring your first accountant amid a complicated tax situation, whether to pay off a mortgage or retire early once you've already hit your number, and why one half of the show won't touch a popular alternative investing strategy.

In this episode, we discuss:

How to tell the difference between a CPA, an EA, and a tax attorney — and which one you actually need

Why software can't keep up once your tax situation gets complicated

How to interview and choose an accountant with confidence

How to know if "one more year" at work is a smart plan or a sign of fear

Why loving your job can change the entire math on early retirement

Why a former financial planner still won't recommend risk parity investing

What four well-known investing philosophies get right — and where they disagree

Whether you're hiring your first accountant, staring down an early retirement decision, or trying to make sense of competing investment philosophies, this episode will help you separate genuine progress from comfortable procrastination.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

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

(04:02) Why software can't handle a messy tax situation

(08:02) The three types of tax pros — and who you actually need

(12:46) How to interview and choose the right accountant

(24:42) She hit her $1.4M goal three years early

(32:22) The hidden fear behind "one more year" at work

(38:29) Why loving your job changes the retirement math

(49:39) Why a former advisor won't touch risk parity

(53:46) Four investing legends who all disagree with each other

(59:35) The historian's warning: history doesn't repeat itself

(1:07:57) The cooking analogy that explains your portfolio

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED

👉 Not sure which investments belong in your Roth vs. your taxable account? Grab our free one-page guide to where each type of investment should sit: https://affordanything.com/assetlocation

Karsten Jeske ("Big ERN"):

👉 "How to Lie with Personal Finance – Part 4: Risk Parity": https://earlyretirementnow.com/2026/07/29/risk-parity-lies/

👉 "Can We Increase the Safe Withdrawal Rate with Risk Parity? – SWR Series Part 64": https://earlyretirementnow.com/2026/07/27/risk-parity-swr-series-part-64/

👉 #548: Is Your Retirement Safe in Today's Economy?: https://affordanything.com/548-is-your-retirement-safe-in-todays-economy-with-dr-karsten-jeske-big-ern/

👉 #643: LIVESTREAM: A Former Fed Economist Reveals What's Really Happening: https://affordanything.com/643-livestream-a-former-fed-economist-reveals-whats-really-happening-with-karsten-jeske-big-ern/

Nick Maggiulli:

👉 #375: The 2X Rule (and Other Wealth-Accelerating Advice): https://affordanything.com/375-the-2x-rule-and-other-wealth-accelerating-advice-with-nick-maggiulli/

👉 #629: The Wealth Ladder Has Six Rungs (and Most People Never Climb Past Four): https://affordanything.com/629-nick-maggiulli-the-wealth-ladder-has-six-rungs-and-most-people-never-climb-past-four/

Frank Vasquez:

👉 #618: How to Retire at 50 While Supporting Aging Parents: https://affordanything.com/618-how-to-retire-at-50-while-supporting-aging-parents-with-frank-vasquez/

👉 His podcast, Risk Parity Radio: https://www.riskparityradio.com

JL Collins:

👉 #624: JL Collins Part 1 – The Simple Path vs. The "Optimal" Path: https://affordanything.com/624-jl-collins-part-1-the-simple-path-vs-the-optimal-path/

👉 #625: JL Collins Part 2 – What Happens When You Don't Need to Work Anymore?: https://affordanything.com/625-jl-collins-part-2-what-happens-when-you-dont-need-to-work-anymore/

Paul Merriman:

👉 #550: Paul Merriman – The 4-Fund Strategy That Beats the S&P 500: https://affordanything.com/550-paul-merriman-the-4-fund-strategy-that-beats-the-sp-500/

👉 #590: Small Cap Showdown! Paul Merriman vs. Dr. Karsten Jeske: https://affordanything.com/affordanything-com-small-cap-value-debate/

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