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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

How to Talk Finances Before Cohabitating, and Why Coffee and Tea Prices Are Surging

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Investing, How To, Education, Business

4.3 • 895 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before cohabiting, how do you talk about finances without conflict? Plus: the global forces pushing up your coffee and tea bill. Why are your daily coffee, tea, or matcha drinks costing more? What financial conversations should you have with your partner before signing a lease together? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola explore rising beverage costs and relationship money talks to help you understand how tariffs, inflation, and personal values affect your wallet. Joined by NerdWallet’s Anna Helhoski and editor Rick VanderKnyff, they begin with a discussion of global coffee and tea markets, with tips and insights on why tariffs and climate change are raising prices, how supply chains are shifting to new exporters, and what consumers can do to get their caffeine fix. Then, Sean and Elizabeth discuss how couples can navigate money conversations with each other before moving in together. They cover key issues like how to split expenses proportionally, why you need a personal emergency fund, and the importance of discussing debt, income, and financial values openly. Together they highlight strategies for handling conflict, aligning goals, and deciding whether (and when) to combine finances, to help couples set themselves up for financial and relational success. Survey: One in 10 Americans Would Never Date Someone with Credit Card Debt https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/data-undateable-debt  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: rising coffee prices, tea prices rising, matcha shortage, matcha prices, tariffs on coffee, tariffs on tea, tariffs on matcha, climate change and coffee, climate change and tea, coffee inflation, tea inflation, rising coffee costs, why is tea expensive, matcha demand social media, U.S. coffee imports, Japan matcha exports, cost of Starbucks coffee, cost of matcha latte, moving in with partner finances, how to talk about money with a partner, financial conversations before moving in, splitting bills with partner, joint account vs separate accounts, sharing income with partner, debt in relationships, credit scores and renting, financial goals with partner, emergency fund before moving in, combining finances with a partner, money conflicts in relationships, high earner relationships, household expenses split, and moving expenses budgeting. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Money conversations with romantic partners can be tricky.

0:03.0

You don't want to judge, you want to be open and honest, but you also want to make sure you're getting the whole picture.

0:09.0

So today, we're going to sit down and talk about how to talk about it, maybe with an increasingly expensive cup of coffee.

0:27.5

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds.

0:28.3

I'm Sean Piles.

0:30.1

And I'm Elizabeth Ayola.

0:36.4

Later this episode, Sean and I are going to talk about some good ways to communicate about money with a romantic partner.

0:38.8

But first, our weekly money news round up where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with

0:43.1

your money. Our news colleague, Anna Hilhouski, is back, and we're talking about sky high prices for

0:48.6

a cup of Joe. Getting a caffeine buzz is starting to break the bank, right, Anna? Yeah, if you think

0:53.5

your daily caffeine fix is expensive now, just bank, right, Anna? Yeah, if you think your daily caffeine

0:54.5

fix is expensive now, just wait for tariffs to kick in. So today I'm joined by my editor, Rick Van der Knaife,

1:00.5

to talk about our favorite morning pick me ups. Rick, welcome back. Hey, thanks for having me.

1:05.8

Good to be back. So I take it that you are a coffee drinker. I am a coffee drinker.

1:11.5

I will say I grew up at a time when kids did not drink coffee.

1:14.5

I didn't start drinking until I was 30 working on a newspaper copy desk.

1:18.1

But yeah, I suddenly turned into a coffeeholic and have been ever since.

1:22.9

How about you?

1:23.7

I was a former coffee drinker, or should I say child coffee drinker? Because every morning, starting when I was about seven or eight, I'd wake up super early and I'd have a cup of coffee with my dad where everybody else got up. But about 10 years later, my teeth and stomach were rotting out. So I had to stop. So then I switched over to tea and I've been a long time tea drinker. But today we're

1:44.7

going to talk a little bit about a very specific type of tea, matcha, which is really popular

1:50.6

if you're on social media. Well, we'll start with coffee, because coffee is obviously the dominant

1:55.0

drink that Americans drink. Surveys say that about two-thirds of Americans drink coffee daily and an average

...

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