So Money With Farnoosh Torabi

Farnoosh sits down with beauty icon Anastasia Soare, founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills and author of the new memoir Raising Brows. Known as the “Eyebrow Queen,” Anastasia shares how she built a billion-dollar brand from scratch after immigrating from communist Romania with nothing but determination. She opens up about learning the “alphabet of finance” in America, the early days shaping brows in a rented salon room, and the business risks that changed her life. Anastasia also reveals how she convinced Nordstrom to take a chance on her products, her unforgettable live TV moment shaping Oprah’s brows, and the negotiation lessons that still guide her today. She talks candidly about working alongside her daughter Claudia, what keeps her motivated decades into her career, and how she continues to innovate while staying grounded. This is a story about beauty, grit, and building an empire one brow—and one bold move—at a time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feminist dating coach and Date Brazen founder Lily Womble shares how to invest in your love life the same way you invest in your financial future with intention, clarity, and confidence. Drawing from her new book Thank You, More Please, Lily explains how to move beyond the algorithm-driven dating grind and cultivate what she calls Essence-Based Preferences—a framework for attracting the relationships that truly align with your values. We explore the parallels between financial and emotional abundance, why self-worth is the ultimate currency, and how to stop “settling for less” in both money and love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's questions: Ways to build smarter budgets, earn extra money outside the 9-to-5, tackle those hefty annual credit card fees, and a pro tip for anyone struggling with medical debt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new study reveals that more people want to quit their jobs now than during the Great Resignation. Whether it’s to find better-paying work to address the rising cost of living, or simply to leave their company or industry and start fresh on a professional path they actually enjoy, the big question remains: Will they quit?Our guest today is helping people overcome that hurdle.Goli Kalkhoran is a Master-Certified Life Coach and former attorney who helps unfulfilled professionals create a career (and life) they truly enjoy. She’s the host of the Lessons from a Quitter podcast, where she de-stigmatizes quitting and offers resources and inspiration for individuals looking to pivot in their established careers.In this episode, we discuss:Why our culture is so afraid of quittingHow to afford quitting — both financially and energeticallyGoli’s own journey of quitting her law career and the many pivots that followed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money touches every part of a relationship — from who pays the bills to who feels free to spend, to how faith, privilege, and even family expectations shape the way we see our financial roles. But for many couples, these conversations stay on the surface — focused on budgets or account balances — instead of the deeper emotions and power dynamics underneath.My guests today, Heather and Douglas Boneparth, set out to change that. They’re the husband-and-wife duo behind the new book Money Together, a guide that goes beyond financial planning to explore the real forces that drive how couples handle money — things like caregiving, identity, gender, faith, and generational wealth.Heather is a corporate attorney turned author and financial advocate; Douglas is a certified financial planner and founder of Bonafide Wealth. Together, they spent years interviewing more than 60 couples and experts to unpack what really happens behind closed doors when money meets love.In our conversation, we talk about what they discovere

This week, Farnoosh dedicates Ask Farnoosh to one of the most pressing money topics in America right now: debt relief. Visit SoMoneyLinks for resources.With household debt topping $17.7 trillion and credit card balances at record highs, Farnoosh answers real listener questions about tackling debt, from when to pause investing to whether it ever makes sense to use home equity or refinance student loans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve been shopping lately, you’ve probably noticed — clothes cost a lot more than they used to. Inflation has hit fashion hard, but the quality? Not so much. From fast fashion to high-end brands, shoppers are wondering: why are we paying more for pieces that don’t seem to last?To help us make sense of it all — and learn how to shop smarter — I’m joined by stylist Amy Salinger, founder of StyleMethod®. (Catch me on her podcast!)Self-taught and style-obsessed, Amy built her career on the belief that great style isn’t innate — it’s intentional. Her signature method has helped hundreds of clients align how they look with who they truly are, across all body types, lifestyles, and life stages. After more than a decade working one-on-one with clients in New York City, she took her business fully online, bringing expert styling support to high-achieving people everywhere.Through StyleMethod®, Amy helps clients reclaim their reflection — with shoulders back, chin up, and confidence fully activated. Because as she

New York Times bestselling author of Take Back Your Brain, Kara Loewentheil, unveils her proven strategies for closing the “brain gap,” and how women can reclaim their financial confidence in a patriarchal society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's questions: Should I move my money overseas if I'm worried about immigrant rights? Should I divide my dad’s $100,000 (currently in a basic bank account) among savings, high-yield savings, and investments, and should I remarry my current boyfriend, knowing I would lose my ex-husband’s Social Security benefits? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was this: you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. It’s true, but for many of us — especially women — negotiating can feel loaded, intimidating, even risky. The fear of backlash is real.My guest today knows this better than anyone. In fact, a failed negotiation early in her career — one that ended with her being escorted out of the building — changed the course of her life and career. Since then, she’s made it her mission to equip women with the strategies to negotiate successfully without the penalties.Joining me is Kathryn Valentine, CEO of Worthmore Strategies, whose work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company. Today, she shares the research-backed tools and scripts that can help all of us — whether we’re asking for a raise, a promotion, or even more flexibility at work — get to “yes” while sidestepping the backlash.More resources:Kathryn's 76 things you can negotiate - www.76things.comHer n

My guest today is one of the most vibrant and necessary voices in personal finance today. Katie Gatti Tassin is the founder of the wildly popular Money with Katie platform and host of the podcast by the same name. She's back on the show with a brand-new book that is as bold as it is brilliant: Rich Girl Nation.This isn't your average money guide. Katie weaves sharp analysis, real-world context, and her signature wit into a manifesto for financial independence — especially for women navigating the beauty tax, the motherhood penalty, workplace politics, and a world where financial systems weren’t exactly built with us in mind.We discuss why the first chapter is called “The Hot Girl Hamster Wheel,” how investing in yourself early can pay off big, and why financial independence isn’t just about retiring early—it’s about having options. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Farnoosh kicks things off with life updates—juggling the whirlwind of September as a parent, launching The Montclair Pod (now a finalist for a prestigious Signal Award (vote here)), and coping with a double hit of bank fraud that forced her to shut down an account and rebuild her banking setup.Sign up for her investing workshop on Tuesday, Sept 30 at SoMoneyWorkshop.comFarnoosh also shares important personal finance headlines:Doctors vs. Insurance Companies: New prior-authorization rules delaying basic care.Amazon’s $2.5 billion FTC settlement: Millions of Prime subscribers may be eligible for refunds.Iron Hill Brewery closures: A beloved East Coast restaurant chain, tied to her own family memories, shutters permanently.In the mailbag, she tackles listener questions on:Whether to open multiple high-yield savings accounts for different goals like emergencies, annual expenses, and travel.The best ways to start saving for a child’s college education—including 529 plans, gifting platforms, and Roth IRAs.How to ac

If you’ve been following along, you know that I recently experienced fraud in my own business checking account — a gut-wrenching ordeal where thousands of dollars disappeared overnight because someone got hold of my routing number. The bank caught it, but the disruption and stress were very real. And I’ll be honest: even as someone who spends her life thinking and talking about money, I almost missed the warning signs.Which is why today’s conversation is so important. We’re heading into the fall and holiday season — peak time for identity theft and online scams. Fraudsters know we’re distracted, busy, spending more, and often less vigilant.To help us all stay one step ahead, I’ve invited back Martha Underwood, founder of Prismm. Martha and her team are on the frontlines of protecting our financial identity and legacy. She’s here to share the latest scams to watch out for — from PayPal “micro-deposits,” to spoofed IRS texts, to sophisticated AI voice fraud — and, most importantly, the concrete steps we can tak

Money is never just about money. It’s identity, history, and how we see ourselves in the mirror. Today, we’re joined by psychotherapist Holli Rubin, whose work sits at the intersection of mental health, body image, and financial wellbeing. She specializes in life transitions and women’s mental health, and she’s advised organizations from Deloitte to wealth management firms on the psychology of money and confidence. In our conversation, Holli unpacks why so many women carry shame and doubt around money, how early messages about worth, care work, and “who earns” shape our financial confidence and why self-worth gets tangled up with net worth. We also explore her nuanced link between body image and money: the ways appearance and status cues can mask (or magnify) our inner stories about value, security, and belonging. And crucially, she offers practical ways to move from awareness to action, especially in midlife when careers, relationships, and health are all in flux.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva

In this week’s Ask Farnoosh, Farnoosh opens with a personal story about a $5,000 fraud attempt on her business checking account—and what she learned about staying vigilant. She then breaks down today’s biggest money headlines: the Fed’s recent interest rate cut, why U.S. credit scores just saw their sharpest drop since 2008, shifts in the housing market, and why groceries and rent are still stubbornly high despite easing inflation elsewhere. Farnoosh also answers a wide range of listener questions from investing to estate planning.Register for Farnoosh's investing workshop on Sept 30th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when ambition—the very quality that’s supposed to fuel our success—ends up making us sick?My guest today, Amina AlTai, knows this firsthand. On a sweltering July morning in New York City, she got a call from her doctor that changed everything: if she didn’t head to the hospital immediately, she was just days away from multiple organ failure. The cause? Years of overwork and overstriving, rooted in her experience as the child of immigrants, navigating a post-9/11 workplace with an Arab name, and feeling she had to be the hardest working person in the room to matter.That wake-up call set Amina on a journey of healing and reinvention, eventually becoming an executive coach to senior leaders and women around the world. From her work and her own life, she’s come to see that ambition isn’t the enemy—but the way we relate to it can be. In her new book The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living, she introduces us to two kinds of ambition: the painful kind, driven by wounds like rejection or

Blended families don’t just merge households—they merge bank accounts, bills, and very different money expectations. And while stepfamilies are becoming more and more common, the financial playbook for them is far from simple. Every dollar spent can feel loaded: is it going to your kids, your spouse’s kids, or the kids you’re now raising together?My guest today, Cameron Normand, is one of the country’s leading stepfamily experts and the founder of Stepfamily Solutions. She knows firsthand how money and emotional labor intersect in blended families, and she’s built a career helping stepparents navigate the financial and emotional landmines that come with the role.In our conversation, Cameron breaks down why finances in stepfamilies are about so much more than dollars and cents, the “insider-outsider” syndrome that many stepparents face, and what it really takes to create a household where everyone feels seen, supported, and financially secure.Learn more about Cameron at stepfamilysolutions.com. And check

In this episode, Farnoosh shares advice on managing finances between partners with unequal incomes and offers guidance on common financial queries such as selling a home to live mortgage-free and building credit without a credit card. Register for Farnoosh's live investing workshop here. Listen to Farnoosh on WNYC here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to be well-mannered with your money?Today, we’re getting a masterclass in modern etiquette from Daniel Post Senning, the great-great-grandson of Emily Post and co-president of the Emily Post Institute. Daniel joins us to talk about the sticky situations we all face—splitting the bill, tipping in the era of digital checkout screens, handling salary conversations with friends, and navigating the financial asks that come with weddings, parties, and work culture.With AI reshaping our communication, remote work blurring social lines, and generational traditions clashing with modern norms, it’s never been harder—or more important—to be mindful of how we show up for each other.For more information, check out The Emily Post Institute, the podcast Awesome Etiquette, and the book Emily Post’s Business Etiquette.This episode aired originally on June 9, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While most of us wait until January to make financial resolutions, fall is actually one of the smartest times to review your finances, especially your 401(k). Deadlines are coming up, new legislation is on the horizon, and for many of us, this is when employers open enrollment and nudge us to re-evaluate our benefits. I’m joined by Tess Waresmith, accredited financial counselor, investing educator, and founder of Wealth with Tess. Tess has a gift for breaking down the intimidating world of investing into simple, actionable steps that help everyday people build long-term wealth. She’s here to walk us through what the recent headlines about crypto and alternative assets in 401(k)s really mean, how to make sure your account is working for you, and the strategies she believes are most important as we close out the year.Learn more about Tess:WealthWithTess.comFollow on InstagramOn Tuesday, September 30th, I’ll be teaching my Investing Workshop—a live class where I’ll pull back the curtain on exactly how I invest a