Ask HTM - 4 Hours to Dispute $3.16, All-In on the S&P 500, and Hitting Coast FIRE #1123

How to Money

iHeartPodcasts

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re kicking off the week by answering your listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!

1 - Coast FIRE: How are we doing based on how much we’ve got in our state retirement accounts?

2 - Savings Bonds: What do I do with these 30 year old savings bonds that I was gifted back in the 90s!?

3 - Frugal or Cheap: Is it worth spending 4 hours disputing a $3.60 incorrect charge on a medical bill?

4 - S&P 500: After recently wising up and switching to fully invest in the S&P, how do I eventually rebalance before retirement?

5 - Appliance Land: Refrigerator died so what should we keep in mind as we buy our new one?

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

Coast FI: Not FIRE, But Not Retirement. Something in Between.
Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

During this episode we enjoyed a Blonde Fat Ale (CORRECTION: Fatale… I’m guessing bc of the ABV? But it really looks like Fat Ale on the can) by Backpocket Brewing – thanks Clint for sending this one along to us! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.6	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.0	Welcome to How to Money.
0:05.7	I'm Joel.
0:06.4	I am Matt.
0:07.9	Today, we're answering your listener questions. That's right, happy Monday to everyone.
0:31.0	We hope everyone had a fantastic weekend out there.
0:33.4	And Joel, we are going to hear directly from listeners.
0:36.0	Three specifically that I'm thinking of.
0:38.0	We're going to hear their voice memos. And hopefully we'll get to a couple others. For instance, we've got a, we're going to hear from a listener herself, her actual voice, who's debating frugal or cheap as it pertains to health care. No, she is not. There is no cheap when it comes to health care. She's not scraping her own plaque off her own teeth with her own dentist tools like I do sometimes. We've shared that before the show. Everybody knows you're weird when it comes to your teeth stuff. Another listener. You just don't want anyone else touching them, right? I personally, completely enjoy going into the dentist, kicking back, opening my mouth, and let them do their thing. You just don't enjoy paying for it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in particular, I'm just like, well, we never get, have cavities. And I know I should probably. How would you know? Well, if you never ask the professional. I go on like once every so often. Uh-huh. Not even to say the number of years.
1:32.7	But another listener has a dead refrigerator trying to figure out what she should take into account as she's looking to replace it.
1:34.9	And another listener is trying to figure out whether or not he's financially independent
1:38.7	or not.
1:40.0	Yeah, he's got some different accounts in the mix as well. So we'll get his question, plus more during our Ask How to Money episode on today's How to Money podcast, Joel, here on I Heart Network.
1:51.6	Let's go. Okay. I thought I'd just say all the things. My sister was telling me this weekend, my older sister.
1:57.0	Older sister. Katie. A story about furniture shopping. That shocked me. It was wild. And I feel like I have to divulge this. I was just trying to think about the last time I bought furniture. I think it was probably buying something on article. I think I bought a bookshelf on article. And buying something on article. I can make some sweet stuff. It's a really nice bookshelf.
2:17.7	It makes some cool stuff.
2:18.4	Emily and I had debated.
2:19.5	Should we get something?
2:20.3	It's like, you know, super cheap.
2:21.8	Well, I don't know.
2:22.6	It looks like it's flimsy.
	...

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