NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - $10,000 Lands in a Teen's Account — Here's What to Do First

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Learn what to do when your teen receives a windfall and how to balance saving, investing, and giving. What's the smartest way to help your teenager manage $10,000 to $15,000 in unexpected cash — without turning the conversation into a lecture? Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola sit down with personal finance Nerd Kate Ashford to answer listener Deb's question about her teen recently receiving a large sum as gifts after a life milestone. They dig into the biggest mistakes families make when a windfall hits, how to start the money talk in a way that actually sticks, and which financial tools and accounts could give your kid a head start on building wealth far earlier than most adults ever do. Subscribe to our podcast’s free email newsletter for bonus content and more from our hosts at https://smartmoney-nerdwallet.beehiiv.com/  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You suddenly, unexpectedly, find yourself the proud owner of $15,000. What's the first thing you do with that money? Book a wild vacation, invest in the stock market, blow it all on a fun weekend with your friends? This episode will help you make the most of a windfall. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. This episode, we are actually here to answer a question about a teen, yes, a teenager.

receiving a windfall. What a dream. A dream I will never realize. Now, if y'all listen to the show often, you know I definitely romanticize windfalls because who doesn't want to get a big bulk of money? Who doesn't want to get that? Anyways, all right, let me get on to the question. Our young team just celebrated a life cycle event and received a large amount of money as gifts. What are some tips to talk to her about managing this windfall? We'd like to balance the values of giving some of it to charity, using some of it just as fun money, saving for a bigger item, like a special event like concert tickets, and maybe an introduction to investing or other long-term goals. On a related note, what should we be looking for as parents of a teen in terms of bank accounts or other investment tools

and encouraging her to become more financially savvy and eventually more independent? The total amount is $10,000 to $15,000. The money will not be needed for college as we have a lot. a robust 529 account, but I can imagine other listeners might want to hear about how it could be used for that kind of goal. Thank you, Deb. To help us answer Deb's question, we're joined by Kate Ashford, friend of the pod and writer at NerdWallet. Kate, welcome back to Smart Money. Hi, Sean and Elizabeth. So let's get into the windfall idea. A windfall, especially one of 10,000 or $15,000, is a really, really exciting thing to come into. And I imagine this amount of money might

even be a little hard to comprehend for a teen or honestly for most people who haven't come into this before. So let's start by talking about some general best practices around how to manage Owen Fall. Kate, how can Deb's kid make best use of this money to hopefully accomplish multiple things at once? So this is a good problem to have, right? Yes. A fun problem to have, really. A fun problem to have. And Elizabeth, you could still win the lottery. It's not over for you. Oh my God, Kate. Stop it. Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? just a few days ago, I was like, I got it. It was intuition. It was the Lord. It was something. It said, go to the gas station and get you a lottery ticket, girl. So I'm going after we're done to go get me a lottery

ticket. Thank you for the reminder. We should all. We should all go. So in terms of this windfall, again, like a nice situation to be in, the first thing is probably to stash this money in like a high yield savings account short term. Don't just let it sit around your house and cash or check form, put it someplace safe so that you can make a plan for what you want to do with it. And then you can talk through your goals, right? This family is not in need of college funds, but maybe someone else might want to put some of this toward college. They might want to put some toward a first car. They might be thinking about a first home, particularly in this market, think about what you're trying to accomplish if you had a big chunk of money. And I think it's important also to designate a little

percentage, maybe 10%, 15% for something fun. I think that's a good, Rule of thumb for windfall is generally a bonus or tax refund. Take a little bit of it. Do something, you know, whimsical or just for yourself and be responsible with the rest of it. Being responsible with the whole thing is just. That's not very fun at all. I imagine if Deb's team doesn't have a high-lid savings account, this could actually spur a lot of conversations around the best place to store your money like this. Absolutely.

Yeah, this is a good teaching learning tool for so many reasons. High-y-l savings accounts are a nice thing to learn about. Nerd wallet, of course, has a good. a good list of the best high-old savings accounts out there so you can choose one and stash your money there. And it's a nice way to watch your money grow. So that's a good thing to think about. But I do like your suggestion of maybe breaking this up by percentages. So I like minimum 10% going towards something fun. And then you can break out different percentages for the more responsible goals. You can maybe have a short-term goal, like a summer concert, and then maybe a medium-turn goal

of, okay, you want to buy a car in the next year and the longer term. This could be the beginning of this teen's retirement fund that could potentially open some sort of account that would turn into that later on. Yeah, this is enough money that you could do obviously multiple things with it. You don't have to decide you're going to do 10% and take a nice trip and use 90% for something else. You can really break this up into various things you want to do with it. Well, we've briefly talked about what you should do or could do with a windfall. I want to get into what you should not do. And you guys know, I love me a data point. So, um, got. your notebook out here, Elizabeth.

Got my little nerd wallet notebook out. So a study by researchers at Texas Tech and the University of Alabama found that 42% of airs spend their inheritance within one year. Okay. So I think your tips that you're going to provide here, Kate, will be helpful in terms of things people should not do. Oh, that's one of them. Don't get rid of it right away.

I mean, everyone has read the stories about the lottery winners who win $50 million dollars and in two years it's gone. We're all like how, but people find a way. Yeah, this is really common with life insurance as well. I sadly had a family member who didn't have a lot of money with their husband. Their husband passed away. They came into a quarter of a million dollars. And within a year, it was all gone because a lot of people came out of the woodwork when they

learned that this relative had life insurance money coming in. And they all queued up and said, can I have some? And unfortunately, they said yes to the point where now they're back to where they started before they got any of this money. That's sad. Take some time. Take three months. Take six months. Just sit on that money because depending on how you came into this money, your emotions might be running high.

It could be because there's been a death in the family. It could be because you've had a big event. Even if you won the lottery, you're feeling pretty crazy. So, you know, set it somewhere until your emotions can settle down. It's also important to think about taxes. This is gift cash. So there's not going to be taxes owed on this. But in the case of a life insurance money and inheritance lottery, there might be.

So you should make sure you understand what kind of money you're dealing with before you start spending it in your head. There's also some advice to be had in not committing to permanent lifestyle upgrades because this is one-time money. So you don't want to set something up that you've got to pay for over time. This money is going to run out and you're still going to be paying for this thing. So it's a better idea to spend this kind of money on something like, saving for an event or paying something down or setting up an emergency fund, taking a trip, something finite, rather than getting into lifestyle creep. And then obviously, like, make a plan.

Don't just not plan at all. Don't just put that money away and think to yourself, I'll get to it, because that's a really easy way for that money to disappear without you doing anything purposeful with it. Yeah, and I'll reiterate that on top of everything you just said, Kate, don't tell people about the amount of money that you're coming into because a lot of folks might get the wrong idea. about their entitlement to it. Yes, give me, give me once they know that you got it, you know. And then they're mad that you don't want to give them because, well, you got it.

Yeah, it's mine, not yours. And that's not to say you can't be generous with the money that you get. I mean, if I came into a good amount of money, I would probably be taking my friends out for a nice meal to celebrate. I might go on a vacation and pay for some of that for my friends just to be generous and to share the wealth. But there's a difference between that and then feeling obligated to get people money for things that they maybe don't really need.

Oh, my God. The meme that just popped into my head that I see often is like, if I come across a lot of money, a lot of money, there will be signs, you know, in the lifestyle changes. So maybe I start with king flashier. Maybe I have, you know, a couple more matches in the morning. Hey. Well, what I appreciate about Deb's question is that they seem like a really proactive parent and they want their kid to understand the opportunities that come with a big windfall like this. So to Deb's question, how should they begin this conversation with their kid? because I imagine you wouldn't want to be too prescriptive with the teen about what they should or shouldn't do with this money because then they're going to want to do just the opposite.

If this turns into a lecture on money, your teen is going to tune out pretty quickly. I mean, they're going to tune you out most of the time anyway. You're speaking from experience here. I'm speaking. I'm speaking for it. You have a finite window in which they're listening to you when it's shorter than you think. I think it's helpful to talk about buckets of money. I think people understand the concept of a bucket for different categories.

So maybe there's a bucket for that fun thing to enjoy, a bucket for some kind of future goal. Maybe there's a bucket to save or invest some of it. These parents also mentioned charitable giving. So that's another useful bucket. And these can be any size you like. There are good lessons for learning to manage each kind of these buckets. I do think you can talk about the fact that the average adult doesn't have this much saved. Fact.

Like, this is more than the average adult has in savings. And it's pretty special to have choices with this kind of money at this. age. Like, this doesn't happen for most people. So if they do want to set some of it aside for the future, even like $1,000, it might be really fun to see how much that grows over a few decades. I mean, if you're 13, you've got a lot of time. Yeah. And with that, I would recommend folks check out NerdWallets investment calculator. So you can see, okay, if I invest $1,000 and I'm 15 years old, what's that going to be when I'm 65 years old given an average rate of return? You will be shocked at how big that number is going to be. And we'll link to the

that calculator in the show notes. I'm just thinking about little Elizabeth and how excited I would have been if I had that calculator, well, access to it at that age and being able to see how my money could grow, right? Kay, I wanted to ask you something from mom to mom because I'm trying to teach my son, I owe money lessons here. And he is, I'm not so happy to say that he is motivated by Teslas. So we're trying to change the brand here, but he's motivated by Teslas. But I have found when We have money conversations. He's eight. And I tell him, hey, you know, if you work hard and you save and you manage your money,

maybe not a Tesla, but we can get a nice car when we get older. And that really does keep him motivated and go, well, like, I want to have this thing. I don't know your approach with your kids. But anyway, my point is maybe for teens who come across a windfall or anyone at all, just having something that motivates you financially versus preaching might help them to make smart financial decisions, right? I think all teens are motivated by money. I feel like. And, you know, my girls have had to handle money.

They've made from their summer jobs, their summer camp counselors. They babysitting pays pretty well. They cat sit. They dog walk, you know, all sorts of things. They have more money than you'd think saved. And I encourage them to, in the same way that we're talking about buckets here, to categorize that. We use an app with them actually. And there's a place for them to put their longer term savings.

There's a place for them to put giving money. And there's short-term money they can use if they want to get. boba tea after school. So it's a nice way for them to practice. Do you get any kind of resistance from your kids around this? Do they just sometimes think, okay, whatever, Mom, I'm going to go spend this money on

way more boba tea than I can ever consume just because I'm feeling reckless and I'm a teenager? No, actually, my girls are more likely to say, please, Mom, won't you buy the boba tea? I would rather... Oh, cool. Oh, my God. I all had like, let's say, he has saved a good amount, maybe like $80 in his piggy bank or something. And when it came time for him to spend his money,

he would say, no, he wants me to spend my money. I'm like, no, but you have $80. Why did you want to spend my money? I was like, well, now you know how it feels when you keep asking me to buy stuff with my money. But it's such a great lesson, right? Yeah, yeah. We have conversations about, you know,

I, we pay for essentials. They pay for the non-essentials at this juncture. So my 15-year-old called me another day. She had set up an Amazon list and she was like, which of these do you consider a essential? Some of them were, some of them were like, you know, products I would have gotten for her anyway, you know, she needs shampoo. But some of them, I was like, nope, this is on your dime. And she was like, okay, she sent the stuff to me to buy and she bought her own little cart.

So it's, she separates it out. I so appreciate how responsible that is because when I was a teenager, I wasn't having conversations like this with my parents. I didn't have access to money like this. and what little I earn from odd jobs here and there, kind of just went towards gas from my car, Taco Bell. I would love to hear Kate and Elizabeth what you would have done with $10,000 or $15,000 in that age. I would have set it aside to travel. I definitely had a bug and I definitely used money.

I made it jobs in college to travel. And I definitely went into some debt in some places. So I think I would have set some of that aside for travel. And the rest I would have spent on like gum. Gum? Like chewing on? I bet that's so wholesome, though. I love that.

I grew up in rural Virginia friends. They're, you know, not a lot to do down there. Hmm, what would I have spent the money on? As a teenager, I was obsessed with sneakers. I had a whole collection, especially Converse sneakers. I had them in every single color. I also was obsessed with changing my hair every two weeks. At 12 years old, I learned how to braid my own hair.

I started doing all the kids at school's hair, and then I had my own clients. So throughout my teens, that was my hustle. And I made hundreds of dollars doing that. All my money went to clothes shoes and changing my hair. So I would have probably spent the money on that too. Well, hey, you could have opened a business with that seed money. Right? Exactly.

And at that time, I did want to be actually a salon owner, but look at how your life changes. Now here I am on the podcast. Great past still. It's not too late. If you come into a windfall, maybe you win that lottery ticket and you'll open the salon. My hand cramps say no, but yes, good thought. Thank you. Yeah, that's totally fair.

Well, I so appreciate how many more tools there are at teens and parents' disposal nowadays to be responsible and to have these conversations and facilitate strategic savings. So that brings me to the second part of Deb's question, which is about other financial tools that they can maybe use to set their TNP for success. So, Kate, you have teens, as we've discussed, what kinds of tools are you using and what's maybe not been as effective that's out there that you think people might come across? So the thing that we're not using that we should be using is a checking account with a debit card, which we tried forever to think about setting up. And for some reason, inertia could not do it. So we actually use an app. We use an app called Greenlight. And it's like a little fee every month.

And they have a debit card that goes to a Greenlight account that I can put money in. They can put money in so that I can just send them their allowance. I can tie allowance of chores. It's actually a pretty nice little app allows them to sort of see their money. same way that they would be looking at money in a checking account. So I kind of see it like a checking account. It's functionally the same, right? Functionally the same.

Because no one is spending cash now. I never had cash to give them. People are using plastic. So they got to manage their money, manage their balance, understand what they were doing when they handed a plastic card to someone. It helped make that part of spending real versus not really understanding the concept of owing the money that you're swiping the card for. Did you ever think about going all cash?

or having a period where they were dabbling with how to use it because I feel like there are some, you know, maybe more traditional financial management people who would say you got to have that tangible money in your hand and really feel the loss of it going to whatever store you're spending the money at. Or did you just totally go all digital, all plastic? We thought a lot about going all cash and it just was so difficult to manage because we never had cash. And every time it got cash, it disappeared so quickly. They actually had a lot of cash because for the early years of babysitting, people pay them all in cash. Oh. So they did have to spend their babysitting cash, but now they will take their babysitting cash and give it to me. And then I will deposit money under their greenlight.

So it's they turn it into their greenlight card because it's burdensome to have that much cash lying around. They can't receive payments to their greenlight account like Venmo or anything. It's just insular to the family. They do not. But now they do have Venmo's, which makes it easier for people to pay them. because again, no one ever has cash. Well, Kate, can you list maybe some other financial products aside from an account like Greenlight that people could use to kind of stash away the money or invest? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So a high-yield savings account, we mentioned that to start.

I do think that's still worth mentioning here. For the longer-term goals, the people are making, the things are saving for for later, this is a great place to put that money. You're going to earn interest. You can watch it grow. You learn about the power of compounding over time. And there's a little distance between you and that money. It's not as easy. to spend it. So you can't just decide you want to use it to do a fun thing and you know, you pay that balance down. It sits there and it earns interest over time. A Roth IRA is a nice thing to play with if your kid has some earned income. So it doesn't work with gift cash. And you would have to, you know, let the IRS know your kid has made this money if they're making it

babysitting or doing other sort of cash jobs. But a thousand dollars in a Roth IRA teaches them to invest, you know, investing doesn't have to be complicated. You can look at target date funds. You can look at index funds. They can sort of see how it goes up and down, how it works. And over time, that grows and it's there for them later. Like, it's a nice little tool to play with when they're teenagers. Or you can get them to invest. I always bring this up because I think it's a brilliant idea in companies that they spend money at. If they like to go to Claire's all the time, you could ask them to buy some stocks. There are McDonald's. My niece loves McDonald's and Chick-fil-A and And anyways, wherever they spend their money, you can get them to invest as well.

That's true. That's true. Okay. Well, Kate, do you have any other words of wisdom for Deb or for their teen, frankly, about how to make the most of all this money? I do think it's worth thinking about that future calculation. You know, as you mentioned, if you took $1,000 and you put it in a Roth and it made 5% over the next 50 years, you would have something like $12,000 without doing anything else with

it. And if you deposit it a little bit each month over time, you would. have six figures of money and savings. And that is such a useful exercise because so many people don't save early. And the truth is, the earlier you save, the less you have to save because you've got so much time. And I think it really is a valuable lesson to learn early. So to the extent you can make that happen, that's a good idea. Time is really your greatest asset when it comes to investing. That's right. Remember that you can put that money in a trust, which gives you the ability to determine when they receive that money versus receiving it all at once. So some teams may be

set up to receive, I don't know, $100,000, $20,000, whatever it is. And let's be honest, many teams are not ready for that big bulk of money. But putting in a trust gives you more options so that you can spread out the payments over time. Great. Well, Kate Ashbury, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us again. Yeah, thank you for having me. I always enjoy myself. We'll be back in a moment with more smart money. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands, championing diversity.

With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women, diversity is a strength that helps Loreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit Loreal.com to learn more. So Elizabeth, I've been trying to think about something to discuss with my finances because we hear from our listeners all the time. Listeners, viewers, all of the people that are consuming this podcast about how they appreciate what we share about our finances. And I've got to be totally honest with you. My finances have been super boring recently. Do you ever feel that where you're like there's nothing kind of exciting or new going on?

And you almost want there to be just to add some variety. But there's part of me that's also really grateful that I don't have to be. have some tumultuous thing going on with my finances, like knocking on what does I say this? Do you ever experience that? I do. Yeah. When I'm not spending $400 on Azul tequila shots, I do feel that way. You know, so I had that chaos, you know, a little while back now.

But now I'm back also in a very boring place in my finances where it's just, yeah, checks and balances, making sure I'm not overspending and everything is automated. So I will admit, yes, it can be boring. And but I think, Sean, during these periods, that's when you can just enjoy spending your money in a balanced way, no? Yeah, I have to remember that there's always a season to everything. Sometimes there's a season where you spend $400 on a Zool tequila shots at a Mexican restaurant unexpectedly. Sometimes there are months where you're actually just kind of doing normal things, hanging out with your friends, saving money like you want to, and dealing with pets that are moving around behind me. The video frame for those watching this, for those who aren't watching on YouTube, my pets are regular guests on this show.

So you should really check us out. Exactly. If you don't want to see us. As I say this. You can see pets. At least see the pets. Yeah. Honestly, I feel a little left out because I feel like your pets come in the frame.

Some of the nerds pets come in the frame. So I feel like I'm going to move my fish upstairs. Okay. So that they can be in the front too. I was going to finally get a dog because didn't your son want to get a dog for a little while? He does want a dog. But we're going back and forth about this. I ain't getting no dog.

dog, okay? Because listen, dogs, I know people will argue with me on this, but to me, dogs are similar to having children in terms of the responsibility. And, you know, I travel often. Sometimes I'm not home because I spend the weekends at my man's house. And I'm not getting dog sitters. I'm not paying all those extra expenses. I could use that money on myself, okay? My kid already takes enough of my money. So, hey, that's one way to spice up your finances, though, is add a puppy into the mix because suddenly you'll have to buy some, you'll have to do dog training lessons, dog food, dog toys, maybe some carpet cleaner. I mean, all these things

that come with getting a pet. You're trying to fancy up basically another way to spend more money. No, thank you. Not on that. But I'll live through you guys. But think about all the joy

and love and fun you would have if you had a dog in the house. I'm thinking about margaritas, more vacations, more thrifting. Not a dog. But thank you. No, thanks. But yeah, I think that's a good topic,

though, about your finance getting boring. But I feel like that's a hallmark or a goal that everybody should work towards, right? You start off with your finances, especially if you, you know, weren't giving all those financial tools as a young person and everything is in chaos. And you spend so many years or depending on how long it takes you, whether you're paying off debt, trying to put the frameworks in place for healthy finances, doing all that financial education.

You do all of that. And then you should get to a place where the system is working and you don't have to do as much and you can do more hands-on finances, personal finances. You're right. Yeah. It's actually a privilege to have boring finances and I should be really grateful to be at a point in my life where I'm not like as scarcity of mindset. focused as I was when I was in my early 20s and just didn't have money to cover my basic necessities

or I was just being wildly irresponsible with my money. So I'm going to actually really appreciate that. But Sean, you have a birthday coming up where you can be irresponsible now? I do. Yes, I'm so excited. I'm turning 35. I know I look wildly younger than that. 25. And yes. And I'm meeting up with my twin sister in Chicago. And we are going to have so much fun. My sister is pregnant right now. And so I think this is kind of our last hurrah. I mean, we're not going to be going as crazy as we would maybe if she wasn't pregnant, but we're going to be having a really fun time in our old home city. And I think that is my chance to maybe have a little bit of irresponsible fun with my money

and like splurge a little bit, take us out to some nice meals, seal friends, buy extra things at the gift shop just because this is our time to do it before the baby comes. That's right. And if you remember what I said in Scottsdale, when we were recording, I do think it's okay to blow up your budget just a little bit, just a little bit every now and again. So that might be your fun.

I have forgotten about that, but thank you. So if you can give me some guidance, someone who tends to not blow up my budget because I like to keep things steady and secure, where would you think I could blow up my finances just a little bit on this vacation? Oh, wow. Well, Sean, you like a good outfit, don't you know?

I do. Okay? I really do. So you might need just like with wedding, looks. I don't know how many you had, but you might need three different birthday, birthday looks, no? You're so right. I think I need to go shopping. I think that's what you're telling me. And Chicago actually has great vintage too. So maybe I'll go vintage shopping with my sister and we'll find some fun outfits for our birthday. When we were kids, our mom never dressed us in matching outfits.

We had one that was like a cute little matching sailor outfit that our grandmother gave us. Our mom put us in it, took one photo and immediately took us out of it. But I think now that we're turning through Maybe this is our era of having matching outfits, which could be cute. Sean, I have more ways for you to spend your money based on that. Oh, my God. Please, please. We're flowing. Can you tell I'm good at spending money?

Okay. So up next, you got your matching outfits. And then like my family did for my mom's birthday recently, you can go and do a JC Penny photo shoot. Yes. Yes. I remember you saying that. Uh-huh. Elizabeth.

Okay, I'm making a note. I'm going to add this to the itinerary. Because we were thinking for our daytime activities, you know, going to the Artisan Institute, having a beach day, maybe doing a little bike along the lake. Who needs these things? We're going to J.C. Penny when we're going to J.C. Penny when we're going to J.C. Penny. And then just one more tip. They're going to try to upsell you on the printouts. Get the biggest frame and put that in your house. And then so I'll be spending more money on the frame. And then I'll be spending more money trying to get that frame back to Portland with me. So great. I am wildly and irresponsibly blowing at my budget already. Drops mic. Drops mic. I'm done.

Okay, but you said your money is also boring now that you're over your whole tequila incident. So what are you going to do to maybe spice up your money? Even if it's not doing something irresponsible, how can you shift things up just to keep it feeling fresh? Well, I was going to say, help me get back to this point because my ADHD takes me in a circle. Yes, yes. Have you heard about the term dolphining with ADHD conversations? No. You have one topic and you dive down to another and you come back up to the original topic. This is my life.

So you're going to be the guide for my dolphin right now. But I just wanted to quickly say, as we're having this conversation, you know, I love a little reflective, sloppy moment. I'm currently at a time in my life where it's very peaceful. And I think back to all the times where, you know, I was maybe struggling with, not maybe struggling with a bit of depression, you know, having a hard time, just very sad. And I'm finally at a place where I feel content. I'm not happy every day to that because that's, you know.

But my point is. I feel content. I feel peaceful. And there's nothing chaotic happening in my life. And every time those moments come to me and I reflect, first of all, I'm thankful that I get to have this peaceful season of my life. And second of all, I remember that the seasons of life say that chaos is coming and that is not a curse.

It's just how it goes, right? So the same with our finances, right? You're going to have some peaceful seasons. You're going to have some more chaotic ones. So the chaotic ones are on their way. All right. Unpidation. Okay.

So here's what I'm thinking. You are saying that you're really prioritizing and valuing the current state of contentment. And part of that is just your personal situation right now. But a lot of that is also coming from what you've done with your finances. So as a bit of a thought experiment, you could put yourself back into a chaotic period of your life or maybe things aren't as stable. And you can use the resources and the time and the calm you have right now to get ahead of whatever chaos is coming next and shore up your finances a little. But there's something a little exhilarating about going down a thought process of, okay, what could go wrong? How would I feel?

How can I get ahead of it? That's right. And so now is the time to do that. Exactly. And then tying it all back into blowing up your budget. So I do have a Canada trip coming up in August. And I was looking at the flight tickets today. And I can already tell that's where my budget is going to be a little bit blown up.

But guess what? I'm okay with it. We're going to make great memories. It's going to be a fun trip for me and I. Do you have any credit card points for the air travel? I do, but I'm being stingy with them. Travel gals, we need you back on, okay? I'm being stingy.

Why are you being stingy with them? I'm hoarding them because I keep telling myself there's something in the future that I will spend them on, like a birthday trip because you know I'm going to travel on my birthday or my sabbatical next year where I want to do this little world travel to Japan and to Nigeria and to a few places in Europe. So I'm just telling myself maybe there'll be a better use for that. Can I give you some unsolicited advice? since that's kind of my job here.

Yes. I would say if I were you, I would use those points now because we know there's an immediate sting of how expensive airline tickets are right now. In the future, who knows, maybe the world will suddenly become a calmer, less chaotic place where fuel and jet prices aren't what they are right now.

So airline prices might not be as bad. And also another idea for you, ahead of your sabbatical next year, you could look into a new travel credit card, earn a sign-up bonus, use the sign-up bonus on your travel. Look at you knowing how to do your job and giving me some good nerdy advice. I love it. I love it.

And you're absolutely right. And thank you for saying that because now I'm going to go and book my tickets for the Canada trip in peace using points. And like you said, I doubt that we're going to have this utopian world where gas prices are normal and flight prices next year. But hey, let me just live in the now and save myself the hassle because them ticket prices are high. Yeah.

And I mean, I recently got lunch with Megan Coyle, one of the hosts of the smart travel podcast and she was talking about how she has, but kind of a revolving door of credit cards coming in all the time where she's just working to get their sign-up bonuses. She's churning them is what they call it, basically. So you could just take a page out of her book and do the same thing. You know, there are so many travel credit cards out there with many points and sign-it bonuses to be had, so might as well take advantage of them. That's true. And it's been about two years now since I've gotten a new one. So why not introduce another one? But we'll talk about that later. but the sign-up fees is not the sign-up fees,

the annual fees is what's making me a little. You know I already have quite a few annual fees. I don't know if I want to add another one on, but we'll see. Yeah. Well, in the meantime, I think that we can both enjoy this moment of calm in our finances. I really hope we're not summoning something horrible down the pipeline by saying all of this right now, knocking on wood. But I'm really proud of all that you and I have done individually in our lives

to bring this kind of calm to our lives because not a lot of people have it and we should be really grateful. Thank you, Sean. And I'm proud to. I'm especially proud I'm not going to stop talking about it about my sinking funds that I created this year because I'm using that to pay for some of my travel too. Hooray to me. I'm so proud of you for that. Yes. Thank you. That's all we have. We're leaving. That's it. But we still want you to come and join us next time for another episode. Remember, we are here to answer all your money questions. Maybe you're soppy like me and you've had a beautiful transition with your finances and you don't know what to do next and you want to share it with us. We want to hear it. We want to hear it. hear it. Whatever your money questions are, please call us to text us on the nerd hotline at 901, 730, 63.73. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwalt.com or drop a comment on Spotify or YouTube. Join us next time to hear about whether all financial advisors, myself included, are evil. Follow smart money on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcast, and IHeartRadio to automatically download every new episode. And our brief disclaimer, we are not your financial or

investment advisors. This nerdy information is provided for general, educational, and entertainment purposes, and it might not apply to your specific circumstance. This episode was produced by Tess Vigland, Hillary Georgie Hucked editing, Eve Krogman, edits our audio and video, and a big thank you to NERVOLITS editors for all their help. And until next time, turn to the nerds.