The Dough Roller Money Podcast

With the start of the new year, January is the perfect time to evaluate your finances.  I did this recently, focusing on budgeting. I used to hate budgeting, but now I have a different view of it. I use YNAB, my favorite budgeting software, to make it easier. January is a natural re-set when it comes […] The post 8 Budgeting Moves to Make for 2015 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

The wave of robo-advisors (e.g., Betterment, WealthFront, Personal Capital) have one thing in common–they can’t manage your 401(k) investments. Today I have the opportunity to interview Chris Costello, the co-founder of Blooom. For $15 a month, Blooom will automate the process of selecting an asset allocation and rebalancing your 401(k) investments. It works with just […] The post How to Automate Your 401k–An Interview with Blooom Founder Chris Costello appeared first on The Dough Roller.

A few weeks ago in the Dough Roller weekly newsletter I asked the following question: “What would you do if you came into $10,000?” I received a lot of answers.  What surprised me about the responses were how similar they were.  The varied in the specific details of how people would spend $10,000, but they shared […] The post DR 147: 10 Ways to Invest $10,000 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

How can thinking small help you accomplish big things? Why do most new year’s resolutions fail? And how can you baby step your way to a better 2015? I’ve been spending some time thinking of ways to be more productive. And that’s not about accomplishing everything, but rather accomplishing the most important things. For example, […] The post DR 146: The Power of Daily Goals (and 15 ideas to get you started) appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Investors today must make countless decisions. We have to decide on the type of account to open, where to open it, an asset allocation plan, specific investments, mutual funds vs. ETFs, and the list goes on. It can be overwhelming. This hit home for me recently when I received the following email from a reader: […] The post DR 145: 6 Keys to Successful Investing appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Choosing between competing financial priorities is one of the hardest things to do in all of personal finance. Over the years I’ve received countless email from readers asking variations of the same thing related to financial goals. Should you pay off all of your debts before you begin investing? Should you fully fund your retirement […] The post DR 144: 6 Keys to Setting Financial Priorities appeared first on The Dough Roller.

It’s common financial advice to max out a 401k. Putting as much away in a tax advantaged account as possible is just smart financial planning. There is of course a limit to how much we can contribute each year to a workplace retirement plan. And that has some asking whether they should max out their […] The post DR 143: Should You Max Out Your 401k Early in the Year? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Your credit scores are never more important than when you are about to buy a home. That pesky 3-digit number can lower or raise your interest payments by tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a mortgage. So it was no surprise when a reader named Kelly sent me the following email: I […] The post DR 142–How to Track All 3 of Your Credit Scores appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Financing a car is almost an automatic step. With the cost of the average car in the neighborhood of $32,000, very few people pay cash for a car. Yet this is just one of many times we shouldn’t go with the flow. There are plenty of reasons to pay cash for car, as well as […] The post DR 141-6 Reasons to Pay Cash for a Car (and how to actually do it) appeared first on The Dough Roller.

It’s instructive and even inspiring to look back over the last year to see how you’ve lived. Reflecting on the good times and bad help us learn, grow and improve. So I was grateful to receive this email from a reader named Neil: Are you going to do a Best of 2014 show? I know […] The post DR 140: The Best of 2014 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

The 3% mortgage is back. After years of turmoil in the housing market and recriminations on whose to blame, the low down payment mortgage has surfaced again. The 3% mortgage will mean more flexibility for homebuyers, and in some cases, for those looking to refinance as well. Until now, borrowers had a choice between conventional […] The post DR 139: 3% Mortgages Are Back – Is This a Good Thing? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Wealthfront is the largest and fastest growing automated investment service, with over $1.6 billion under management. And it all happened in just three years! I had a chance to interview Wealthfront CEO, Adam Nash. He shares his insights on the platform, and on investing in general. His educational background is in software and design, but […] The post DR 138: Interview with WealthFront CEO, Adam Nash appeared first on The Dough Roller.

When people talk about early retirement, they often mean at 50 or 55 – and sometimes as early as 45. But today’s podcast interview is with Todd Tresidder, a fascinating guy who managed to get out of the rat race at 35. I interviewed Todd about his life before retirement, what he’s been doing since, […] The post DR 137: Interview with Todd Tresidder, a Former Hedge Fund Partner Who Retired at 35 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

As robo advisers grow in assets under management, more people are beginning to ask if using one is the right strategy. My last podcast on robo-advisors brought this email from a reader named Steve: The other timely podcast was the robo-advisor one. I’m in the process of helping my mom move her accounts from Morgan […] The post DR 136: 5 Reasons Robo Advisors are Worth the Cost appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Imagine going to college while raising a young child. Imaging graduating from school with more than $200,000 in student loans. Imagine starting a new career as a single mom raising three children. Imagine tackling more than $15,000 in credit card debt. I give you Christa Miller. In today’s podcast she shares her story. We talk […] The post DR 135: How a Single Mom of Three is Achieving Financial Freedom–Interview with Christa Miller appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Since starting my small business in 2007, I’ve used a business card for several reasons. My business credit card easily separates personal expenses and business expenses. I use GoDaddy’s online bookkeeping tool. It automatically imports all the charges from my business credit card, so these expenses are exceptionally easy to track. This makes preparing annual […] The post 10 Top Small Business Credit Cards of 2016 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Email is a real pain. Most of us have multiple email accounts. The inbox can easily pile up with junk, often resulting in important email getting lost or forgotten. For many, inbox zero is nothing but a pipe dream. This hit home for me recently.  I have four primary email accounts that I monitor.  One […] The post DR 133: Inbox Zero–A Simple Strategy to Conquer Your E-mail appeared first on The Dough Roller.

The first so called Robo Advisor I recall is Betterment. Several years ago I met its founder, Jon Stein, and recently interviewed him for the podcast. Since then I’ve used or evaluated Motif Investing, Acorns, Wealth Front, Future Advisors, and JemStep. I’ve also used extensively the free Financial Dashboard offered by Personal Capital. It was […] The post DR 132: Robo Advisors–The Pros and Cons appeared first on The Dough Roller.

One of the biggest surprises for me as a blogger was the retirement plan options available to a small business owner. While a 401k maximum contribution is $17,500 (as of 2014) and an IRA is $5,500 (as of 2014), as a small business owner I can sock away more than $50,000 a year. It almost […] The post DR 131: Retirement Plan Options for Small Businesses–An Interview with Fidelity’s Brian Hogan appeared first on The Dough Roller.

The many ways to save money are limited only by our imagination. That’s why I asked the readers of the Dough Roller Newsletter their #1 money saving tip. In past weeks they have given some great replies to other questions: What is your favorite book about money? Where do you keep your emergency fund? What […] The post DR 130: The #1 Way to Save Money Is . . . appeared first on The Dough Roller.