Happy New Year, Elizabeth.

Happy New Year. I thought I would start off the New Year with a little rant. I mean, I feel like, Sean, the older that I get, the more I realize I think New Year is a scam. Nothing changes on January the 1st. It's just another day. You're right, but a lot of people think there's a lot of hope and potential in the New Year. So we're going to capitalize on that, at least for a podcast episode. Okay, let's swing it the positive way.

All right. in the new year, so we're going to capitalize on that at least for a podcast episode. Okay, let's swing it the positive way.

All right.

Welcome to Nerd Wallet's Smart Money Podcast, a show where you come to us with your money

questions and we, genius nerds, answer them.

I'm Sean Piles.

And I'm Elizabeth Ayala. It's a new year and we're kicking off our series all about your money in 2026. Yes, Elizabeth, a new year is upon us with all the hopes, ambitions and delusions that come with turning over the calendar. So are you a big New Year's resolution person? I think I gave it away, you know, a few seconds ago. Not really. Jaded. I used to be. I know. I used to be, but I'm not saying I don't set goals, but I don't put as much pressure on myself as I used to in previous years. And I also don't have as many. I used to have a laundry list of goals. Well, that sounds realistic. Yeah. Well, all month long, we're going to help our listeners set up their finances to make the most of this new year, whether you love a vision board and are mapping out your goals in detail, or you're more like Elizabeth, and you're a little bit jaded and just want to endure another year without your finances blowing up. No matter where you land, we got you. All right, Sean, so where are we kicking things off? Okay, before we dive into bank accounts and investment portfolios, we're going to start by exploring our minds and how we can leverage the funny way that our brains work to accomplish what we want with our finances this year. As you say that, Sean, it reminds me of a stellar book, or should I say two books that I read. Now, one was titled High Performance Habits and the other one was Atomic Habits. Now, some of the principles still live with me from both of those books, and I think they can be applied to building healthy money habits that help support your goals. So I think that was like a good entryway to you getting into the detail of the conversation. Well, I'm going to add those to my reading list. I've heard a lot about atomic habits. I just haven't cracked the spine of it myself. And I might ask you for some more details on those later in the conversation. But before I get too cozy in my own role as podcast psychologist, Elizabeth, I want to hear about your goals for the year. What do you have planned? Well, as someone who was just like, oh, I don't really care about

the new year and goals, okay, I didn't say that. But as someone who was a little bit of a downer, I actually did prep some goals around, I think, September of 2025. So, even planning. I have been planning. All right. So my first one is, I want to be like you, Sean, and I want to pay off my car this year. It's going to feel so good. Yeah, I'm so excited. And interestingly, this was my first car loan because I lived in London where you didn't need a car. So this is my first car. And I'm about $4,000 away from being free. So I have decided to make extra payments every month in order to achieve that goal by the end of the year. So when do you think you'll be totally car loan free?

I have calculated and by December.

Congrats. Keep me posted. I'm going to ring in. Oh, my God. I'm going to be 38 this year. I'm going to ring in 38 with no car loan. I love that. All right. So I have about two slash three more goals. The other one was just to maintain a 30 to 40% retirement savings rate by doing exactly what I did in 2025, maxing out my accounts and budgeting. I also want to increase my income. This is an interesting one. And I'm also curious to hear about how you're going to explain the psychology of money goals, Sean, to see if you

can help me to think through how I'm going to increase my income. And then the last one, you're not

allowed to have any two cents about it, is that I will be opening more accounts. No.

You're coming around to my side of things, Elizabeth. I'm coming to your side. Welcome to the sinking funds

lifestyle. Yeah, yeah. I need a fun money account. So I'm going to open one for that for vacations, birthdays and everything else. So I just know, okay, this money's for that versus having it mixed with my savings, yeah. And I assume it's going to be in a high-old savings account, obviously. Absolutely. Where else would I put it? And with increasing your income, we at NerdWallet are about to have our review cycle. So I think we should take this up with our manager and see what we can do to get you a little more money. And I want that too. We won two, three awards last year. Please factor that into my pay. Yeah, we won three podcast awards last year. Everyone,

two Signal Awards and one Eddie award. So pretty big deal. And we deserve to be compensated

accordingly. Thank you very much. And of course, thank you to the listeners because we could have done it

without you. We would not be here without you. All right, Sean. Tell me now that I've put all my

business out there, what are your goals for the year?

I feel like I'm in financial recovery mode after a really expensive fall. I'm rebuilding my savings after my wedding and my honeymoon.

And I'm really just in nest mode too. I'm enjoying being home after being away. So I want to save up for some home projects. I want to build up my emergency fund,

even though it's already robust. I just feel like the world is so shaky right now that I'd like

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