Smart Money Podcast: How Your Feedback Shapes Our Podcast – Listener Messages from 2023

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:

Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner share feedback and constructive criticism from listeners over the past year.

They discuss topics such as the need for more representation of indigenous peoples in financial discussions, the importance of highlighting issues related to race and gender, the coverage of alternative healthcare in insurance plans, and the challenges of discussing controversial topics from a financial perspective.

They also address listener comments about their personal experiences and perspectives on money management.

Check out this episode on your favorite podcast platform, including:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

Have a money question? Text or call us at 901-730-6373. Or you can email us at [email protected]. To hear previous episodes, go to the podcast homepage.

Episode transcript

This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.

Sean Pyles:

Hey, listener, I'm going to tell you something corny but true. Hearing from you is the best part of our job here at Smart Money, really. In this episode, we're going deep into what we heard from you this year.

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Pyles.

Sara Rathner:

And I'm Sara Rathner.

Sean Pyles:

Today we bring you episode two of our Nerdy deep dive into the end of 2023.

Sara Rathner:

I feel like every time you say that we should play that New Year's Eve song that nobody actually knows the lyrics to.

Sean Pyles:

I would not object to that though.

But let's get to today's show because we're doing my very favorite thing, which is to feature our listeners. In our previous episode, we heard from listeners about the very best money moves they made throughout 2023, and today we're going to share some of the feedback we've gotten from them over the last 12 months.

Sara Rathner:

Oh, I don't know about you, Sean, but my imposter syndrome is intensifying.

Sean Pyles:

Don't worry. Our listeners love us, Sara. I mean, not always, but we'll get into that. So Sara, you and I and Liz Weston and all of our fellow Nerds have answered a lot of our listeners' questions over this year. Do any of them stand out to you?

Sara Rathner:

Well, we get a lot of questions from listeners in high cost of living cities who yearn to buy homes. It's hard out there. How about you, Sean?

Sean Pyles:

I love getting questions from our listeners that get to the psychological and emotional underpinnings of how we interact with money, like how to overcome financial fears or reframe your money mindset. Everyone's relationship with money is a little different, so dissecting why we are the way we are is endlessly fascinating to me.

Sara Rathner:

Yeah, I have to say I love hearing from listeners about all sorts of things because I end up learning right along with them. We're making a lot of the same money decisions as the rest of you. So let's all do this together, right?

Sean Pyles:

Absolutely. Well, in just a moment, we'll get to some of the feedback and constructive criticism you all sent us in 2023. Stay with us.

All right, we're back with the 2023 end of year mailbag. Sara, we have a special guest with us today.

Sara Rathner:

Oh, well, how special? Did you get George Clooney on the show?

Sean Pyles:

Not quite.

Tess Vigeland:

No, Sara, it's just me.

Sara Rathner:

Oh, hi Tess. I mean, you're special too.

Tess Vigeland:

It's okay. I don't need a participation trophy, Sara. Or I don't know, maybe I do.

Sean Pyles:

Well, out from behind the scenes, our producer Tess Vigeland joins us. You hear her in show credits, and today she's dragged in a giant mailbag of listener letters.

Tess Vigeland:

Sean, it is so heavy. Oh man, I need hazard pay.

Sean Pyles:

Done. The Nerds will take care of you.

Tess Vigeland:

That's why I love Nerds. But actually it's just emails and texts and our favorite, voice messages.

Sean Pyles:

All right. Well, let's get to it. What do you have for us first?

Tess Vigeland:

Well, we're throwing it back to February for this one. Listeners may remember we did a special series on the finances of Black women that we called The Color of Wealth. One of our interviews was with Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary.

Listener Christine heard it and emailed us with this comment, "Hi, love your show. I think you need to do a money podcast for indigenous peoples who I feel have a lot less voice on so many issues in this world, including all of the things Michelle spoke about. I share lots of episodes with my young adult sons, grateful for your expertise and advice."

Of course, we are grateful for the feedback, Christine. Sean and Sara, I'd say we definitely will take this suggestion to heart.

Sara Rathner:

Christine, that's a wonderful episode topic. Thank you for that.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah, I would love to explore how to help indigenous peoples manage their finances. Our backgrounds, identities, and the opportunities our communities have or haven't had historically are hugely influential on the way we interact with money. And I'm always looking for new ways to explore these dynamics.

Tess Vigeland:

Yeah, definitely. Christine wasn't the only listener who responded to that series, although we don't have a name to put to this comment, but the writer says, "Thank you for The Color of Wealth series. Please continue DEI episodes like this throughout the year, Black History Month, Women's History Month, equal paydays, highlighting that it varies between BIPOC and white women, etc., etc.." Sean, I think it's accurate to say we do highlight these issues in various ways, but the more the better.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah, absolutely. Tess, this is something that you and I have talked about a lot behind the scenes. It's not like Black Americans stop dealing with the legacy of financial discrimination once the month of February ends, so these are topics we want to talk about all throughout the year.

Sara Rathner:

Absolutely. Let's shout about this stuff from the rooftops. Tess, what else do we have in that mailbag?

Tess Vigeland:

Well, as you both know, we did another special series back in May about the personal costs of climate change. We looked at how climate change is affecting everything from home ownership to insurance, to disaster preparation, to banking and investing.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah, we had Nerds Alana Benson and Spencer Tierney on to talk with Caitlin Constantine about things like socially responsible banking and ESG investing.

Tess Vigeland:

Yeah, let's hear a little bit of that.

Caitlin Constantine:

All right, so let's start with some definition for folks who might wonder what the difference is between, say, impact investing, socially responsible investing, ethical investing, ESG. Help us make it make sense.

Alana Benson:

Sure. Most of those terms are just general terms that don't have a particular meaning or definition. Whether it's socially responsible investing, ethical investing, impact investing, whatever your term is, typically that just means investing with your values. There's not necessarily a hard and fast definition for exactly what rules or anything that those investments have to follow.

The one exception to that is ESG, which stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria. These are just a set of factors that investors can use to evaluate investments in each of those categories. For example, a green energy company might score really well in the E or environmental category, but if they treat their employees poorly, then they may score low in the S or the social category.

Tess Vigeland:

After hearing this episode, one of our listeners, also unnamed this time, wrote to say the following, "I do not invest in ESG or woke companies, the ones that will not loan money to oil companies. We have oil and gas to thank for our lifestyles today. You can't just throw that out and say we're going to put up a bunch of windmills and solar panels and expect things to work. I don't see a 747 flying with solar panels anytime soon. If these environmentalists really believe the crap they're talking about, they'd be heavy into nuclear power.

"Also, why do climate alarmist celebrities all have ocean front property if they think sea levels are going to rise? We're going to need every type of energy to survive and keep our costs down. Otherwise, we as homeowners are going to have outrageous bills. Just ask the Germans."

Sara Rathner:

Okay. I hope they enjoyed the other episodes maybe.

Tess Vigeland:

Yes, I hope so as well. But you guys, let's take a couple of these points. Okay, so first, no, you probably won't see a 747 flying with solar panels anytime soon, but it could be coming. There is this plane called the Solar Impulse 2 with the wingspan of a 747, if not the cramped seats and expensive booze. It circumnavigated the globe back in 2016, powered only by 17,000 solar panels. And in 2019 a US Spanish company called Skydweller Aero bought the plane and it plans to turn it into a commercial satellite that orbits within our atmosphere.

Sean Pyles:

Tess, I didn't know you were such an aerospace industry buff.

Tess Vigeland:

I didn't either.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah. As an unabashed tree hugger though, I'm all for the expansion of energy that does less damage to the natural environment.

Sara Rathner:

Speaking of energy, why did our listener bring the Germans into all of this?

Tess Vigeland:

Yeah, I was curious about that too, so I did a bit of digging. Yes, Germans have high energy bills, as do most Europeans. This was already happening in the aftermath of the pandemic, but the war in Ukraine then caused this trade rift that led to a shortage of fossil fuels. That in turn created a spike in electricity prices, which were up 37% in December of last year from the year before. Again, that's just for electricity, not for gas or oil.

Sean Pyles:

Where does ESG come in here?

Tess Vigeland:

Well, part of the price surge throughout Europe, even before the war in Ukraine, was because of a push for renewables. But I'm not sure you can draw a straight line from that to where Germany is today. A spike in inflation that's been even rougher in Europe than it is here is also a cause of higher energy prices overall.

Now, Germany did enact a law that took effect earlier this year called the Supply Chain Act, and it requires German companies with more than 3,000 employees to identify and report on any human rights or environmental risks in their supply chain, so ESG. Whether that has had an impact yet on energy prices in the country, TBD.

Sean Pyles:

All right. Well, how about another listener comment?

Sara Rathner:

Maybe one telling us we're awesome.

Tess Vigeland:

We have lots of those you guys. No worries. Your wish is my command. How about two? Even better?

Sean Pyles:

Yes, let's do it.

Sara Rathner:

Better than one.

Tess Vigeland:

All right. Well, the first is from Keith who signs himself McLovin, and we McLove him for that. Here we go. "I have recently discovered your podcast. I listen to an episode or two a day. I love it. Every time I listen to your podcast, I can either relate or learn something." Yay. "You are helping to shape my mindset and emotional financial fitness, and it feels great."

Sean Pyles:

Love to hear it.

Tess Vigeland:

Love to hear it.

Sara Rathner:

Two episodes a day. Sean, at this point, I think McLovin is your best friend.

Sean Pyles:

Yep. I think so. I mean, he definitely has some kind of parasocial relationship with me and I'm all for it.

Tess Vigeland:

Well, he went on to ask if we had any episodes about mortgages. I'm sure if he's listening to two episodes a day, he'll hear that.

Sara Rathner:

Yes.

Sean Pyles:

Oh yeah.

Tess Vigeland:

We do cover mortgages a lot. Anyway, thank you, Keith. And Morgan writes, "I just want to say I'm a huge fan of your podcast. You make big things seem normal and accessible, and it's helped me a lot over the last few years preparing for my first professional job and even starting a Roth IRA. It's super helpful seeing the LGBT representation of people being successful financially on your show and really made the whole thing seem more feasible. If they can do it, why can't I? I really appreciate the work that you folks do."

Sean Pyles:

Oh, thanks Morgan.

Tess Vigeland:

But Sean and Sara, another listener who didn't leave a name, writes in with a different view of LGBT representation on this show. "I feel that Smart Money has turned into a platform for people that are not heterosexual. I want to learn more about saving money but feel that the male host needs to talk about his husband and his cosplay interview needed to identify the woman is not heterosexual. How is this pertinent to the money subject? You have lost your path with this podcast and a listener as well."

Before we get your reaction, you guys, the reference here to cosplay was Sean's October interview at New York Comic Con with a woman who was selling some comic books. Let's listen to a little bit of that.

Speaker 6:

I did my pitch deck and everyone I showed it to said there should be a comic. And so I was like, "Okay," and I pivoted into comics.

Sean Pyles:

So you wanted to bring your perspective to the world of comics because you didn't see that previously.

Speaker 6:

We don't have our perspective literally in any form of media.

Sean Pyles:

You're also a queer woman, right?

Speaker 6:

I am, yes.

Sean Pyles:

And so considering your background, talk with me about how you being a woman, a queer woman, a Chicana woman in this space influences how you interact with New York Comic Con as a business owner.

Speaker 6:

It's been very well received. I'm very fortunate. I've been having a lot of press. I just have a lot of people coming up, like new people who have never heard of me, return customers. This is my second year at New York Comic Con.

Sean Pyles:

Right.

Speaker 6:

And so I'm just really fortunate that I can be here, that I'm lucky enough to be even allowed to come here, right?

Sean Pyles:

Of course.

Speaker 6:

Because it's so hard to get in itself. But I've had a great time.

Tess Vigeland:

All right, thoughts anyone?

Sean Pyles:

Well, first of all, I'm not actually married, so this is factually incorrect, this last note, at least.

Tess Vigeland:

Only engaged.

Sean Pyles:

Yes. Long-term engaged. I'm getting married in two years. Anyway, disparate as all of these comments may be, the sentiments from each of these listeners, they do represent different reasons why I love this job, because first and foremost, I view it as my responsibility to help all Smart Money listeners improve their finances and make smart money decisions no matter their background.

I can't help bringing my perspective to the work that I do. I'm a cis gay white man living in the Pacific Northwest. That colors what my interests and priorities are. On this podcast we make a point to center all sorts of perspectives because the more voices that you're presented with, the more you can push yourself to grow and change. And that's what you want to do if you're listening to an educational podcast, I would hope.

That last listener demonstrates that you can only really change if your mind is open and you want to grow. Hopefully we can create a show that inspires people to better themselves, no matter their background or biases.

Sara Rathner:

Yeah. I think that your identity can really affect how you manage money and it affects what's available to you financially, things like your gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, even how many generations of your family have lived in the country where you currently live, all of it.

When we discuss money on the show, either when we're talking about our own personal situations or the situations that a listener shares with us, then we try to include that information because it is relevant.

Tess Vigeland:

All right. Well, let's reach further down in the mailbag and here are a couple of other comments from our listeners. First up, David, and he says, "I think you missed a couple of good tips in the appliance repairs tips segment. If you own a home, check the water pressure. If it's over 80 PSI, it's too high and it's putting extra strain on your washer, dishwasher, water heater, and plumbing in general, leading to replacing them sooner or even more costly repairs. Electronics are damaged by power variations. At the very least, get surge protectors. Even better, get a unit that will protect against power dips as well. Always enjoy the show."

Sara Rathner:

Oh, follow-up question, how do you check your home's water pressure?

Tess Vigeland:

That's an excellent question. I am not versed in appliances or PSI, so we'll have to take David at his word there. And folks, if you're listening and you want to add something to his advice, write to us. Maybe you have an idea for how Sara can check her water heater.

Sara Rathner:

Please, please write to us. I have absolutely no idea where to start.

Tess Vigeland:

All right. Well, Amy also contacted us and left a voicemail. She was listening to our special series on the finances of the millennial generation, which we aired in September, where we had some advice about both money and happiness.

Amy:

Hi Sean and Liz, I just wanted to let you know my name is Amy. I deeply love your podcast. I've actually learned quite a bit about money and financing. I actually grew up fairly poor. I'm Gen X, if you want to stick a label like that on me. I live in the Midwest. Actually I don't have a question, I just wanted to comment on your interview I just heard this morning, September 11th.

I really enjoyed hearing the different tips and ideas of how to interview. I just wanted to add, always, always, always be yourself. I'm 48 and I’m in that age range where people are often afraid they're going to become invisible. I don't have children, but I am married. It's interesting as the more of myself that I am and the more specific I am when it comes to different job attributes that I'm doing, it's actually helped me with how much success I have. I actually landed my dream job.

Hope you all are doing well. I will try to follow you on Instagram as soon as I get there, Sean. Thanks again for all the great stuff. Bye.

Tess Vigeland:

Sean, I know there's a lot in there, but the takeaway for me is you're on Insta?

Amy:

Yes.

Tess Vigeland:

I’ve gotta follow you. I also love the advice to always be yourself. Amen.

Sean Pyles:

So true. Yeah, Tess, I have accounts on Instagram and TikTok where I post videos about money advice and some personal stuff too. You can find me @seanpyles_nerdwallet on both platforms.

Tess Vigeland:

All right.

Sara Rathner:

Well, I follow Sean on Instagram because I don't do TikTok because I just refuse. I'm an elder millennial and I am done with social media. I can vouch though that Sean's Instagram presence is both informative and delightful.

Tess Vigeland:

All right.

Sean Pyles:

Thank you.

Sara Rathner:

So give him a follow. All right, Tess, what else do you have for us?

Tess Vigeland:

Well, we've got a couple more in the bag here. Let me reach all the way down. Here's a note of feedback from Kristen. She writes, "Listening to the recent podcast on reproductive healthcare costs, I just remember thinking that if you are going to wade into these waters and include progressive leaning speakers, then you might also include a conservative leaning speaker, or at least devote equal time to the alternate perspective.

"I think that all media sources should endeavor to be more inclusive of alternative perspectives as part of a dedicated effort to help the country become more adept, open to, and inclusive of multiple contending points of view, as my graduate professor used to say all the time."

This was our special series in October about the cost of bodily autonomy. We went through some of the really high costs facing people who are seeking abortions while living in states where they're banned as well as the financial difficulties facing transgender people who want to undergo surgery but may live in a place where it's either prohibitive or prohibited. Anyway, Kristen also had a question about the involuntary liquidation of a stock after a merger, but let's address that first part.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah. First I want to remind listeners that the point of the series was to talk about the costs associated with healthcare around procedures like abortion or trans care. It's hard to see what the alternative perspective would be from a financial angle. Here is what we said at the top of the episode about abortion with fellow Nerd Sam Taube.

Sam, you're taking the Smart Money Podcast into some politically contentious territory here.

Sam Taube:

Well, Sean, the thing is that the cost of reproductive care is changing so fast right now because the issue is contentious. Laws are changing, the approval status and insurance coverage of certain medications is changing, and people's family planning is affected by that.

Sean Pyles:

Sure.

Sam Taube:

I just want to say, I know that we have a diversity of listeners here, and some folks who are hearing this episode might object to things like abortion and birth control, maybe for religious reasons or personal reasons. I'm not here to change anyone's mind about those things.

I am going to talk about the costs of those things and I'm also going to talk about different resources and financial strategies to help folks afford those costs, because regardless of your beliefs about abortion and birth control, the fact is that they're in demand for quite a lot of people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that about a quarter of women aged 15 to 49 use either birth control pills or a contraceptive device.

Sean Pyles:

We're talking about the healthcare needs of tens of millions of people here.

Sam Taube:

Exactly.

Sean Pyles:

The alternative perspective from a financial angle would be perhaps to not spend the money on an abortion or trans care, to not travel across state lines. Another financial alternative to having an abortion is to bear the cost of having a child, the cost of raising children, in which case we did another special series about that in June of this year.

Sara Rathner:

Okay. This comment was a heavy one, and I don't think it's possible to respond to it without sharing how I feel personally on the matter, which may or may not matter to you, the listener. But I think that from a financial perspective, people should be able to access the medical care they need without having to cross state lines. Let's just put it that way.

These issues are making it so that people who have the financial means have more options for medical care and people without the financial means to travel for care can't. It's just not an option. I'm not okay with that. I'm not okay with the cruelty being the point in this particular situation.

Sean Pyles:

Amen to that, Sara. I think that Kristen's message was well-intentioned, but it does get to an issue with what's sometimes called “both sides journalism,” where if you cover one side of an issue, you have to cover the other side.

At face value, that is a good ideal to represent different perspectives to Kristen's point. But when covering topics where one side is science-based and the other is fueled by myths and disinformation, like those who say climate change is a hoax, promoting the other side can have serious detrimental effects on society. In the case of our bodily autonomy series, we are wary of promoting voices that could cause harm to people's abilities to have control over their own bodies, including financing that control.

Tess Vigeland:

All right. Couple more. You guys want to keep going?

Sean Pyles:

Let's do it.

Sara Rathner:

Yeah.

Tess Vigeland:

All right. Well, these are just really general comments and ideas which we love. First, a voicemail from Claudia.

Claudia:

Hey Sean, love your show. It's Claudia. Healthcare, wouldn't it be nice if there were coverage for, what would you call alternative care such as naturopaths and homeopaths and acupuncture, which typically is only covered for lower back pain but can address so many other issues? Wouldn't that be nice in the ideal world to have coverage for those alternatives? Thanks.

Tess Vigeland:

I think in the ideal world we'd have better coverage for everything.

Sean Pyles:

Agreed.

Sara Rathner:

Absolutely.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah. Unfortunately, many alternative forms of healthcare aren't covered by many health insurance plans. We can add that to the long list of things that are just messed up about this country's healthcare system.

Tess Vigeland:

Yep.

Sara Rathner:

Some alternative care can be covered like acupuncture, for example, but that does depend on your insurance plan. And I would welcome coverage for all forms of care too because a lot of times alternative care is recommended in conjunction with more traditional medical care and it would be nice to not have to pay out of pocket for that.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah. My hypnotherapist is pricey.

Tess Vigeland:

Let's the three of us come up with a way to fix the healthcare system. You guys in?

Sean Pyles:

Okay. Yeah, we can do that.

Sara Rathner:

Sure. We'll brainstorm. We'll have an episode.

Tess Vigeland:

Cool. Cool.

Sara Rathner:

We'll solve all the world's problems in one podcast.

Tess Vigeland:

Even better. All right. Finally, a note of hope from Greg and Leslie. "Thank you for your informative podcast. My wife and I are in the process of taking further steps toward making our decisions more sound and sustainable. We have two younger children, ages five and nine. We both want to guide them through finances that were not afforded to us when we were younger. Once again, I sincerely appreciate the education."

All right, you guys, here's to the next generation of Nerds.

Sean Pyles:

Absolutely. This is such a sweet message. Not only are Greg and Leslie helping their kids learn the basics of how to manage their finances, but by making money something that is talked about openly in their household, that is just increasing the odds that these kids will have a healthy and productive relationship with money later on.

Tess Vigeland:

Yeah.

Sara Rathner:

Yeah, I actually just wrote an article about how to set positive money examples for kids, which is really hard to do. I spoke to some experts, and one theme that kept coming up in our conversations was the importance of providing context for kids. Why do you make the purchasing decisions the way that you do? What do you value as a family?

They also emphasize the importance of parents working together as a team if it's a two parent household to pass down these values to kids instead of kids maybe noticing that parent A is the spender and parent B is the saver because then they'll pit their parents against each other because kids can be evil like that.

Sean Pyles:

Very true.

Sara Rathner:

I know Dad said no, but can I have this?

Sean Pyles:

Yeah.

Sara Rathner:

Tale as old as time.

Sean Pyles:

All right. Tess, while we have you here, you are the producer of this series, tell us what's coming up in the final episode of our 2023 look back.

Tess Vigeland:

Oh, this is a fun one. We asked a bunch of our fellow Nerds, including NerdWallet founder Tim Chen, to share the best money moves they made this year. We'll hear from a whole bunch of genius Nerds with great stuff that everybody else can copy in 2024, including a lesson in compounding.

Speaker 10:

This year, I learned how to explain the effect of compounding using a lovely seasonal analogy. You think of your money like snow. When you spend it, it melts and runs away, but when you save it, any new snowfall sticks to the snow that's already there.

Sean Pyles:

All right. That's it for this episode. Tess, thank you so much for helping us today.

Tess Vigeland:

Delighted, I'm sure.

Sean Pyles:

So you want to close out the show with us?

Tess Vigeland:

Oh yeah, let's do it. Okay. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at (901) 730-6373. That's (901) 730-NERD. You can also email us at [email protected]. Also visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more info on this episode. And remember to follow, rate, and review us wherever you're getting this podcast.

That's the first time I've actually said the numbers, not just written them.

Sean Pyles:

You did a great job.

Sara Rathner:

You memorize them after a while. It's true. This episode was produced by the inimitable Tess Vigeland.

Tess Vigeland:

Aw.

Sara Rathner:

I had to suck up because we got you here. Sean helped with editing. You're inimitable too. Kevin Berry helped with fact checking. Kaely Monahan mixed our audio. And a big thank you to NerdWallet editors for all their help.

Sean Pyles:

Here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Tess Vigeland:

With that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.

Sean Pyles:

Yay.

Tess Vigeland:

Oh, that was so fun.

Sean Pyles: