You Need A Budget (YNAB‪)‬ Jesse Mecham

Jesse chats with author Mary Marantz about her book Dirt, the story of her life journey growing up in poor, rural West Virginia to eventually attending Yale Law. Mary grew up with a strong, hard working father who instilled in her a vigorous work ethic and a love for her hometown. Dirt is the story of Mary reckoning with the good and bad of her upbringing, and how it shaped her into the woman she is today.

Student loan payments have been frozen for several months due to COVID-19, but that doesn't mean your budget has to be frozen. Jesse strategizes ways for you to address student loans during the grace period.

Jesse chats with Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, two time management experts and the hosts of the Best of Both Worlds Podcast, a show all about balancing busy lives and careers.  Sarah is a pediatric endocrinologist while Laura is a writer (and author of I Know How She Does It), and both of them are also busy mothers. While they approach the challenges of time management with different strategies, they are both experts in making things fit in a busy life without getting burned out.

Whether it's because of changing careers, preparing for a child, or some other life event, you and your partner may need to downsize from two incomes to one. This has a major impact to your budget! But, with some planning, you can make a smooth transition. The easiest way, Jesse says, is to live on a single income before actually losing the second income.

New York Times columnist and bestselling author Ron Lieber joins the podcast for a frank discussion about the ever rising cost of college and whether it's even a good idea for young people today. Evaluating the true cost of college, as it turns out, is essentially a budgeting exercise. There's the sticker price for tuition and room and board, but the real analysis lies in examining the hidden costs, as well as the hidden benefits. Ron Lieber helps us break those down and demystify the college problem.

Buying a house is a stressful experience, especially in the current market where low supply and high demand have pushed prices up and up. Naturally, house shoppers worry about overpaying for a house, or whether they've overpaid for a house they've already bought. We'd all like to perfectly time the market and buy at the lowest possible point, but it's very difficult to do.