Ask Farnoosh: Is My Emergency Savings Enough? What if my Income Drops?

Farnoosh Torabi (0:00)

Hey friends, if you've been sitting on a book idea and wondering could this actually become something, this is your moment. Join me in New York City on October 9th for Book to Brand. This is my intimate full-day immersive designed to help you turn your idea into a clear, compelling, pitch-ready book concept. You will meet the insiders, agents, publishers, and recent authors who can help bring your book to life. Spots are limited and early-bird tickets are on sale now. Head to booktobrand.co to reserve your spot. Welcome to So Money, everybody. I'm Farnoosh Torabi. This is Ask Farnoosh, October 16th, 2026 I'm all gussied up today. If you're watching this on YouTube, you see me in a nice blazer, one of my favorite button-down shirts. I did this for you, but really, I did this because I have a speaking gig after this. I'm heading to Columbia University, graduate school alma mater to share the insights and the experiences that we've gained building a local news platform here in my town called the Montclair Pod. My co-host, who's also one of my very dear friends and classmates from Columbia Journalism School graduating class of 2023 He and I are going back there today to share how we're making local news work in a time when news in general is very, what can we say? It's tough to sustain, especially at the local news level. I don't know where you live as you're listening to this podcast, but do you have a local paper? Do you have any sort of local news resources that cover your town, your region specifically? Areas of this country have turned into news deserts, and that's not good, especially we're heading into the midterm elections. We have a lot at stake in this country, but also a lot at stake in our communities, and this has nothing to do with personal finance. But I do think it has a lot to do with midlife. I started this in my midlife, and it was at a time when I was really looking for an outlet to feel like myself again. As I mentioned, I started my career in journalism, in local news, in fact. I was a financial reporter and producer for New York One News in New York City. I worked for the local papers in New York City.

This is very much who I am at the core, someone who likes to work on storytelling, local stories, getting deep into the issues that your neighborhoods are grappling with. And also, it was a way for me to have fun, really. As much work as this is, and it is a lot of work, we often say that running this platform, this Montclair Pod is basically another full-time job.

It's a lot of fun. We intentionally try to make it fun, too, because if it's not enjoyable, at least some of the time, what are we even doing? We have other things we could be doing, like hanging out with our families. But no, hashtag democracy. We need to keep this local news podcast going. We're actually up for a Signal Award, two Signal Awards this year, one for Best Local News Podcast and the other for Best Local News Episode in a podcast. That was with our interview with our governor, Mikey Sherrill, talking about how our town at the time was grappling with over $20 million in school debt and how a lot of that is attributable to the New Jersey school funding formula, which now she needs to do something about.

So we're doing some pretty important stuff here, in addition to fried chicken reviews and the best places to get donuts and the 4th of July parade. We're also trying to do real civic work. We have some important elections coming up, Board of Ed, our town council. It's not too late in your 40s to start something new and completely unrelated to the career that you have, but is very much representative of who you are and what you enjoy doing to take those chances to bet on yourself and do those things in your midlife. I don't know where this project is going to take us. So far, I feel like it's surprised us in so many ways. We're having universities call us to speak. We are consulting other journalists on how our model can be their model. It's really exciting. You may be listening and thinking, you know what, I want to find a way to be more connected to my community. This local podcast for us, in many ways, started as an excuse to do something that helped us feel more connected to our neighbors.

For you, that might mean rolling up your sleeves and volunteering somewhere. It might mean running for a school board position. It may mean starting a small business in your town. It may mean starting a local paper in your town. Let our example be your inspiration. Now on with the show. We've got questions about choosing your health care plan. How much should you really be saving in your rainy day account and much more? But first, I want to talk about a story that nobody could have prepared us for, and that is the one you've probably been reading about all week, Kelly Clarkson and a very expensive mechanical bird. If you missed it, Kelly Clarkson publicly criticized Art of Play, a shop in Brooklyn Heights where I lived close to once upon a time. After a visit left her feeling that an employee assumed she could not afford the bird that she was asking about. The bird was $15,000.