Afford Anything

Updated: 24 Jun 2025 • 661 episodes
affordanything.com/podcast

You can afford anything, but not everything. We make daily decisions about how to spend money, time, energy, focus and attention – and ultimately, our life. How do we make smarter decisions? How do we think from first principles? On the surface, Afford Anything seems like a podcast about money and investing. But under the hood, this is a show about how to think critically, recognize our behavioral blind spots, and make smarter choices. We’re into the psychology of money, and we love metacognition: thinking about how to think. In some episodes, we interview world-class experts: professors, researchers, scientists, authors. In other episodes, we answer your questions, talking through decision-making frameworks and mental models. Want to learn more? Download our free book, Escape, at http://affordanything.com/escape. Hosted by Paula Pant.

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#619: Dave is no longer happy with his financial advisor, but he’s nervous about switching over to self-management after being completely hands-off for so long. What should he do? An anonymous caller keeps hearing about the benefits of Cost Segregation for investment property. What is it? And should he apply this strat

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DOWNLOAD the RISK PARITY PORTFOLIO CHEAT SHEET at affordanything.com/riskparity ______________ #618: Frank Vasquez watched his parents, ages 91 and 96, struggle financially in retirement. They were immigrants. His dad was a physician. They raised five kids. They retired in the early 1990’s. But by 2009, they ran out of

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#617: Austin and his wife are worried about moving to a single-income household while supporting two kids. Should they free up cash flow by paying off a car loan, or tighten up and stay the course? Paul has been retired for seven years, but still can’t shake his anxiety about not having enough. Is there a good way to k

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#616: Two school teachers in Ohio saved their entire lives for one dream — buying a farm.  When they inherited $1.3 million and found the perfect property for $1.2 million, everything seemed perfect.  Five days before closing, they received what looked like a legitimate email from their closing company with wire transf

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#615: Emily is nervous that buying their first home will derail her family’s journey to financial independence. What’s the smartest way to deploy their savings and stay on track? Based on cap rate calculations, Paul’s real estate investments have appreciated beyond their sensible holding point. Should he sell his asset

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#614: The US just added 139,000 new jobs in May. That beat expectations. But the real story isn't in the job numbers — it’s in the bond market. Something unusual is happening in bonds. Treasury yields are spiking. The dollar is weakening. That combination almost never happens together. And it's signaling concerns about

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