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Farnoosh Torabi
Hey there, it's Farnoosh. If you've been meaning to finally get your investments working smarter, join me on Tuesday, September 30th for my live investing workshop. I'm gonna walk you through a very simple portfolio that you can actually maintain. How to pick the right accounts, automate your contributions and avoid costly mistakes. No day trading, no jargon, no crypto. You know me. Plus I leave time for your questions. Spots are limited, so save your seat now at somoneyworkshop. Com.
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Farnoosh Torabi
So money episode 1884 Ask Farnoosh. You're listening to so Money with award winning money guru Farnoosh Torabi.
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Farnoosh Torabi
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Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Welcome to so Money. Welcome to so Money everybody. I'm Farnoosh tarabi.
Farnoosh Torabi
It's Friday, September 26, 2025. How's everybody doing? We made it through most of September. And I'm just. I want to send my love and hugs and warm thoughts to all my parent friends out there, my caregiver friends who probably got whiplash this month with so much going on with Back to School. You forget how much work there is in September. And then some days are quiet and you're like, oh, September is great. And then this week for me, I felt like I got run over by a train. But I've survived and I think I'm thriving. I think no, because I have some great news to share. All this work that we've been doing. Launching another podcast. Yes. Did you know that I've done this? I've decided to do this crazy thing called launching another podcast. It's a local podcast, hyperlocal, called the Montclair Pod. Montclair being where I live here in New Jersey. And we've been at it for about, about nine months, since January we launched and we are up for a Signal Award. Signal is like the Emmys, the Grammys. Can I say Oscars, Podcast Awards. And it's not the Webby, which so money has won multiple Webbies, but it is a Signal, and that Signal is rivaling the Webby right now. I would say we're just honored honestly to be a finalist in this category of best local podcast. We're in this category with some really local heavy hitters, local podcasts that are backed by major companies that have many more people and resources behind them. So it feels really rewarding to be even just having gotten this far. But you can vote for us and I'll put that link in our show notes and we would really appreciate it. In the not so great news category, remember last week I talked about how I had this bank check fraud situation in my business checking account, and as soon as I said the words, I'm not going to put fraud restriction on my account because could this happen again? It happened again. The next day. Another check hit, a fraudulent check, and for more money this time, it was about $7,500. So at that point, Clear killed the bank account. I put fraud restriction on it. So nothing can be deducted. Nothing can be transferred. I can't even transfer money or debit money from the account. And opened up a new bank account, which actually did not take that long. And transferring the money over did not take long. I've left some money in there just in case, but it's been a pain in my.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
You know what?
Farnoosh Torabi
And in fact, as I was closing the account down or putting that fraud restriction on my credit card company tried to withdraw my monthly bill. It was so immediate. This is what I was worried about.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
I'm going to do this and then.
Farnoosh Torabi
Something'S going to fall through the cracks. And so then my credit card company, the payment that they were going in to take out of my business checking account was denied. And luckily my credit card company gave me the benefit of the doubt and was like, make sure that your banking information is up to date in our records, which I have updated. But then they said, we're going to try to process this again today as I'm recording with you, today being the day, but if there are any hiccups, if there's another denial, your card may not work. Your credit card may not work. So folks, I am right now walking this planet without any access to financial technology.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
I'm supposed to get a haircut today.
Farnoosh Torabi
I'm bringing cash because I don't want to be the person at the counter whose card gets denied, whatever small problems, but also not makes you realize how dependent you are on financial technology. And not even so much credit cards because I can't. I don't even have a new debit card for my new bank account. That's the problem. So I can't actually withdraw money from it. So what do I do when I'm feeling frustration? I channel it all into a constructive episode on so Money this week. Yesterday, in fact, Martha Underwood came on the show. She's the founder of Prism, she's a cybersecurity expert and she shared some really eye opening insights on the latest in fraud tech and prevention and why business bank accounts in particular, like mine are being targeted and how AI is making things even doubly challenging for you and I and banks as well. But she also gives some really helpful tips on what we can do to fortify our financial lives and our financial identities. Also this week we hung out with Holly Rubin, who is a UK based psychotherapist who kind of works at the intersection of financial health and mental health. We talked about cross cultural money wounds, this notion of self worth being our net worth, and the shame that we often carry around our finances and how to detangle from all of that. So go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't already. I want to go over some news items as well that I think we should all know about some personal finance news. But first, if you're looking to learn more about investing before the end of the year, my one and only investing workshop, live investing workshops happening next week on Tuesday in the afternoon live. It's a 90 minute workshop. I'm going to actually show you my portfolio and how I break down my investment investments and how you can start to manage your investments for the long term for things like retirement, college, savings. You can go to somoneyworkshop.com to register. If you can't make it live, don't worry, just by registering you will get the recording and you can learn on your own time some money headlines that I want to talk about first. Doctors versus insurance companies is the title of this one. This was in the New York Times actually Ron Lieber, my friend there, wrote a piece about how prior authorization authorization rules are clogging the system and delaying patient care. And I for one have been a victim to this in recent weeks. So what's happening is doctors are now being forced to get permission before providing treatment. So that means like a very basic prescription, let's say can get delayed by days, maybe even weeks because now physicians are being required to get pre authorization from insurance companies before they can release the drug, let's say from the pharmacy. Doctors say it's bureaucratic, sometimes harmful because yeah, if you need something today or yesterday, it could take weeks. And so patients are stuck fighting for access. I was trying to get this topical cream for my daughter for her eczema. Okay, not life threatening situation, but it was important. And also simple prescription. It's like a three dollar prescription with insurance. So the doctor didn't tell us this though in the patient she's I'm going to write you this prescription, tell us your pharmacy. And I just figured it would be ready in the next hour or two. And the pharmacy called and said that they're waiting for pre authorization. I didn't really know what that meant. So I called the dermatologist and they said, yeah, we're waiting for your health insurance company to approve this. And I said, is this typical? Because I've never experienced this. Usually if you need something, you get it and then you deal with it in the aftermath. And they said, yeah, it's a new thing. I said, is there anything I can do to expedite this? I said, no. I said I'm just going to keep checking back. And that's what I did. I just harassed them every day. And so by the third day the prescription was ready, but they warned me that it could take up to 14 days. I was like, what happens if you really need something? Like what if you need an antibiotic? What if you have a strep throat? What if you're just miserable and you need medicine and you have to just wait now for your insurance company. So what I learned was that this particular prescription that the dermatologist had recommended me was an escalated drug. So the health insurance company was questioning why they hadn't at first prescribed me a steroid, which many doctors don't want to prescribe you a steroid, right? And this is for my like 8 year old daughter instead. This was a lighter cream, but the insurance company's protocol was you should first prescribe the steroid before you go to this other cream, which is maybe a little bit fancier, but still cheap. And so that is where we're at, folks. I don't know what to say about this other than you gotta put some.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Time in your schedule to call people.
Farnoosh Torabi
And call health insurance companies and call doctors, because we need to be our own advocates in the healthcare field as much as we have to be in the financial field. Now this wasn't necessarily like a financial issue because again, it was only a few bucks for the prescription. But time is money and if this was a more serious issue, it could have led to more health problems, which then becomes also a financial problem. Speaking of financial problems, Amazon, not that this is a real dent on their books, but Amazon has a two and a half billion dollar reckoning here. The company has just agreed to pay out a record settlement with the FTC over allegations that it tricked millions of people into signing up for prime subscriptions and then made it intentionally difficult to cancel. About 1 1/2 billion will go towards refunds with millions of customers eligible. So check your Amazon account, check your mail.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
This kind of reminds me of when.
Farnoosh Torabi
Wells far tricked people into opening up.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Bank accounts or just opened up bank.
Farnoosh Torabi
Accounts without people's consent. And then of course they had a huge settlement there. And this made me sad. Although it's not a personal finance story, but this restaurant is special to my family because we have had many gatherings there. But Iron Hill Brewery is closing all of their locations permanently. It's a nearly three decade old east coast brewery chain. There's one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and whenever we go there to visit my in, we'll eat there. We had my son's second year birthday there and his 10th birthday. So it's a special place for us and it's a bummer. They make their own beer there which is special. They also have locations in Newark, Delaware, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania and Voories, New Jersey.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
It's a big deal.
Farnoosh Torabi
It made national news in the USA Today. Wonder what happened. All right, let's hit the mailbag.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
This one Comes from Susannah. Hello Susanna. She says farnoosh. I just opened a high yield savings account at an online bank for my emergency fund. I chose the one with the highest APY since I could meet the account minimum. However, I realized it would also be smart to use high yield savings accounts for annual expenses and my travel fund. But I can't meet the account minimum at my online bank and my brick and mortar bank has a low apy. Should I change online banks to a lower apy or can I open accounts at a third bank? Well, certainly you can open accounts at a third bank. The issue with that is that it's another bank and so it's one more bank to track. But I think that in this case, if you do want to get a high apy, no account minimum, and specifically to save for something a little bit long termish like a travel fund, it can't hurt to continue shopping around for another online bank that better meets your needs. I think for your annual expenses though, are we talking about recurring expenses? I don't think that should go into a high yield savings account. I feel like that should go into a checking account. The reason you probably can't reach the minimum for that account is because you're constantly deducting from it. That's my guess because bills come up and maybe you're auto paying or you're just writing checks out of that account because these are categorically your annual expenses. I'm not sure. It sounds like these are just the totality of your annual expenses in one account. For that, I would be more concerned that it's somewhere that is not charging you fees. That is a bank where you're conveniently able to transfer cash. You're not getting charged for transfers. You know that there's a lot of ATMs around for this bank. Again, the fees can really add up, especially for an account that there's going to be a lot of activity within that account. If you're accepting checks, if you're wiring money, if you're taking out money through an atm, if you're with a bank that does charge fees here and there, that can certainly add up over the course of a month until 20, 30, 40 plus dollars in the pursuit of trying to make more money with your money. It's worth it to go a little bit of the extra mile to open up that third bank account if it's because you can't meet the minimums elsewhere and the APYs at your bank aren't that attractive. Hope that was helpful. Next up is fit mom. Mrs. Okay, I'm gonna botch this Segioviano.
Farnoosh Torabi
Maybe not.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Maybe I got that right. A happily married, crossfitting, running, breastfeeding mommy, College educated, Latina, travel addict, wannabe photographer, mental health advocate also so money listener. Thanks for writing in. She says. I've been binging your podcast. Do you have an episode on the best ways to save for a child's college or future? My daughter is two and a half. I would like to start a savings account for her for college where people can put money in as well for birthdays instead of gifts, wondering what the best account is to have. So yeah, I've had a number of conversations with guests where we touch on college savings. If you go to somoneypodcast.com and if you search 529, which is the name of the popular college savings plan, I'm sure you'll find those episodes. The 529 plan is what we have for our kids. A 529 is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, college savings vehicles. It functions much like a mutual fund where you've got investments in there that are picked for you based on your time horizon. So if you've got a kid that's two and a half, she probably won't be going to college for another 16, 15, 16 years. So that portfolio is going to take that into account. It's not going to be as risky as say, somebody who's going to have a kid that's going to go to college in like the next 25 years. Or it's going to be perhaps a little bit more risky than a portfolio that's looking at college in the next five years. So the 529 plan is really designed to help you pay for qualified education expenses. That includes expenses at college. And this just in. This is pretty recent 529 college savings plans. While they've traditionally been designed to help families pay for higher ed costs, that is college parents can now withdraw up to $10,000 tax free from a 529 plan each year to pay for private school tuition for kindergarten through 12th grade. So that's nice if that's something that.
Farnoosh Torabi
You find yourself needing if you need.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
That money earlier than later, sooner than later. 529 plan is now a little bit more flexible. And you heard that right. The withdrawals are tax free. So when you go to withdraw this money for the purposes of paying for qualified higher ed, or in this case K through 12 private school education, you don't have to pay taxes on those withdrawals. Now I mentioned earlier that these are state managed state run programs. Just because you live say in Iowa doesn't mean that you have to use your state's plan. You can get any state's plan and I would recommend going to a site like savingforcollege.com it's a great website, has all the breakdowns of 529 plans. You can search by search state. You can look at other states plans and your parents, your family, your friends can contribute. Some 529 plans have gifting platforms that allow for friends and family to make these deposits. Other plans will just accept gift contributions by check. So again go to savingforcollege.com that site has been around for a long time. I've been referencing it for over a decade and it just really has all of the A to Z when it comes to these plans. Another thing you might want to consider is a Roth ira if you don't have one already, as we know we talk about them a lot on the show. But a Roth IRA is really designed for the purposes of retirement where you contribute to this individual retirement account, much like a 529. The withdrawals in retirement can be done so tax free. And some people like a Roth IRA for its flexibility in that if you do decide that you want to make an early withdrawal for the purposes of say college or higher ed, your contributions can be withdrawn at any time for any reason with no taxes or withdrawal penalties. So some people like that because it's a two for one. You got this account which yeah, you're hoping you won't have to tap until retirement. But if you do, you can take out your contributions at any time without a tax or withdrawal penalty. I don't know about grandparents contributing to your Roth ira. I think that is a no no. So something to consider. If you're really wanting to go for a type of fund or savings vehicle that allows for family contributions, then A529 might be the best way to go. All right, good luck to you and thanks for your question.
Farnoosh Torabi
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Farnoosh Torabi
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Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
All right, a question about how to prepare for an interview from Jacqueline on Instagram. She says, hey Farnoosh. Firstly, your podcast has broadened my perspective and understanding of personal finance in a way that is not intimidating. Well then, I feel like my job is done here. Thank you so much for that feedback. She says. I'm 23 years old. I graduated college with an undergrad in computer information systems and an mba.
Farnoosh Torabi
Whoa.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
That's incredible.
Farnoosh Torabi
Way to go.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
I went into a tech role at a financial company and quickly realized it was not for me at all.
Farnoosh Torabi
She's got at all in all caps. My interest in personal finance and planning.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Has turned into a passion. Through networking at my company, I was able to job shadow in one of the company's investor centers and I loved it. I was encouraged by the branch manager to interview for an entry level opening in the company's financial consultant program. So I'm going for it. What advice do you have for interviewing in terms of how to market myself despite not having any of my financial licenses yet? She says licenses are not required for the role. The company supports you through getting licensed, but candidates with their licenses have an advantage. And what strong questions can I ask in the interview to set me apart from other candidates? Firstly, I think that exhibiting your passion is not to be taken lightly. I think that very few people would say that they love personal finance. We all do, right? We're all in this. So many communities. So excluding present company excluded, I think that we're in the minority, right?
Farnoosh Torabi
The most people are in that camp.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Of feeling intimidated like you mentioned earlier, or feeling just underwhelmed or bored by it, frankly. And so to say that at 23 years old you have really been inspired and enlightened and drawn to this, I think really says a lot. And I think that should be be duly noted as you go in for this interview and maybe talking about the why behind why you do find this passion in this area. Is there a personal story, is there a personal development that you went through, a financial development, a breakthrough that you can share? I think relatability is important because if you are going to be working in front of clients, with clients, at the end of the day, people want to work with people that they like, that they relate to, and you really want to showcase this to the best that you can to these hiring managers. And I think that basically just being yourself, it sounds like you're gonna be a shining star for this job. I mean, you were recommended, so already you're ahead of it. Your resumes at the top of the pile. Now, the second part of your question is what questions can you ask to set yourself apart? I love where you're thinking. I love this is exactly how you should be preparing for an interview.
Farnoosh Torabi
Because sometimes the, the part of the.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
Interview where I've gotten stuck is when the employer is. So do you have any questions for me or about us? This is where you really have to do a little bit of homework. Because unless you got some great inspiration during the interview and then thought of some incredible questions on the spot, better to come with some prepared questions. My advice is to first do some research on the company, see what they have done in this area. What sort of innovations have they done, what sort of out of the box things have they performed, what are they trying to accomplish? Maybe there's been some news articles about them or just internally. Maybe you could find some employees, you can talk a little about the goings on within this department and some of the initiatives that they have. So you go to this meeting already understanding what their hopes, dreams, goals, missions are, and then play off of that and ask about what they find has been working for them as they try to perhaps cater to a wider audience. Because as we know, women and millennials are the future and Gen Y and Gen Z are the future. So women, it's no secret, they hold the purse. They are the breadwinners. Increasingly, they are the ones that are going to college at a faster clip, getting those college degrees. So they're really going to be in a position also on the receiving end of this massive transference of wealth, billions, trillions of dollars. So what are we doing as a company this, to welcome this, to service this? Maybe you could say, I noticed you did this project, or I Noticed you did this offsite or I saw that you did this community initiative. I thought that was really exciting. Are there more plans for this? Because this is an area that I'm particularly passionate about. So what you're basically demonstrating by asking this question is one, you've done some research on the company. Two, you understand what their goals, values, missions are. Three, you are interested in investing in that goal value mission that you're asking about next steps with this and how you can get involved and maybe if you really want to drive this home, propose some ideas. So you turn this question really into an opportunity for you to talk about how you might be able to implement some new projects, ideas that you have in mind for benefiting ultimately their bottom line, but maybe packaging it in a way as how we can service our customer, our clients better, how we can attract new cl, how we can attract more, say, women, if that's important to them. I think that is important to a lot of financial institutions and a lot of financial departments within companies. So this is where I think you can really shine. Just takes a little bit of time going through some article clippings, talking to maybe some people, you know, who work there internally, getting the down low. I'm not worried about you. I'm not worried about you, Jacqueline. I hope I'm saying your name correctly or Jacqueline, but I really appreciate this question. I love that you're just 23 and so ahead of it and so bright. Thank you for being in the audience and tell us how it goes. Y' all never let me know how the things go. I give you the advice and then I never hear back. So would love to know the follow up to this, what happens and maybe we can help you get to the next stage. All right, good luck. All right. Sarah writes in on Instagram and says, hey Farnooch. I grew up in a household where money was tight and awkwardly never talked about. I'm in my early 30s now and I'm just now realizing money isn't scary, it's powerful. Here's my question. My husband and I, both 33 years old, have just recently started making six figures. Between the two of us, we have no debt, great credit scores, and we're saving up to buy a house in the nearish future. We have a good chunk in savings, about 40,000 and we're contributing lots each month for our future down payment. My question is, how do we focus our output of money between saving for retirement, which we haven't really started, and buying a house? It's tough to know how to divide everything up in a productive way. Thanks in advance. Love your podcast. Okay, Sarah, well, first of all, congratulations. Crossing that six figure threshold. Kudos to the two of you. Great job saving $40,000. I would like to know how far that $40,000 will stretch. If you lost your job tomorrow or your husband did, or the both of you did, how far could that $40,000 go to cover all of your expenses without any income coming in and not all of your expenses. Right. Because if you're not working, you're not obviously spending on all the things. You're just focusing on the bare bones, the survival number you need every month to live. Housing, food, transportation, the bare bones times that by six to nine. And that's a healthy amount of savings to have in cash tucked aside somewhere in case of an emergency. Does that $40,000 fulfill that? If the answer is yes, then I'll tell you this much. You're done saving for a rainy day, okay? Just check that off your list. If not, then you still have more work to do. And before you invest more for retirement, before you put money away for that down payment, I want you to beef up rainy day savings. Let's assume that's all squared away. You're left with your down payment and retirement. The thing that I have learned about retirement savings is the best way to do it, the best way to approach it so that it's easy, so that it's done, done, done, is to make it automatic. If you have a 401k at work, if your husband got a retirement plan at work, automatically contribute, I would say 10% now that you're making more money of every single paycheck into this diversified portfolio within the 401k or the 403b or whatever it's called at your company, and just do that. Get that started now with whatever is left in savings every month. You can now work with this money to allocate that towards the down payment on your home. And I would encourage you to not just save for the down payment, but also closing costs because that, that is also part of the cash that you will need before you buy. And I would prefer that to not come from emergency savings. So whatever the price tag of the homes that you're looking at are, whatever range they're at, if it's like let's say $300,000, then you want to take about 2 to 3% of that and put that away in another account. And that's just closing costs. Okay? You may not have to pay as much as that at Closing, but that is there for you in the event that you have to use it. As someone who just went through the process of buying a home, you need the down payment, you need the closing costs, and part of those closing costs will include, you know, the first couple of months of the mortgage. So that's good. That gives you a little bit of a cushion. When you move in, you're not immediately paying the mortgage. I mean, you are, but you've already paid it. You know what I mean? It's not that frenetic in the beginning where, yeah, I got to make sure that I hook up my bank account to my mortgage account and make sure that I make the first payment. It's all done at closing and probably for the next couple of months, maybe three months. So that's always good. But have that money set aside. So make sure emergency account is bulked up six to nine months, tucked away. Once you got that done, automatically start contributing to your 401k, 10%. If you can already start doing this, do it. And then with the money that you have left, start to put some of that towards the down payment. Separate that from emergency so that you can just clearly see how it's growing and where you're at. Next up is our friend Brian, who says, I find that I struggle, Farnoosh in finding information on intermediate savings goals. I'm currently 21. I'll hopefully be getting married and make some other large purchases like a home, a trip, I don't know, in the next 10 years. Yeah, who knows when they're traveling again, right? He says, do you have any advice or any suggestions of where to look to find more advice on intermediate savings? I've searched many blogs, websites, but find limited or very general information about intermediate savings goals. All right, Brian. Well, you're very ambitious at 21 looking to save for these intermediate goals.
Farnoosh Torabi
I applaud you.
Podcast Guest / Listener Q&A Contributor
I would check out Morningstar. Their director of personal finance, Christine Benz has written about this, and she gives some nice strategy around this. So, in general, the rule of thumb is for money that you don't need to access for at least 10 years, this is money that you may consider putting in something other than a savings account that's earning nominal interest, that maybe you can afford to take on some risk with this money, but not a ton, because as we know, it sometimes takes markets longer than 10 years to recover. If you experience a huge downfall in the market within the first few months of pouring all this money into your portfolio, it could take a while for things to perk up. Again, questions you want to ask yourself. Do I want a guaranteed return on this money? If you know that you're getting married in the next five to seven years and you don't want to risk this money, then you don't put it in the stock market. You do put it in something like a CD or just a high yield savings account. You also want to be tax conscious. If you do decide to put your money in stocks, there's going to be income tax, potentially capital gains tax, maybe on any profits that you make when you withdraw the money. So keep that in mind as you calculate the pros and cons. Now back to Christine Benz, the director of personal finance at Morningstar. She says that historical returns suggest that if your time horizon is less than 10 years, stocks have been too unreliable for goals that are 10 years away. She suggests opening a brokerage account, having some of that portfolio be in low fee funds like index funds, ETFs, but do mix it up with bonds and other safer havens. Fixed income diversification is always important, but when you have a shorter time horizon. We talked about Allocation Way in the beginning of this podcast. You may not want to be majority in stocks in this portfolio. You might want to be more like 30 or 40% stocks. She does actually recommend, very specifically municipal bonds and bond funds. Why? Because they are oftentimes free from federal tax and in some cases state and local tax. So that's getting pretty specific. Check out Christine's work@morningstar.com In general, Morningstar is a great site if you want more context, more information, more of the nitty gritty behind what is in the various mutual funds that you're investing in. The ETFs, they do a lot of great market analysis, economic analysis. I've been referencing them for decades, so they're still around. That speaks for itself. I know that if you go to any number of automated investment platforms like Intelligent Investor from Schwab, they will ask you about your goals and your time horizon and then create a portfolio for you that aligns with that. All right, good luck to you and thanks for listening. Okay, Meandra, as a reminder, if you have questions for me, it's really easy to get in touch. There's a few ways you can go to Instagram, send me a direct message with your question. You can go to to sodcast.com click on Ask Farnouche and leave me your question there. Have a great rest of your weekend, everybody. And I hope your weekend is so money.
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Title: Ask Farnoosh: Interview Strategies, High-Yield Savings Accounts, and Home Buying Advice
Date: September 26, 2025
Host: Farnoosh Torabi
In this Friday "Ask Farnoosh" episode, award-winning financial strategist Farnoosh Torabi tackles listener questions on a wide range of personal finance issues. Topics covered include maximizing high-yield savings accounts, the best college savings vehicles, preparing for job interviews in finance without official licenses, balancing home-buying goals with retirement savings, and smart strategies for “intermediate” financial goals. Interwoven are timely insights on banking fraud, health insurance delays, and notable news in the financial world, all dispensed with Farnoosh’s trademark blend of practicality, warmth, and wit.
“It feels really rewarding to be even just having gotten this far.” (03:21)
“I am right now walking this planet without any access to financial technology...makes you realize how dependent you are.” (05:45)
Insurance Red Tape: Farnoosh discusses the new, frustrating delays in getting basic prescriptions filled due to insurance prior authorizations.
“We need to be our own advocates in the healthcare field as much as we have to be in the financial field.” (10:50)
Amazon Settlement: Amazon has agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement over allegations of tricking customers into Prime subscriptions and making cancellations difficult. Consumers are urged to check eligibility for refunds.
Listener: Susannah
“It's worth it to go a little bit of the extra mile to open up that third bank account if...the APYs at your bank aren't that attractive.” (14:33)
Listener: “Fit Mom” (Mrs. Segioviano)
“The 529 plan is really designed to help you pay for qualified education expenses…you don't have to pay taxes on those withdrawals.” (17:23)
Listener: Jacqueline (on Instagram)
“Very few people would say that they love personal finance…to say that at 23 years old you have really been inspired…I think really says a lot.” (24:42)
“What you're basically demonstrating by asking this question is one, you've done some research on the company. Two, you understand what their goals, values, missions are. Three, you are interested in investing in that…” (25:56)
Listener: Sarah
“If the answer is yes, then I’ll tell you this much. You’re done saving for a rainy day, okay? Just check that off your list.” (30:47)
Listener: Brian
“If your time horizon is less than 10 years, stocks have been too unreliable for goals that are 10 years away.” (34:30)
Farnoosh delivers clear, actionable information with her signature supportive, direct, and slightly humorous style. She makes complex subjects accessible, repeatedly underscores the importance of self-advocacy—both in healthcare and finance—and encourages listeners to prioritize financial wellness in a way that works for their life circumstances.
Ideal for listeners who:
For more: SoMoneyPodcast.com
Resource mentioned: SavingForCollege.com | Morningstar.com