— To stream the interview click here.

— To download the mp3 right click here and choose “save as”

In today’s Ask Farnoosh episode:

Molly

Hi! I admit I was not familiar with your work until I heard you present at Simmons earlier this month. (P.S. Thank you for “When She Makes More”! I turned my side hustle into a career and now make twice what my husband makes—in half the time!) Question: Despite years of painful conversations, my 63-y.o. MIL refuses to improve her own financial situation and says she’s embarrassed to seek public assistance. Somehow it’s less embarrassing to ask hubby and me to cover the bills social security doesn’t. How can we shield ourselves, long-term, from her leaching tendencies? Thank you!

Erin

Hi Farnoosh – I listened to your episode with Ramit Sethi and felt inspired to utilize the resources on his site to up my negotiating game at my annual review. I ended up getting a 40% pay increase from $50,000 to $70,000! While I was familiar with Ramit before, the podcast was a motivating factor for me to negotiate being paid my worth. I also saw you speak at FinCon last year and subsequently read When She Makes More. I have actually adjusted some of my behaviors in my relationship to ensure money is empowering. Mostly I just wanted to say thank you.

Ashley

I look forward to listening to an episode every morning and I’m always looking up your guests and learning more. I have almost $200k in student loan debt from law school. I’m on an IBR program so monthly payments aren’t too much, but at this rate, I won’t pay off my loans until they are forgiven in 20 years. I have tried consolidating but my debt to income ratio is too much. I don’t know whether I should pay the minimum, invest, and wait out my loans or aggressively pay them down. I have about $40k in savings but investing is a priority and buying a house someday would be nice also. Thank you!

Kevin

My wife & I are in our late 40’s, live within our means and have saved/invested reasonably well. We have no kids. We have no significant write-offs, & get hit with the AMT. If we just stop working for a few years (or more) are we doing any long term damage to potential SS benefits, or anything else? It feels like we’re working to pay for commuting! Thanks!