Money for Life with Eric Roberge, CFP

Latest Episodes:

Understanding Insurance: What You Need and What You Don't Jun 12, 2020

Show notes

In the wake of the pandemic, many people have scrambled to take out insurance policies. But before you buy, make sure you understand the real purpose of a policy so you can choose the best option for your needs.

Insurance is, as Kali puts it, something that can make you go "eurrrgh." It's a product you buy hoping you'll never have to use, which is frustrating enough... but combine it with the fact it forces us to have some really emotional conversations, and it can be tough to think logically about the decision to get a policy.

Today, we're giving you an overview of what to think about as you start protection planning. Specifically, we're taking a look at disability and life insurance, and explaining:

The purpose of this insurance, and what it's designed to protect
How disability insurance works (and why you may not need short-term, but long-term disability can be critical)
Things to consider before buying your disability policy, including elimination periods and riders
Who needs life insurance and why
What to think through when determining how much life insurance coverage is adequate
The kinds of life insurance that are probably most suitable for you (and what's not necessary)
What to watch out for when doing financial planning or buying life insurance (here's a hint: if someone offers you "free" financial planning, run!)

We also talk through the policies we have personally, and our thought process on why they were important to put in place — and we make a movie reference or two along the way.

Ready to educate yourself so you can feel empowered to make strategic, sound decisions around the insurance you need (and the coverage you don't)? Tune in now.

We Bought a House (in a Pandemic). AMA. May 29, 2020

Show notes

39: Buying a house is an intensive (and stressful) process in the best of times. Throw in a crashing economy and global pandemic — and the fact we don't do anything the "normal" way — and our recent experience got pretty interesting.

Okay, to be fair, the pandemic didn't dramatically change much about the process of buying our first home, mainly because we were already in the middle of trying to close on it (so we had already looked for and found the property that we put an offer on and the sellers accepted).

But that's kind of the bigger point: we believe in our planning so much that not even a global pandemic made us change our minds about the long-term decisions that we were making.

In today's episode, we invite you to learn about all the unique, outside-the-box thinking and actions we took to buy our first home together. In this conversation, we'll cover:

Our thought process on getting the most bang for our buck when we decided to purchase real estate
What we prioritized before we agreed we could buy a property and why we still see massive value in renting even now that we're officially home owners
Why we didn't buy in Boston (or anywhere near where we currently live and still rent)
The difference between real estate as an investment, and real estate as a utility — and which one this house is for us
The distinction between luck and skill/smart planning, and what will get the credit if the house ends up being a great investment in 30 years
The financial criteria we had to meet before buying a house was feasible and worked for our financial plan

Finally, we leave you with the biggest lesson we hope you can learn from our experience with the process of buying a house. Curious about what it is? You'll have to tune in to find out.

3 Unexpected Money Lessons from... Robert Frost? May 16, 2020

Show notes

38: You've likely at least heard of Robert Frost's famous poem, The Road Not Taken... and you might be just as likely to misinterpret it. In today's episode, we take a look at the REAL meaning behind one of the best-known pieces of poetry in American history — and explain 3 ways in which it can help us better understand how we look about and think through our personal finances and money management.

It might sound crazy, but jump into this convo with us to learn why Frost's original meaning got lost and what in the heck any of this has to do with how you deal with and make decisions on your money.

5 Ways to Elevate and Optimize Your Finances May 01, 2020

Show notes

37: Let's go beyond the basics to look at how you can optimize your savings, get strategic with debt, and level up how you invest to grow wealth.

There's no shortage of podcasts or blogs that cover simple pieces of advice and the same basic money moves to make: pay down debt, save up cash, invest for the future, and so on.

So today, we want to kick it up a notch and help you see how you can go from good money move, to BETTER move, to best, most optimized strategy to use in your financial plan.

We're going to look at 5 good pieces of financial advice… and then tell you how to optimize each aspect of your financial life. We'll cover:

How to pay off debt in the most efficient way and what you should know before you refinance — and when you might want to leverage debt to grow wealth instead.
The steps to take with your retirement accounts (beyond just saving enough to get the employer match) and how to create a big pool of money in your retirement plan that won't be taxed when you withdraw your funds.
Why you need to balance the temporal weight of your tax liability across present and future.
What you can do to make sure you're truly diversified when you invest, and how to make your investments more tax-efficient (so you keep more of your return in your pocket).
The specific actions you need to take to optimize your investment portfolio.
Things to think through when it comes to maximizing how much money you can earn, through a corporate job or on your own in self-employment.

Ready to optimize your finances and do more with your money?

Following Warren Buffett's Advice, and an Argument for Optimism Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

36: There's a lot of fear and uncertainty in the air right now — which means, if you're following Warren Buffett's advice, it's a good time to get greedy in the stock market.

In this episode of the show, we discuss the opportunity you might want to capitalize on and at the very least, why you should NOT stop making your regular contributions to the market.

Most importantly, we also lay out our argument for why feeling optimistic about the future makes sense for long-term investors. Join us to get some perspective to remember that "right now" does not mean "forever" hear plenty of reasons to feel good about the future.

Can You Have Too Much Cash? (Spoiler: Yes, and It's Risky) Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

Here's what you need to know to determine how much cash you actually need on hand — and what to do with extra funds if you have them.

Most people think you can't have too much cash on hand or in the bank. Cash is king, right? Cash is safe!

The reality is holding too much cash comes with its own set of risks, and you might actually be losing money because of it. Today on the podcast, we explain:

The formula to use to determine how much cash is appropriate to keep on hand
How we chose the exact amount to keep in our emergency fund (and why it's pretty low)
Why too much cash can pose a risk to your long-term goals
The cost of waiting to get your cash working for you as hard as you worked to earn it
Why right now (or when markets are dropping) can be a great opportunity for long-term investors who have extra cash to invest
How loss aversion can stop you from capitalizing on wealth-building opportunities
The perspective you might need to put tough economic times into a more realistic context (which is hard to do when you're going through it)
The right way to deploy cash into the market if you have some extra, but feel afraid of investing when the market is dropping

This episode will explain what you need to know so you can more effectively manage your money to grow your wealth.

Avoiding Short-Term Distractions When You Have Long-Term Goals Mar 06, 2020

Show notes

34: We share a few ideas for better dealing with the coronavirus scare and the current market volatility before diving into this episode that is all about handling these exact kinds of issues that can cause you to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Most people make short-term and limited decisions without considering how these choices impact things to the right, when only looking left. In this rebroadcast, we revisit how to solve that problem.

Financial success is a long-term game, and to win, you need to learn how to maintain your view of the forest that is your entire time horizon of many decades — rather than just pressing your nose up against the tree of today and failing to see anything else but what's right in front of you.

Stop Seeking Perfection with Your Financial Decisions Feb 21, 2020

Show notes

33: When it comes to making financial decisions, most of us want to get things exactly RIGHT. It's your money, after all, and you probably don't want to screw it up!

But aiming for perfection can actually hamstring your progress—and even lead you AWAY from the best financial choices for your goals and the life you would most enjoy experiencing.

In this episode, we talk through what's truly important to understand if you want to improve the quality of the financial decisions you make every day and for the long term.

Find full show notes at www.BeyondYourHammock.com/33

Why You Need Financial POWER (Not Financial Freedom) Feb 07, 2020

Show notes

32: What if the pursuit of financial freedom actually leaves you with fewer options and feeling more stuck than ever before?

The idea of financial independence sounds nice, but it comes with a lot of potential pitfalls that big fans of the "FIRE" movement don't like to talk about.

Today, we're explaining the downsides of financial freedom — and proposing a different strategy that will help you enjoy and experience more in life today AND tomorrow.

It's all about financial POWER. We explore what that means, how it's more effective, and what you can do to build more power into your financial life.

The Most Important Question in Personal Finance: What Is Enough? Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

31: It's extremely simple in theory — but could require a lifetime of experience to answer: What is enough?

The biggest challenge in financial planning lies in striking a balance between living well today (and using your money to accomplish that aim) and planning responsibly for tomorrow (which means saving your money to ensure future financial security).

If you know what "enough" is, then you know how to balance your need to save and invest for your future with the reality that you live your life day by day. Your money is a tool that can be used to achieve BOTH purposes.

We explain more in this episode, and also discuss:

Why frugality isn't an effective operating system forever
How your mindset impacts your ability to financially plan for success
The importance of actually testing ideas, goals, and dreams out and experiencing as much as possible to better understand what you actually want in the future

And more. Jump into the episode to join the conversation and learn how to establish what "enough" is for you.

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