So Money With Farnoosh Torabi

Do you dream of having your own TV talk show or be on reality TV? Come on, you know you want to be a star! My guest today has a played a leading role running popular daytime TV programs including Hoda and Kathie Lee on the Today Show and The View.\Brian Balthazar is here with advice on how to strike out on television, as well as his own personal journey of rising the ranks in television as a programming developer and executive producer.  Brian take us back to the days he was working in retail, then living in his car...not sure what his future would hold.  Today, he is the Vice President of Programming and Development for Scripps Networks where he creates and directs a variety of shows for HGTV, DIY Network and Great American Country. You may also recognize Brian as the fun and funny personality who appears on numerous shows discussing pop culture and media headlines.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

After two decades editing and publishing best-selling books, our guest today is out with her first novel, a book entitled The End of Men. Karen Rinaldi is the publisher of Harper Wave, an imprint she founded in 2012, and a senior vice president at HarperCollins Publishers. She also writes non-fiction essays and has been published by the New York Times, Time and Oprah Magazine.Karen and I discuss the challenges of writing, publishing and promoting a book. Her insistence that we must all suck greatly at something and the unassailable truths her previous marriages taught her about moneyFor more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

My husband just inherited $100K and we're not sure where to invest the money... any suggestions? Would love your opinion on target date funds... thoughts? How much of a six-figure income should be allocated toward investing in stocks, real estate, savings and so forth? Answering these questions of yours and more on this week's #AskFarnoosh.For more information or to submit your own question for an upcoming episode visit www.somoneypodcast.com and click on "Ask Farnoosh."

She hated writing as a student, and now has an award-winning blog that's en route to generating $1.5 million this year.  And she's 27 with a goal to retire by 30. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog that she launched when she was $40,000, in debt. It was a creative outlet for her while working as a financial analyst.The success of the blog has allowed her to become a solopreneur. She and her husband now travel the country in their RV. On the podcast Michelle shares how she managed to build a 7-figure blog, how she saves 90% of her income, the dynamics of being the breadwinner in her marriage and plans to retire in a few years.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Would you walk away from a job that paid $500,000 a year? And we're talking about a job that isn't terrible. It's not your passion, but come on, it's half a million dollars per year! Our bold guest Susie Moore did just that.Susie is the creator of the Side Hustle Academy, a program she created for those who want to follow in her footsteps. Want to start a side revenue stream but not sure how to start or where to find time? Susie to the rescue!More about Susie: She is a life coach and bestselling author of "What If It Does Work Out". She stopped schooling after age 18 and went on to climb the corporate ladder making her way to Sales Director at a Fortune 500 company. She helped build three startups where the most recent one sold for $405M. And now she runs a 6-figure coaching business.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

A family member wants to buy their first home but they have bad credit... any suggestions? I'm paying off my credit card three to 5 times a month in order to keep my utilization at 30%.... am I doing this right to help improve my credit? How do I approach someone I don't work directly with to be my mentor? Answering these questions of yours and more on this week's Ask Farnoosh with special co-host Leah Gervais, founder of Urban 20 Something blog.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

How do you go from being a C-student to c-suite at a company? Chief Marketing Officer Joanne Bradford of SoFi is on So Money sharing her journey of how she climbed the ranks of corporate America despite her challenges as a student. SoFi is an online personal finance company that provides people with student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans. Co-founder Dan Macklin has been a guest on the show before (EP 261).Joanne's role at SoFi is to oversee its consumer-facing functions including marketing, business development, partnerships and member services. Prior to SoFi, she worked at Pinterest where she led global commercial and content partnerships, platform adoption and monetization efforts. Joanne also held executive leadership positions at Yahoo!, The San Francisco Chronicle and BusinessWeek. She's also on the board of CARE, which provides aid to the poor around the world and a founding advisor to Lean In.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Organization is not a destination but a journey. Our guest today says you are never going to be "completely organized" ... and that's ok! She is Lisa Woodruff, founder of Organize 365 and author of the book The Mindset of Organization: Take Back Your House One Phase at a TimeShe's become a professional organizer through her own life's challenges.  At age 40, she found herself totally unorganized, unproductive and unplanned, and her family life was suffering. She decided to quit her job and create a 40-day plan to get her home in better shape and began blogging about it. It was then she realized her calling to be a professional organizer. Lisa has helped thousands of people find sanity in their lives.  For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Should I "jump ship" into a new career field? I feel totally overwhelmed by my credit card debt... help! Our mortgage company doesn't accept bi-weekly payments. How can do we so without incurring extra fees? Answering these questions of yours and more on this week's Ask Farnoosh with special co-host Bola Onada Sokunbi of Clever Girl Finance.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Joe DePaulo, CEO and co-founder of College Ave Student Loans joins us for this conversation on college affordability today. College Ave Student Loans is currently the leading fin-tech next generation student loan marketplace lender.Joe is a financial services veteran having previously worked as CFO and executive vice president of banking and was a member of the board of directors at Sallie Mae. Before Sallie Mae, he was CEO and co-founder of Credit One Financial Solutions, which is a company focused on debt consolidation.As a partner and brand collaborator with College Ave Student Loans, I’m really excited to bring you this special episode of So Money.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

He's back ladies and gentleman. Excited to have James Altucher join us. He is a top podcaster and has written several bestselling books.He and I actually are meeting up for a third time (catch his first and second So Money interviews here if you missed them) on this show to talk about all the crazy stuff happening in the world. We do a lot of catching up and, of course, we talk about money. We also talk about minimalism as James is now taking on a very minimalist lifestyle... only living in airbnb's. We also talk about Bernie Madoff and how did Bernie actually get away with his crime for so many years.? I finally get the chance to ask James this question as he is the "Wall Street whiz." Also, James kindly takes time to answer some of YOUR personal, specific money questions.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

I have a savings bucket for almost every expense category... am I getting too granular with managing and budgeting my money? My wife is going from full-time to part-time at her company and we'll be purchasing a home... will lenders question this on her pay stubs? Is there any way to avoid fees for index funds? Answering these questions of yours and more on this week's #AskFarnoosh with special co-host and Executive Editor at Magnify Money, Mandi Woodruff. Follow her at @mandiwoodruff.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Can you imagine going from fighting drug addiction, alcoholism, to then combatting PTSD to today, writing a book where the Dali Lama writes the forward? That is our guest today, Akshay Nanavati. He aspires to live a limitless lifestyle and we can too, apparently. His book is coming out this fall but he's joining us now as we celebrate independence week. This is a man who's found his own freedom.His new book is called, "Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear Into Health, Wealth and Happiness." The Dalai Lama has even said the following about it, "Fearvana inspires us to look beyond our own agonizing experiences and find the positive side of our lives."To say that Akshay has an inspiring story is an understatement. He's overcome drug addiction, alcoholism and PTSD from fighting the war in Iraq. He's combined his life experiences with years of research in science and spirituality which led him to this book.For more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

We're talking media and money today. You may recognize today's guest from TV news as the co-host of Outnumbered on Fox News (which airs weekdays at 12p ET) and as the host of Fox Report Weekend (airing Sundays at 7p ET). She works six (!) days per week and still has time to be a super mom, super wife, motivational speaker, philanthropist and now, a super guest on So Money. Harris Faulkner is here.She is a celebrated and award-winning journalist who has received the National Headliner Award for Best Newscast. Harris also received the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Lifetime Achievement Award for her humanitarian efforts.As a so-called military brat, Harris shares advice stemming from her childhood, as well as her take on the media world today, how to stay relevant as a journalist and that time she earned just $9,000 a year as a TV news reporter.For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

What's an appropriate age to start teaching my son about investing and how much should I allow him to invest? How do I budget for my children's extra curricular activities while also saving money for retirement and paying off our mortgage? How do my husband and I divide and conquer our finances? Answering these questions and more on this week's #AskFarnoosh with special co-host Kimmie Greene, consumer finance expert for Mint. Follow her at @KBGreene.To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Do you think a college degree is really that important anymore? Will college even be around in 10 years? The institution, as we know it, is starting to transform thanks to visionaries like Adam Braun, our guest today, who's recently launched a college alternative called MissionU.You may know Adam as the founder of Pencils of Promise, a non-profit that has built more than 400 schools around the developing world. Now he's launching a very different type of college experience called MissionU, a one-year program that offers students the modern skills and experience to launch a successful career. Adam was first exposed to what he describes as a broken higher education system when he witnessed his wife's experience. She had over $100K in college debt and no bachelor's degree to show for it. MissionU became Adam's solution for a higher-quality, debt-free education that positions students for success.To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

From -$2,000 in her bank account to generating a projected $75 million in sales, entrepreneur Sarah LaFleur is on the show today sharing her trials, tribulations and tips for living your best financial life. Sarah is the founder of MM.LaFleur, a new women’s fashion brand that CNBC says is “shaking up retail.” Sarah started the company in 2011 after quitting her job in private equity. With $35,000 in savings and another $35,000 in loans from her parents she launched what would become one of fashion’s hottest new clothing lines for professional women.To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

'm weighing two job opportunities... one has a great salary with okay benefits and the other has great benefits with an okay salary. What should I do? How do I position myself to ask my boss for a raise or promotion? How can I fight age discrimination? Answering all of your negotiating questions on this week's #AskFarnoosh with special co-host and previous So Money guest Alexandra Dickinson of Ask For It Co.To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Our guest today is a successful actress who arrived in Hollywood over a decade ago with a one-way ticket and her mother's beaten-up suitcase. Since then she's landed many prominent roles including a lead role in Alphas on the American Syfy Channel. She's also been on Entourage, How I Met Your Mother, Veronica Mars, The Mentalist among countless other shows.Azita Ghanizada joins us from LaLa land. Her personal journey is a fascinating one. Her family fled to the U.S. when she was just a baby, seeking asylum to escape war-torn Afghanistan. They settled in Virginia and while Azita always aspired to be an actress, she was forbidden to do so until finishing school. So, after receiving her B.A. in English and Journalism, she left for Hollywood.That's where our interview begins...What were those first few years auditioning like? How did she afford to make ends meet? What do her parents think now of her career choice?Azita is also a humanitarian. She focuses on issues surrounding women in war-torn areas, whether it’s

Ever wonder what it's like to be a stunt person on the set of TV show or movie? We have a unique guest on the podcast today, professional stuntwoman Jenel Stevens. She's performed on shows you may have watched including Mysteries of Laura, Luke Cage, Quantico, Blind Spot and Orange is the New Black, as well as several movies. Jenelis also a personal trainer and founder of her own fitness training company Prowess PT.More about Jenel: She played Division 1 basketball in college and holds various certifications as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Precision Nutrition Certified Nutrition Counselor.To learn more visit www.somoneypodcast.com.