What Men Need to Hear About Money | Mady Mills

Mady Mills (0:00)

The most important financial decision you ever make is who you marry, and IRA is the most important account that a woman can have because it's individual. And so make sure that you have that IRA, but also making sure that you know what the finances are. And I know the great wealth transfer, men die earlier than women. If you're a woman married to a man, don't wait until the man is on his deathbed to know what your financial situation is.

Tyler Gardner (0:24)

Hello friends, this is Tyler Gardner welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be. Today's guest is someone who makes the complex world of money and markets not only accessible, but actually pretty enjoyable to follow. Mady Mills is an on-air host at Yahoo Finance, where she anchors the daily show Catalyst, covering everything from economic headlines and stock market moves to the financial stories that actually matter in your real life. Before Yahoo, Mady worked at Bloomberg, co-hosting a daily market show and contributing to Bloomberg originals. And she's also produced award-winning journalism for The New York Times and The Cut at New York Magazine. But what sets Mady apart, and why I'm really excited for this conversation, is her ability to bring human clarity to the complete and utter chaos of financial news. Whether she's breaking down the latest CPI report, or talking about how Gen Z thinks about money, she is sharp, calm and deeply tuned in to how real world people are navigating today's financial world. In this episode, we talk about how she made the leap from politics to finance, what she's learned from interviewing billionaires and everyday investors alike, and why the fear of not having enough money is more universal than you might think. We also get into her personal story, growing up with financial volatility, how she thinks about money in relationships, and the one financial move she thinks every woman should make. And she even has some advice for our male listeners at the end. This is one of those conversations that goes well beyond the headlines, so I am pleased to offer you an extensive conversation with Mady Mills. You have worked for some incredibly cool companies and big names in the finance sector, right? You've worked with Bloomberg, New York Times, and now you're with Yahoo Finance.

When did you initially say, I want to be involved in this emotionally hectic and chaotic space of reporting to a mass audience about money on a daily basis?

Mady Mills (2:55)

I knew at a pretty young age that I wanted to be a journalist. I grew up in a household of journalists. My mom was a news director, so I was kind of around that newsroom and broadcast environment, and it was when broadcast was still really cool, like when local news was thriving. I was in a newsroom at that young age and just seeing how cool it was to have breaking news happen and everyone freak out. And so I knew I wanted to do that. And then I started my career covering politics. And after you cover politics, everything else feels so easy and so straightforward. So once my first election was the 2016 election, I worked at the New York Times. And election night alone, I was literally in the office almost 24 hours a day, the week leading up to it. And then completely overnight into the election results, I went home at four in the morning and was back in the office at seven the next day, pretty much. Like it was a crazy time period, obviously. And so then when I ended up at Bloomberg and I started to have an opportunity to see that covering finance could be just as intellectually stimulating, but also offer a better work-life balance, that was very appealing to me. And also, as nuanced as finance is, and I'm excited to hear your thoughts on that too, it can feel more straightforward than politics, especially in that particular election cycle and time period. So it felt like a relief to me to be able to cover something that was very, the stocks went up or down today. That is the news. And when the market closes, you go home.

Tyler Gardner (4:29)

I didn't know that you had actually started with politics.

And that's fascinating because even though I'm refreshed to hear you say that you find talking about finance less political or a better work-life balance or just a more optimal profession, but for me, every time that I talk about anything timely in finance, it gets very quickly conflated with politics. I haven't quite found a way to divorce it. So when we find that markets are very consistently lumped in with politics, rightfully or not rightfully, especially just after election years, how do you approach reporting to a mass audience about markets when everything you say feels politically charged?