Episodes
107
Latest episode
Aug 2026
Language
EN
A podcast about saving, investing, and living your best life. If you are new to investing then this is the place for you. We try to use silly analogies and simple ideas to make investing and personal finance more accessible and approachable for everyone.
E107 - Investment Showdown #4 It is time for another investment showdown! This time VUG faces off against VTV in a battle for the ages. Two investments enter, one investment leaves. Well maybe two leave, who can say really? Investments discussed in this episode: VUG - Vanguard Growth ETF VTV - Vanguard Value ETF VOO - Vanguard S&P 500 ETF QQQ - Invesco QQQ Trust ETF
E106 - You are the N of 1 We live in a virtual world, but not a fictional one in movies or TV. Our human capital, our work, is converted to energy through money. And everything that we see around us, every part of our civilization, is created with money. J.J. takes us on a journey of discovery, unveiling the hidden matrix that is around us all.
E105 - Where did you put my water? In money, liquidity and asset location are first cousins. You can’t be sure of one without being sure of the other. Both can speed up or slow down your access to cash. It’s important that you understand how liquid your money is. Simply put, you want it to be there when you need it. In this episode J.J. tries to make this as simple as possible to understand. No, we are not kidding. He really does try. How well he did, that’s another story entirely! One quick note, when J.J. talks about frozen assets he is not talking about how the term is normally used like when the government freezes your assets because you have been naughty. If you are naughty we assume you don’t listen to this podcast. That is the correct use of the term frozen. Here we just use the term to describe the least liquid of your assets. We just wanted to clarify that so you didn’t look silly when talking to your fellow podcast fans.
E104 - I’d love to get to know me better Can one simple question help us cut through the noise and bring mental clarity to our financial planning? How our financial plans go, or even if we have one, is directly tied to how we feel about money. It’s fair to say that we all have very different views about money. That doesn’t make anyone's view wrong, it just makes them different. When it comes to making a financial plan one of the first considerations you have to face is your own attitudes about money. You can’t hope to make a change until you understand who you are, how you feel, and why you act the way you do.
E103 - The tyranny of stuff Too much stuff in your life is not good for your mental health. It won't help you live your best life. J.J. talks about his own challenges with stuff and encourages you with his usual poorly thought out humor to purge the things from your home and your life that don't support the things you love to do. As usual, what could possibly go wrong?
E102 - Is golf like investing? In golf, you have a club for every situation. In investing, you have an investment for every job in your portfolio. But what if you could only have 1 golf club? Which one would you choose? I decided to try the same thing with investing. If I could have only 1 ETF, which one would I choose? Not that I think this is a good idea. I have a golf bag full of clubs and a portfolio full of investments. I just think it’s a thought experiment that is fun and might be educational. Hopefully you think so too! Investments discussed in this episode: VOO - Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VTI - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF VT - Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF AOA - iShares Core 80/20 Aggressive Allocation ETF AOR - iShares Core 60/40 Balanced Allocation ETF
E101 - Let the blind squirrel drive It’s hard to drive without a speedometer. It’s hard to get rich without an expense tracker. We don’t drive cars without dashboard displays. We would speed and run out of gas all the time. We don’t fly planes without dashboard displays. We would crash far too often to be good for our health. Why is it we think we can manage our personal affairs without an expense and net worth tracker? It’s the financial equivalent of driving without a dashboard and seat belt. As usual, JJ strives to make a point that even a blind squirrel should see. If you know any blind squirrels as it relates to personal finance, please share this episode with them!
E100 - Milestones The Piggy Bank Chronicles reaches a major milestone with 100 episodes! J.J. sits down for an interview with his AI assistant to discuss the past, present, and future of the podcast. This episode is a love letter to all those who have listened these past 4 years. It is offered with sincere thanks.
E99 - Indexing, again Has your humble host lost faith in index investing? JJ spends way too much time thinking about the strategy of indexing and what kinds of events would lead to under performance compared to other approaches. In yet another rambling chat he discusses his foray into direct indexing (on paper), what smarter people than him think about indexing as a strategy, and how he manages to insert it all into his ever evolving mental model of investing. If you like buy and hold investing this discussion is for you. If you don’t, then we will win you over eventually! Investments discussed in this episode: Dimensional International Core Equity Market ETF (DFAI) Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares (VXUS) Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund ETF Shares (VEU)
Episode 98 - Consequences If I do this, what happens next? So many people are really bad at thinking about consequences. Are you one of those people? We can be taught to be critical thinkers. We can also teach ourselves. Sometimes we can get there through a good boss or mentor. Other times it’s up to us. In this episode JJ explores why this matters and some tools to help you get better at being a critical thinker.
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Valerie Hail
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PodcastOne
Russ Mathews
