Why You Feel Broke When You’re Not, and the Risky Bets It Can Lead To, with Jill Schlesinger

Paula Pant (0:00)

What are some dumb mistakes that smart people make with their money? We had that conversation in 2019 with CBS News business analyst, Jill Schlesinger. She joins us today to talk about what's stayed the same and what's changed, because today, post-pandemic, we've got Draft Kings, PolyMarket, Call She, we've got Buy Now, Pay Later. We've got all these new ways that we can make dumb money mistakes. But we've also got the classic ways, Get Rich Quick, Getting Jittery or Panicking.

So what's new? What's different? And what has stayed the same? And how are the challenges that we face today different? Inflation's up, housing is more expensive, groceries, gas, everything costs more than it did pre-pandemic.

What advice from back then still stands and what needs to be updated? We're covering all of that and more right now. Welcome to the Afford Anything Podcast, the show that knows you can afford anything, not everything. This show covers five pillars, financial psychology, increasing your income, investing, real estate and entrepreneurship. Acronym double-I fire, and we're going to talk about four out of five of those today. Pretty much everything other than entrepreneurship we touch on. Our guest is the Emmy-winning business analyst for CBS News, Jill Schlesinger. She's the host of the Jill on Money Podcast, author of The Great Money Reset.

Her new podcast is Money Moves. She is a certified financial planner. She started her career as an options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York after graduating from Brown University. Today, in addition for being a business analyst for CBS News, she is also the chief investment officer for an independent investment advisory. In our upcoming conversation, Jill argues that today's money mistakes, sports betting, meme stocks, social media comparisons, today's money mistakes draw on that same old fear and greed, but in faster and easier forms. And you're going to learn how to spot these emotional pulls, how to avoid the temptation to get rich quick, how to avoid the pessimism of feeling that you're behind, and how to focus your most limited asset, which is your attention, on the things that actually work. We've made a two-page action guide that helps you take what you learn in this upcoming conversation and put it into practice. You can download that for free at affordanything.com/smarter.

Hi, Jill.

Jill Schlesinger (2:28)

Hello.

Paula Pant (2:30)

Jill, the last time that you joined us was in 2019 What?

Jill Schlesinger (2:34)

Yes, 100 years ago.

Paula Pant (2:35)

Exactly. At that time, we had a conversation about 13 dumb things that smart people do with their money.

Now, post-pandemic, the world is very different, and some of the mistakes that people are making are also different, and there's buy now, pay later, there's draft kings, and all kinds of gambling. I mean, it's just such a different, it's funny how much things have changed.

Jill Schlesinger (3:02)

Have they?

Paula Pant (3:03)

Yeah.

Jill Schlesinger (3:04)

Isn't it really the same? It's just different vehicles.

You know, when I wrote the dumb things smart people do with their money, I had been a financial advisor, I had been a certified, I am a certified financial planner, but I had been in the business for like 14 years, and I moved into media, and I was with CBS, and I just kept hearing like the same things that people were doing, but it's like just a different variation. So is it really that different to talk about like draft kings, meme stocks, hopes that you're going to get rich quick? It's just a different vehicle. Like all these things are the same, these emotional pulls that, you know, people get greedy, people get fearful. They move between the two. So depending on where you are in the cycle, you're sort of gravitating towards one or the other.

The biggest difference today that I would say is just the immediacy of everything that you can do. All the barriers have come down, even since 2019, or probably 2017, 18, when I was really writing the book, you know, you have zero fee index funds, trades that cost nothing, people who during the pandemic really got into the idea of trading as opposed to investing for the long term. So all those things, they're kind of, you know, like I grew up at a time where it was the 80s and people were investing and it was like the first time and they got excited about it and then the market crashed. And then it was the 90s and it was like, oh my God, the internet, it's gonna change everything. It did, but then the market crashed. And then the 2000s, housing was like, oh my God, it's the most incredible thing, housing can't lose, then it crashed. So like boom and bust cycles are pretty normal. And I actually enjoy that because otherwise, why would I have a job if everybody were completely rational?