Q&A: Should My Teen Go to College?

Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Investing, Business

4.7 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#690: Blanca (01:28): Blanca, an immigrant mother raising a 14-year-old, wants her son to think critically about college—not just as an experience, but as a financial decision. With the rising cost of higher education, she’s wondering how families can assess whether an undergraduate or graduate program is likely to pay off over time. Brandon (30:05): Brandon in his forties, recently left full-time work to pursue per diem work and a side project. Planning to draw down his taxable brokerage account for supplemental income over the next 20 years, he’s wondering whether to continue reinvesting dividends or take them as cash for flexibility. Anon (40:15): Anon has been following Paula’s advice on financial advisors. They’ve heard her recommend fiduciaries and caution against the assets-under-management (AUM) model. They’re eager to understand the reasoning and want guidance on finding trustworthy advisors. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your Phlebotomists: https://affordanything.com/episode690 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Joe, you have an English degree, right? I do. Me, be good at English. Have you used it? Have you ever
0:06.0	been to England? I have been to England. I could converse with the natives. Wonderful. Well, that must have
0:14.5	been very useful when you went to England. Incredibly useful. We've got this question, which is, is a college degree worth it?
0:23.4	We're going to tackle that right at the top of the show.
0:26.3	After that, we're going to talk about how to pick a financial advisor and specifically the
0:31.5	assets under management model versus the flat fee per hour model.
0:35.8	And we're also going to discuss whether or not you should
0:38.4	take dividends as cash while you're drawing down from a brokerage account. Wow. I know it's
0:44.0	wide ranging today. That's cool. I can't wait. Welcome to the Afford Anything podcast, the show
0:48.9	that knows you can afford anything, not everything. The show covers five pillars, financial
0:53.2	psychology, increasing your income, investing,
0:55.5	real estate and entrepreneurship.
0:57.6	It's double-eye fire.
0:59.1	I'm your host, Paula Pant.
1:00.2	I trained in economic reporting at Columbia.
1:02.6	Every other episode-ish, I answer questions from you, and I do so with my buddy, the
1:07.7	former financial planner, Joe Sal C-high.
1:09.9	What's up, Joe?
1:12.7	I am super excited to be here with you today, Paula. Ah, thank you. Thank you. Any reason that you're so excited today?
1:18.0	It is a sunny day in Texarkana, and I get to hang out with my buddy Paula, answering questions
1:25.1	from the community. What could be better? Ah, well, let's start with our first question, which questions from the community. What could be better?
1:28.1	Aw, well, let's start with our first question, which comes from Blanca.
	...

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