New Year, New Budget: How To Finally Take Control of Your Money

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "New Year, New Budget: How To Finally Take Control of Your Money"

Podcast: Here’s the Scoop
Host: Yasmin Vossoughian (NBC News)
Guest: Christine Romans, NBC News Senior Business Correspondent
Date: January 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

Kicking off the new year, Yasmin Vossoughian brings on Christine Romans to help listeners reboot their financial mindset and get practical about budgeting, saving, and investing in 2026. The two dive deep into emotional money habits, breaking down financial jargon, and share concrete advice on building wealth, tackling debt, and teaching kids about money.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Lessons & Emotional Attachments to Money

• Christine Romans’ foundational lesson:
  “Keep your burn rate less than your earn rate and you will always be comfortable and happy.” (Christine Romans, 01:51)
  • As a child, Christine’s father repeatedly taught her not to spend more than she had.
  • Living below your means isn’t a sacrifice—rather, it’s “the most boring, most predictable, and most perfect way … to win in the end and be rich.” (01:50)
• Emotional connection to money:
  • Yasmin notes that money is more expensive and complicated now, which can trigger emotional spending.
  • Christine agrees: “Money can be very emotional … there’s gatekeeping around it.” (03:26)
• Mindset shift:
  • Christine advocates for a “growth mindset”—seeing leftover money, even small amounts, as an opportunity to grow wealth.
  • “What is your game plan? … Budget is just the game plan.” (Christine Romans, 04:35)
• Provider panic:
  • Many people are stuck “panicking about just providing for this month.” (04:54) For them, it’s critical to step back, set a plan, and stick to it to find relief from financial anxiety.

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2. Practical Steps for Budgeting & Saving

• Accounts to master in 2026:
  • Checking account: For routine bills and month-to-month spending.
  • High-yield savings account: For an emergency fund (target: 3-6 months' expenses; 3 is fine). (07:14)
    • Interest rates: Currently around 3–3.5%.
  • Tax-advantaged retirement accounts: 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA.
  • Health savings account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA): “Rich people use HSAs if they get them … but anybody can have one if you’re in a high deductible insurance plan.” (Christine Romans, 05:53)
  • Brokerage account: For buying stocks, ETFs, building wealth beyond retirement-specific accounts.
• Building an emergency fund:
  • Start small: “The first thing to do is, it’s gotta be more than zero and if it’s $1 it’s fine.” (07:14)
• Investing basics:
  • Christine’s lightning round:
    • “I like exchange traded funds.” (09:08)
    • ETFs are “like a stock that tracks the S&P or the whole stock market … low cost … where I would begin.” (Christine Romans, 09:11)
  • Order of priorities:
    • Emergency fund before retirement savings (09:34)
    • “You must fund your retirement first … and then you fund your 529s.” (09:51)
  • Pay down debt while saving/investing, “do both at the same time.” (09:37)

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3. Navigating the Jargon & Getting Help

• Simplifying financial language:
  • Christine acknowledges the intimidating “alphabet soup” of financial terms: “I wish I could think of a better word for budget. It is a terrible word.” (Christine Romans, 04:31)
• Financial planners:
  • “You can get a fee-based financial planner … like hiring the inspector to walk through your house and tell you what you need to do … not selling you anything.” (Christine Romans, 10:09)
• AI and online content:
  • Be cautious: “There’s a lot of information sloshing around out there … if you see something, go back and do your own research … go to a legitimate, original source.” (Christine Romans, 10:36)
  • Helpful guidelines (from Fidelity): “By the time you’re 30, you should have one time your salary invested in a retirement fund … If you’re not there yet, don’t freak out.” (11:32)

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4. Navigating Interest Rates, Loans, and Debt

• Impact of Federal Reserve rate cuts:
  • Lower rates help borrowers (mortgages, car loans, credit cards) but hurt savers by reducing interest earnings. (11:49)
• Refinancing mortgages:
  • Only worthwhile if rates drop significantly (from 7% to a much lower rate; not just to 6.26%). Consider “loan recasting” as another option—renegotiate terms with your lender without refinancing. (12:26)
• Dealing with debt:
  • Pay off highest-interest debt first (credit cards), while making minimums on lower interest debts. “Throw everything you can at that.” (Christine Romans, 13:23)

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5. Major Money Mistakes & Credit Score Myths

• Biggest mistake:
  • “I always hear from people that they like to carry a little balance on their credit card because they think it’s good for their credit score, which is just not true.” (Christine Romans, 15:47)
  • Carrying a balance = financial risk and unnecessary interest payments.
  • “You want to run it up 10 to 30% of your available credit … and then pay it off. You’re going to have an 800 credit score.” (16:27)

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6. Relieving Financial Anxiety & Talking Money

• Financial shame/fear:
  • Even those with good jobs “feel anxiety … even this conversation gives me a little bit of anxiety.” (Yasmin Basugin, 16:46)
  • Christine: “Once you kind of just grasp the basics … the peace of mind that comes with it.” (17:10)
• Openness about money:
  • Don’t share raw salary numbers, but do discuss savings goals with friends—“people still get really freaked out” by raw salary disclosures. (17:43)
• Teaching kids about money:
  • Start young, but it’s harder in a cashless society.
  • Give kids agency: Not all summer job earnings should go into savings; kids should enjoy spending some and learn to make choices. (20:14)
  • Set up Roth IRAs early (as soon as kids have income); “one of the best gifts you can give a kid.” (19:02)
  • Each child’s money temperament is different—some are savers, some are spenders. (20:40)

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7. Christine’s Own Mistakes & Final Thoughts

• Personal mistake:
  • “I am so risk averse that I have probably lost opportunities because I wanted to take the most conservative route.” (21:07)
  • Still, having cash saved allows for independence and the freedom to leave a job.
• Ending note:
  Yasmin calls Christine her “financial guru;” both wish each other a happy new year and encourage listeners to subscribe and tune in for more day-to-day financial advice. (21:39)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On living below your means:
  “Living a little bit below your means is the most boring, most predictable, and most perfect way to win in the end and be rich.” — Christine Romans (01:50)
• On the word budget:
  “Budget is just the game plan … what are your goals? … Once you figure out what that is … it’s relief, actually. It takes the panic out of the money situation.” — Christine Romans (04:35)
• On high-yield savings accounts:
  “You’re getting nothing in a checking account.” — Christine Romans (08:04)
• On kids and money:
  “Rich people, all of their kids have Roth IRAs … this is one of the best gifts you can give a kid.” — Christine Romans (19:02)
• On financial anxiety:
  “Once you kind of just grasp the basics, the peace of mind that comes with it.” — Christine Romans (17:10)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:50: Living below your means and emotional upbringing about money
• 03:26: Navigating emotions and mindset toward finances
• 05:53: How to start saving and use HSAs
• 07:14: The six accounts you should master in 2026
• 09:08: Investing basics: ETFs, emergency funds, and retirement prioritization
• 10:09: Should you hire a financial planner?
• 10:36: Evaluating AI- and internet-based advice
• 11:49: How Federal Reserve rate cuts affect personal finances
• 12:26: Mortgage refinancing and loan recasting explained
• 13:23: Tackling different kinds of debt
• 15:47: Credit card myths and credit score strategy
• 16:46: Coping with financial anxiety and learning to talk openly about money
• 17:54: Teaching kids about money in the new economy
• 19:02: The value of early Roth IRAs for kids
• 21:07: Christine’s own financial mistake

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is candid, practical, and reassuring, balancing real-world challenges with bite-sized, actionable strategies. Christine Romans makes financial literacy feel achievable, and Yasmin Vossoughian candidly voices the anxieties many listeners feel.

Key Takeaway:
Start simple, stay mindful, and don’t let perfectionism or jargon stand in your way of building financial resilience—no matter your income or starting point. And, don’t be afraid to talk about money—just maybe not your actual salary at the dinner table.

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Transcript

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[Yasmin Basugin]

Welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugin. Happy New Year, everybody. We have made it to a new year and a new me, possibly. But here we are in our first productive day of 2026. And I'm sure a lot of us had the same New Year's resolution, getting our finances in check after a season of spending. So for that, I am calling in NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans to get us off on the right foot and in 2026. Hi, Christine.

[Christine Romans]

Hi. Great to be here.

[Yasmin Basugin]

So you and I were talking on the show recently about the economy and the jobs report and of course the conversation after the mic is turned off was actually more about our emotional connection and attachments to finance and the lessons that we learned or did not learn as kids. Right. What was kind of one of the biggest lessons that you learned in growing up when it comes to personal finance?

[Christine Romans]

I this is from my dad. He always said, keep your burn rate less than your earn rate and you will always be comfortable and happy. And when I was little, I didn't know what that meant, but he said it so much. It was such a mantra of his. Mostly. Like when I would ask for a new pair of Nike tennis shoes, he'd say, honey, we gotta keep the burn rate less than the earn rate. I'm like, what in the world is he talking about? What he meant was we can't spend more money than we have. And if you spend less money than you earn that difference, you take it, you save it, you grow it, you invest it. And that is the cushion for comfort. And it's not even a sacrifice, to be honest. So many times people think that personal finance is about some big sacrifice, about not having something, but just living a little bit below your means is the most boring, most predictable, and most perfect way to. To win in the end and be rich.

[Yasmin Basugin]

The thing is, it sounds great and I think a lot of people would like to live that way in this country, but it's difficult for many reasons. One of which is something that we've talked about many times, which is life is just way more expensive than it used to be. And we're not making as much money exactly. As we used to make. Right. In every sector, across the board. But then on top of that, you add. And we talk about childhood, the emotional attachments we have to money and the way in which we spend because of that emotional reaction.

[Christine Romans]

Right? Everyone's different.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Everyone's different. What is the best way to separate emotion from the way in which you decide to spend and save?

[Christine Romans]

So money can be very emotional. And there are a lot of people who don't talk about it. They're intimidated by it. They feel like there's gatekeeping around it, which I actually agree with. You know, like there's this whole industry that has all this terminology that can be off putting for people. I think the most important thing is your mindset and your plan. Right. So what do I mean by mindset? You want to have a growth mindset. We've just come through a period that's all about spending, spending, spending, spending, spending. Are you gonna get enough? Are you gonna get too much? Are you getting the best deal? Have you enough presents for the kids? It's all about spending your money. You've gotta also have the growth mindset that the money that you have left over from what you earn and what you spend, Even if it's $2, how are you gonna grow it? What is in your budget? What is there. There's something. There's a dollar, there's $5, there's $100. How are you gonna grow it? And becoming fluent in the easy, simple, low cost ways to grow that money. And then the plan, that's the mindset, the growth mindset. And then the plan is the set it and forget it. Budget. Budget is such a terrible word. I wish I could think of a better word for budget. It is a terrible Word.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Because also when people hear budget, they're like, it's too restrictive. I can't do it. I can't handle it.

[Christine Romans]

Budget is just the game plan. You know, it's just like, what is your game plan? What are your goals? And then where are you putting your money in what buckets to get you where you want to be. And once you figure out what that is, what that spending plan is, and you stick to it, then it's relief, actually, you know, it takes the panic out of the money. Out of the money situation. Now, look, I understand there's something else that I call provider panic. There are a lot of people out there with provider panic right now because that's where you are worried about your job. You're worried about your utility bill. Oh, my God, my car insurance is 35% more this year than it was five years ago. And you can't see clearly and you can't adopt the growth mindset because you're panicking about just providing for this month. Which is why it's so critical to try to step back, set the plan, and then try to stay on that plan.

[Yasmin Basugin]

I want to get into all the nitty gritty, but I do think that you said something important there, which is, again, the growth mindset. Sounds like an amazing mindset. But if you are literally living paycheck to paycheck and you are only able to provide for your family by paying the rent and paying the bills, and then at the end of it, you got nothing, how are you supposed to grow from that?

[Christine Romans]

I totally understand that there's a whole tranche that is like this. What concerns me are the people who don't take advantage of the big money things, the match in the 401k, who don't take the small steps like, oh, my gosh, I'm eligible for an hsa. It's just more Alphabet soup. I don't know what that is. Wow, that is. Rich people use HSAs if they get them health savings accounts, anybody can have one. If you're in a high deductible insurance plan, it really is a secret, awesome investment account for you to grow now until you use it when you're old. And it's really. It's amazing.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Which is money taken out of your paycheck pre tax, essentially going into a health savings account that you can use towards any kind of healthcare expenses that you may have.

[Christine Romans]

Yeah. But a lot of people, especially when.

[Yasmin Basugin]

It comes to your deductible, what rich.

[Christine Romans]

People do is they don't use it for Their, they pay their current health care costs out of pocket. Costs out of pocket. And they just, they just let that healthcare, the health spending account grow. And it can grow fast when it's in the market. There are simple, simple, very low risk ways to grow, to have that growth mindset. But people are afraid and a lot of times they don't take advantage of those things.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Let's talk more about the nitty gritty and specifically savings, right? How much should we be saving on a maybe monthly basis? I know it's dependent on how much money you're making, but then I think it's also the question of how do you start saving.

[Christine Romans]

So the first thing to do is it's gotta be more than zero and if it's $1 it's fine. And if you go to Schwab or E. Trade or Robinhood or Fidelity or a lot of different places, there are different minimums to get in and some of them are pretty low. But the first thing you do, I mean you need to think about like the six accounts to master in 2026. And the first one is your checking and savings account. It's just your checking account. You don't wan all your money in that. You want to have just enough for maybe a month or two months of your operating what's coming in and what's coming out. And then you want a second account that is a high yield savings account. And this is your emergency fund. And again emergency fund sounds so hard. It's like the word budget. You hear it and people just shut off. But this is the unexpected cost, like oh my gosh, something for my car, something happened and you want three to six months of expenses, living expenses in there. I say three is fine. I say three is fine.

[Yasmin Basugin]

A high yield savings account would have what type of interest rate?

[Christine Romans]

3%, 3.5%, you know, and it's going to go down because the Fed's been cutting it. It was 5% a couple years ago, but still 3%. You're getting nothing in a checking account. And then the next account to master is the tax advantaged retirement account. That's the 401k. That's the IRA or a Roth IRA. Again more Alphabet soup. But just so you know, you need putting something in there. And then the fourth is the health savings account or the flexible health spending account, all pre tax dollars. So you're not giving the money to Uncle Sam, you're giving it to yourself. I mean just think about that when you're taking the pre tax money, you're Paying yourself, not Uncle Sam. And then finally, if you can, the brokerage account. That's where you start having fun. That's where you start buying stocks, ETFs, and you start growing your wealth that way. So that's the latter. You know, you start with the plain vanilla checking and savings. Then you've got the other savings. That's let's say three months in a high yield savings account. Then you've got your 401. That's saving. Then you've got the health savings account, the flexible spending account. And then you've got brokerage. Six accounts to master. And that is how you build wealth.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Let me do a little quick lightning round. Individual stocks or mutual funds.

[Christine Romans]

I like exchange traded funds.

[Yasmin Basugin]

What's that?

[Christine Romans]

Those are like a stock that tracks like the S and P or the whole stock market or the Russell 2000. Very low cost. They trade like a stock. They're very easy to understand. And it's where I would begin.

[Yasmin Basugin]

And you could just literally be investing.

[Christine Romans]

In that on your own.

[Yasmin Basugin]

You don't need anybody to help you do that. Emergency fund or retirement fund first? Yeah. Which comes first?

[Christine Romans]

You must have the emergency fund first.

[Yasmin Basugin]

And then you start before retirement.

[Christine Romans]

But you can be doing at the same time also paying down debt is the other thing. Yeah, you could be paying down debt and you can be paying off student loans and investing in a 401k or a Roth IRA at the same time. And you should be college fund for.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Kids or retirement fund. Which comes first?

[Christine Romans]

You must fund your retirement first. You must. And then you fund your 529s. The 529s are the most amazing money to save. You need to be doing both.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Do you think it's important to get a financial planner to help you plan out how to actually get to your retirement goals in time for when you actually want to retire?

[Christine Romans]

You can get a fee based financial planner. I really like fee based financial planners. They're not getting paid to sell you anything. It's somebody you pay. I mean maybe you pay a few hundred dollars and it's actually like hiring the inspector to walk through your house and tell you what you need to do.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Got it.

[Christine Romans]

You know, he's not selling you anything. He's just getting paid to tell you what you need to do in your house. So it's like a money inspector.

[Yasmin Basugin]

How much should we be dependent on artificial intelligence? On AI right now when it comes to financial planning and also where to invest, where not to invest.

[Christine Romans]

I think it can be really helpful and there's a lot of content on social media. Separate but interesting. There are a lot of people who have, I don't know if they have any background in financial planning or journalism or business reporting. Right. But there's a lot of information sloshing around out there. I would. If you see something, go back and do your own research. Fine, ask ChatGPT about it. But then go to the Fidelity website, go to the Ameriprise website, go to a legitimate original source and see what's there. Fidelity and Ameriprise and a lot of other places too have really helpful resources about how much should I be saving? You know, Fidelity has a rule of thumb. By the time you're 30, you should have one time your salary invested in a retirement fund. If you're 30 years old and you make $75,000 a year, you should have $75,000 socked away. And if you're not there yet, don't freak out because a lot of people aren't. So just be mindful that you want to get ahead on that.

[Yasmin Basugin]

You talked about the Federal Reserve. We've also heard the President talk about the fact that he's going to be replacing Fed chair Jerome Powell, who has been apprehensive in reducing interest rates as much as the President would have liked. He did just do a quarter of a point cut. How much is that going to affect our own personal finances?

[Christine Romans]

So it lowers rates if you borrow money. So eventually, eventually it should help lower rates for new car loans, for credit card interest, but also if you have money that you're saving, if you're a saver, it hurts you too because it means you're getting less interest on your savings. So the Fed trying to juice the economy by lowering rates, but that can have the opposite effect on fixed income and savers who are, you know, living off of interest. So it is a double edged sword.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Do you think people should be refinancing their houses? If they got into a house at 6% interest rates two years ago and now were a lot lower.

[Christine Romans]

This is the first time in a couple of years I would have even said you can open your eyes and look. I don't think a lot of people are ready yet because there's not been enough of a drop. We still have mortgage rates. I checked them Yesterday, they were 6.26%. So if you bought at 7%, I don't think 6.26% is enough to justify the closing costs and justify resetting the whole loan. Again. There's something called loan recasting. Which has become a little bit more popular, which I would encourage everybody to look into. It's where you basically go to your lender and say, I don't want a whole new loan. Let's talk about how we can maybe tweak this interest rate and what we can do to recast this loan with your credit card lenders, with your mortgage lenders. Don't be shy, don't be quiet. If you've lost a job, call them and say, I need forbearance.

[Yasmin Basugin]

I want to talk about debt because we're coming off the holidays. Right. So you've got credit card debt at this point, possibly student loans as you mentioned, car payments as well. What is the pecking order of what you tackle first?

[Christine Romans]

Okay, so you want the highest interest, credit card debt first and you got to just throw everything you can at that. Yeah, you pay the minimums on everything and then on the highest interest debt, you pay as much as you can.

[Yasmin Basugin]

We're going to take a very short break and when we come back, Christine breaks down how to avoid some of the biggest money mistakes. That's next.

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[Yasmin Basugin]

And we're back with. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yazam Desugin. I'm talking personal finance with NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Roman. What's the biggest money mistake people make?

[Christine Romans]

I always hear from people that they like to carry a little balance on their credit card because they think it's good for their credit score, which is just not true. Leaving a balance on your credit card at the end of the month shows financial weakness and financial risk. You are a risky person. If you're leaving and you're paying interest on it, it's just dumb money.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Are they getting it confused that credit card companies like if you have a high balance but then subsequent pay it off before months end? Because they do like that.

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Right?

[Yasmin Basugin]

If you spend a lot of money.

[Christine Romans]

But then pay it off what they don't like, and there's so many misconceptions about this, what you don't want to do is run your credit card all the way to the limit and then pay it all off.

[VRBO Announcer]

Right.

[Christine Romans]

That looks like you're risky. You look flaky. Right. You want to run it up 10 to 30% of your available credit. Got it. So you got a $10,000 credit card limit. You can up to 1,000 to 3,000 and then pay it off. You're going to have an 800 credit score.

[Yasmin Basugin]

If you do that every $10,000, they're gonna start seeing that.

[Christine Romans]

Yeah.

[Yasmin Basugin]

How do people stop feeling shame and fear around money? I mean, even this conversation gives me a little bit of anxiety. No. But I'm gonna tell you why it's overwhelming. I know for someone who is gainfully employed in a great job, who has a 401k, who has kids at home, it's intimidating. You say just six accounts. I'm like, okay, I'm sorry. How six accounts did we talk about?

[Christine Romans]

But it's so. But here's the thing. Once you kind of just grasp the basics, the. Oh, my God. The peace of mind that comes with it.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Yes.

[Christine Romans]

The peace of mind. And I'm an evangelist. Yes. You've heard me talk about money before. I told you, I've spent since I was 17 years old. I bought stocks, not stilettos.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Yeah. We have much different shoe shopping habits for everybody to know.

[Christine Romans]

I Buy stocks. She buys really nice shoes. But I will tell you that I just. I'm an evangelist for talking to your friends about it.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Do you think we should be more forthcoming about how much money we make?

[Christine Romans]

I don't know. I think you should talk about money in your savings goals. I wouldn't talk about raw numbers. And here's why people still get really freaked out. People think about you differently. Yeah. You know.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Yeah. As parents, both of us. Right. You have three kids, I have two. What should we be teaching our kids when it comes to savings, to earnings and how. And how young should we start that conversation?

[Christine Romans]

As young as you can. But it's really hard because the money is not a thing that you count out anymore. I'll give you an example. Our colleague Chloe melas, she interviewed 50 Cent.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Yes.

[Christine Romans]

And I was laughing because some of the younger kids didn't know what the 50 cent meant because they've never seen two quarters. There's no. There's no such thing as 50 cent to an American kid is 50 cent. Yeah, it's not 50 cent two quarters, because we don't do it. There's no change. There's an Apple Pay or Google Pay. And they kind of just. And I do believe in this era of 40 years of globalization, kids basically get everything they want all year round. So I will acknowledge it is harder.

[Yasmin Basugin]

For people that don't have 401ks, right. That don't have a job where they can put money into their 401ks. They could actually start investing in Roth IRAs. So how early is that?

[Christine Romans]

I mean, whenever you can. And I'm telling you that rich people, all of their kids have Roth IRAs. And maybe it only has $1,000 in it, or maybe it has $2,000 in it, but they've already got them started. And we can also do this. The Roth IRA is a retirement fund. So this is going to be with them forever. You're going to be long gone. And this person, your kid, is still going to have this Roth IRA that has been growing for 60 years. So this is one of the best gifts that you can give a kid. And the kid can actually be the one who seeds the money. I have a son who made some money at the pool. We're starting a Roth IRA with only $2,500. That's all he wanted to put aside. And that money goes into the Roth ira. We're gonna pick the stocks over Christmas break. And then he's gonna, you know, he's 19 years old, he's Gonna start his own retirement plan.

[Yasmin Basugin]

If kids do earn any money, as you mentioned, like at summer jobs, for instance, how much should they be saving of that money? Because you also want your kids to recognize that they can use this money to do things that are fun. Right. To go to the movies, of course. To go out to lunch, to dinner with their friends. And I think that's one of the things that I think about too, is I don't want my kids to have. I. E. Always feel like, you know, the financial situation is uncertain. Right. Putting too much pressure on them in which they feel as if it's stressful.

[Christine Romans]

Yeah. You don't want the anxiety. A word. You want the awareness a word. You want them to understand sort of that it's not. This whole life isn't free. Like, money's coming in, money's going out. You don't want to make them nervous about it, but you also want them to understand that there's a finite amount of it and they get to choose how they're going to do it. Look, with one of my sons, we didn't put all of it in. You know, my husband was like, let's just put all of his summer money into this Roth ira. I'm like, no, no. I want him. If he decides he wants to go someplace with friends, I don't want to buy the plane ticket. I want him to have resources that he can decide what to do with. But each kid is different. Like, one of my kids is a total saver. Exactly. Like me. I mean, he gets more pleasure out of looking at the numbers on the app than he does by buying a new fishing pole or a new pair of tennis shoes. Like, the happiness is in the numbers on the screen. And that's the way I am, too. But my other two kids aren't like that.

[Yasmin Basugin]

What is one financial mistake you have made in the past?

[Christine Romans]

Well, this is interesting because I am so risk averse that I have probably lost opportunities because I've just wanted to take the most conservative route. And as a young person, I could have had much more, taken much more risk. But again, I always wanted to make sure that I could quit a job if I wanted to quit a job. I never wanted to be, like, beholden to a paycheck, and I wanted to make sure that I had some flexibility. And having savings and investments gives you that flexibility.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Christine Roman's my financial guru. Happy new Year, my friend.

[Christine Romans]

You too.

[Yasmin Basugin]

Thank you. All right, that is a wrap on our specials week at. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'M Yasmin Vesugin. We'll see you back here on Monday with our regular daily show and whatever the weekend may bring. If you like what you heard or you love what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you Monday.

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