Ask HTM - Open Enrollment Entanglements, Worthwhile BNPL Scenarios, & Continuing to Investing with Outstanding Debt #1060

How to Money

iHeartPodcasts

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Let’s kick off the week with some fresh listener questions we have lined up for you! And don't just stand on the sidelines- if you have a question you’d like us to answer, toss your voice memo our way. It only takes about 90 seconds to record and you can find a step by step guide over at HowToMoney.com/ask . Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!

1 - Open enrollment: what factors should I consider when hopping to a more affordable health insurance provider?

2 - Buy now pay later: how much of a discount would have to be offered to make a “pay in 4” worth considering?

3 - Money gears: should I hit pause on investing in order to finally get rid of my credit card debt?

4 - Credit score: would paying down my mortgage early hurt my credit score and my ability to invest in real estate later?

5 - Savings rate: should I include dollars automatically invested into my 401k when calculating my savings rate?

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

Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here.
Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed an Upside Dawn by Athletic! 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 IHeart podcast.
0:04.2	Welcome to How to Money.
0:05.7	Oh, you messed it up.
0:07.1	That's not how we do it.
0:08.0	Why not?
0:08.8	We can do it that way.
0:09.7	Okay, today we're answering your listener questions.
0:11.3	Okay. I thought you made a mistake.
0:31.7	So I was just catching it early on.
0:33.8	You just shake things up.
0:34.7	Switch things up.
0:35.6	All right.
0:35.9	This is an ask how to money episode. A listener is considering hopping health care plans in order to save. It's open enrollment season after all, Joel. Another listener is wondering. Open season on our wallets on the health care front too. That's what it feels like. Another listener, he's wondering if you and I, if we could ever love buy and I'll pay later. So we'll share our thoughts there. Another listener is considering pausing her investing for some debt payoff goals. We'll get to those. Plus more during our episode today, buddy. Okay, so I don't know where this quote comes from. I think it's either quote from an old economist. But then... Forrest Gump. Well, he might have been... You're going to bust out the chocolates quote? from. But I think it's a, it's either a quote from an old economist, but then... Forrest Gump. Well, it might have been horse gum. I don't think it was. The chocolates quote. No, I'm not thinking about that one. No, I just too, I was listening to, uh, that there aren't many politicians. I appreciate these days, but I was listening to one politician that I actually like in a sea of awful ones. And I'm not even going to mention his name. I'm just not.
1:30.1	I'm just not because I don't want to get that feedback. I'm just, I don't want to get that feedback. You're like, have you heard of this guy named Donald? I forget his last name. Yeah, right. Right. So there's like literally two politicians, I think, make any sense right now. but he was talking on a very obscure podcast, so good luck I want to find this. But he was talking about the high prices of beef in this country, which we've all been confronted with. If you tried to buy a steak recently, you wanted to punch yourself in the face, it was that expensive. And you probably opted for chicken instead, unless you're just a baller like Matt.
2:00.9	Was he talking about, please. Was he talking about Brazil? Evidently, the Argentina.
2:05.7	Oh, is it Argentin? Well, he's talking about, yes.
2:07.3	Was it talking about our beef imports? The desire to import beef right now. And he talked about
2:12.1	how that's actually going to prolong the problem. And one of the things that he said was, and I thought this was so true, it's one of those kind
2:20.8	of destruction, creative destruction elements of, that happened in a free market society.
2:26.3	He said high prices are the cure for high prices.
2:30.1	And that's just a really classic like economist talk.
2:34.6	Yes.
	...

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