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Do you own a home with a ton of equity? In this episode, I talk about the awesomeness of a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). I cover the pros, cons, and how they compare to other options that may be available to you.

Isai Cortez is a Tax Attorney and owner of Bismark Tax, Inc in Los Angeles, CA. He's also the founder of SynkBooks and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law. Isai shares his story, which goes all the way back to age 4 when his family was in a situation that made him want to be an advocate and help people understand their taxes.  This episode is full of of great stories and advice that spans entrepreneurship, finances, and life.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/isai-bismark-cortez-01048143/ https://app.synkbooks.com/team/ https://bismarktax.com/isai-bismark-cortez-esq/ https://twitter.com/IsaiBCortez

Huge news dropped today regarding student loans. There will be student loan forgiveness! That’s not all, as most people expected, student loan forbearance was extended through December 31st, 2022. Finally, there will be a new income-based repayment plan that will reduce the burden of student loan payments on the remaining balances. The forbearance is pretty self-explanatory, but they included the wording of “final”. They used similar wording with previous extensions but after the forgiveness announcement, it’d be unlikely additional forbearances will occur. Here are the big questions around student loan forgiveness and the details I’ve managed to pull together from multiple sources over the course of the day. I was hoping more logistics would be available, but I’ll keep you in the loop as I find out more.

This was a fun episode to record with my mom, Jessica Casarez, who has been working for the same insurance agency for the last 37 years.Insurance coverage is almost like a foreign language and she does an amazing job and translating and simplifying the information.Topics covered: How much insurance coverage do you need to replace your home? The difference between working with a captive agent and an independent agent. When umbrella coverage is beneficial. Do renters need renters insurance? What does comprehensive vehicle insurance cover? What does collision vehicle insurance cover? Do you need GAP insurance? Does your business need insurance? https://schatzins.com/

Dr. Aimee shares important information about fertility. It's her goal to let as many women avoid saying, I wish I would have known sooner.In this episode Dr. Aimee answers the following questions: The importance of understanding your fertility Alternative options to egg freezing A range of costs associated with egg freezing and alternatives One important thing men should know What if you don't want kids today.... https://twitter.com/_EggWhispererhttps://eggfreezingparty.com/what-is-an-egg-freezing-party

Are you worried about a possible recession? In this episode, I tackle current events that may lead to a recession in 2022 and identify what you need to know to navigate your way through a recession confidently. Inflation The Stock Market Employment Interest Rates Housing Market

Do you need estate documents? I invited my friend and Estate Planning Expert, Will Beyers to shed some light on that answer. Will does a great job summarizing what each document does and provides some context on when and why they will be needed. The documents discussed in this episode are: Wills, Financial Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, and Trusts We also dove into the importance of naming a caregiver if you have children, as well as, why most people drag their feet on setting up their estate documents.  will@beyerslaw.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/williambeyersiii/ https://www.beyerslaw.com/

In her prior career, Kristal worked as a Software Engineer at BuzzFeed and Marqeta, Director of Operations at a cryptocurrency startup, and as an assistant to executives and leadership at Uber, Affirm, and Sledgehammer Games. She served the largest Latinx in tech community, Techqueria, as a community leader and helped to grow and nurture the community by thousands of additional members. https://joinyearone.io https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgarcia4/ https://twitter.com/kristal_s_ kristal@joinyearone.io

Do you know all of the amazing benefits and flexibility of an HSA (Health Savings Account)?The best features are that they are triple tax-free: Tax-Reduction on contributions Tax-Free growth Tax-Free withdrawals That's not all. There could be real savings just by comparing a high deductible health plan to a pricier option.In this episode, I tackle a framework I use to help clients make an informed decision on whether they should use an HSA.

Purchasing a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make, but the significant debt you accrue in the form of a mortgage can sometimes carry a lot of emotional baggage.In this episode, I acknowledge some of the reasons people want to pay off their mortgages, but my recommendation a majority of the time is to NOT pay off their mortgage faster than they need to.I'll cover 5 major reasons NOT to pay off your mortgage early. The 4th one is maybe one of the biggest reasons, but no one ever talks about it. 🤔 You can explore this topic more by Podcast or Video by clicking the link below.https://youtu.be/baEWikJ3Bu4https://www.levelupfinancialplanning.com/5-reasons-not-to-pay-off-your-mortgage-early/

Jonathan Jennings is a software engineer who works in the AR, VR, and videogame spaces and currently helming his indie VR game at Weird Kid Studios named Galactic Bar fight. He’s been a guest lecturer at University and National Conferences. His first published essay Black Unicorn is available to read in the book Game Devs & Others: Tales From The Margins. He’s been involved in multiple development roles including rapid prototyping, core mechanic programming, user Interface engineering, multiplayer programming, and publishing processes for release among others. He has over 9 years of development across both games and VR / MR / AR applications experience and titles he has worked on have had over 2 million cumulative downloads across several platforms. When not working he is most likely playing and studying the latest giant mainstream release or an obscure indie game.Galactic Bar Fight : https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/4219555588059267/?locale=en_US Weird Kid Studios: https://www.weirdkidstudios.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/notifications/ Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Jonathan-Jennings-5 Portfolio: https://www.behance.net/Jonathanj Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonnyJ17

The Backdoor ROTH is an advanced planning strategy for high earners and big savers. Should you use a Backdoor ROTH?Two reasons why you'd use a Backdoor ROTH strategy is:1. You are phased out of making ROTH Contributions due to your high income.2. You are a big saver and have already maxed out your 401(k) contributionsThe process to implement a Backdoor ROTH will depend on if you are doing the smaller Backoor ROTH or the MEGA Backoor ROTH.I also cover the biggest mistake I see when people attempt a Backoor ROTH without assistance. The pain in the butt "pro-rata rule".This is not a ROTH vs. Traditional debate. You can max out all traditional contributions if that is your tax strategy and then take advantage of the Backdoor ROTH strategies!

My guest today is Gina Covarrubias, Certified Life Coach, B.S. Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering (Purdue University), M.S. Mechanical Engineering (University of Utah) Her distinctive background blends life coaching expertise with 12+ years engineering/technology experience in government, academia and corporate aerospace. Gina founded Deliberate Doing LLC, an exclusive STEM coaching service dedicated to helping technical professionals defeat career despair. She solves the common STEM problem: “What is next for my life?” As a former engineer, she can identify with technical experts who question their personal or professional existence. Her function as an Engineering Life Coach is to teach mental strength and conditioning. Just as electronic gadgets require upgrades and reboots, so does your brain. Gina invites you to connect with her for free coaching to start your own mental upgrade today! deliberatedoing.com/events (for free upcoming webinars),deliberatedoing.com/resources (for free self-help videos and career blog) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginacovarrubias/

Join me as I interview a real estate expert, Patrick Soukup of Soukup Real Estate Services in Fort Collins, CO.We cover a wide range of topics from real estate as an investment and personal residence. Patrick also shares his insights on whether we are in a real estate bubble, how to search for a home when you're out of state, and his real estate investment philosophy. https://www.soukuprealestate.com/our-teamhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-soukup-cpm-36497225/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqjpWM9lXcMIEMktSjR_DCg

Orlando shares his journey from finance, Peace Corp, back to finance and then breaking into tech by writing a jingle.Despite having an MBA and finance background, it took him over 8 months to break into tech.To stand out from the crowd, Orlando wrote Jingles and leveraged Twitter to directly connect with companies.Orlando Gomez is a First-gen Mexican-American from Chicago's South Side. Parents are from Guanajuato and his Dad settled here as a steelworker after working the fields in California. He brought my mom over and I was born here.  Orlando received his Bachelor's in Business Management from Robert Morris University-Illinois in Chicago, then went to work at a Walmart store in Columbus, Ohio.  He realized retail wasn't for me and soon after switched to finance.  He received his investment licenses at Charles Schwab in Indianapolis, then moved back to Chicago to work in Private Wealth (Credit Suisse). After private wealth, he joined the Peace Corps and lived in the sierra of Peru for two years advising small businesses, teaching youth entrepreneurship, leading financial literacy workshops, and starting a baseball little league.  He came back to the US and started business school at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and that eventually took him to Investment Banking in NYC (CS - Industrials).  The shift to WFH enabled him to return to Chicago where he set out to explore opportunities in Tech and eventually landed at Drift helping build out their Drift for Startups program. https://www.drift.com/startups/https://twitter.com/OrlandoGomezzzhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/orlandogomez13/

I'm a big fan of 401(k) loans, but they shouldn't be taken out lightly.In this episode, I cover the basic rules of a 401(k) loan, the pros, and the cons. 

Josiah Haswell, in addition to being a good friend, is the CoFounder of Sunshower. IO. The first comprehensive, provider-agnostic cloud management platform. In this episode, you will hear how Josiah shifted from corporate tech to being an employee at Startups and ultimately starting up his own companies. Like any business, startup life ebbs and flows, and Josiah shares some of the challenges, he’s faced with his startups over the years. Without further ado, here is Josiah’s interview. Discovering the power of software Unique contrast between old tech and new tech Vetting a cofounder Hiring and firing as a startup founder Importance of sales for a business https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiah-haswell-4b116823/ https://sunshower.io/

If you are anything like my family, your spending habits have changed significantly during the pandemic. If you managed to maintain employment throughout this whole period, then you may have found that your savings accounts actually increased.   Or maybe you are a stress shopper and managed to find more ways to spend money now that you have more time on your hands.   Either way, your spending habits are likely to change again as we approach what will be a new normal.   How have your spending habits changed during the pandemic?

Make SMART Financial Moves in 2021 We made it to 2021! A year like 2020 stretched us thin in many aspects of our lives and that may have included your finances. If you feel you can improve on your finances in 2021 and want to make it a priority, I want to provide you a framework to get started in 2021.  Improving your finances is more than dollars and cents, which is why it is so important to start with a vision... a purpose….. a why…... Call it what you want, but you need to focus on what you actually care about. The best way to hone in on this is by reflecting on your life and what gives you the most joy and what you value the most.  What will your life look like if you improve your finances? How will you feel with finances that are in better shape? What else is possible if you can take control of your financial situation? Next, you need to plan. Sustainable improvements do not happen by accident. You need to create a plan that allows you to be successful. You’ve probably heard of making SMART goals. The reason for having SMART goals is so you have a roadmap on how to achieve your goals, which will make it easier for you to get started and easily track your progress. Let’s break down SMART goals. Specific: It needs to be as specific as possible. The vaguer you are, the less you’ll care about actually achieving it.  Non-Specific Example: I would like to be better with my finances Specific Example: I will pay off all of my credit card debt. Measurable: The nice thing about finances, is it can be easily measured. With debts, we want to see the number go down. With assets, we want that number to go up. Additionally, when you can measure progress, you can create byte-sized goals to achieve along the way.  Non-Measuable Example: I want to feel better about my finances.  Measurable Example: I would like to contribute 10% of my income towards my 401(k) Attainable: You want to believe that you are capable of achieving your goal. Did you know that confidence in being successful is a big factor in actually being successful? If it’s a pipe dream, then you likely won’t even try. Non-Attainable: I want to make a million dollars this year without having to work. Attainable Example: I want to increase my earning power by 10%. Relevant: You have to care about your goal. If it’s not relevant to what you care about, then you won’t put in the work to make it happen, or worse, you’ll invest your time, energy, and money into something you didn’t even want. Non-Relevant Example: I want to get a master’s degree because it’s what you’re supposed to do for your current career trajectory, but you really want to make a career change. Relevant Example: I want to attend a Tech Bootcamp so I can make a career change into a field that I’m excited about. Time-Based: Deadlines help us be more productive. Without a time constraint and because of human nature, we’re more likely to put off starting in the first place. Non-Time-Based Example: I would like to get married soon. Relevant Example: I would like to get married next year.  All of these examples are from conversations I’ve had with clients. It’s amazing how making SMART goals help you start to build the life you actually want to create and stop saying one day I’ll …… or it would be nice to …….

Michael Liendo recorded a live stream with me for this episode. Michael is a self-taught developer who is currently a senior software engineer and AWS community builder. In this episode, Michael shares his career journey and how his family has been a massive motivation in not only breaking into tech but also not settling for positions that are not a good fit, even if it comes with a lot of perks. As well as, the tips and tricks he's used to constantly find the next level of growth opportunities.Here are a few of the fun topics Michael covers: Being a self-taught developer Rapid prototyping and learning Finding a good fit and ways to prepare to walkway if it's not The AWS Community TDD (Talk Driven Development)  Why he creates content Knowing when to ask for help Importance of communication Navigating parenthood https://twitter.com/mtliendohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mtliendo/https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelLiendo