The Money and Meaning Show

Giving is often fundamental for those traveling the path from success to significance.  On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, Jeff and Mike welcome special guests Boyd Bailey and Rachel Watson of the non-profit National Christian Foundation to discuss tax-advantaged gifting strategies. Whether you are seeking a strategy to support your normal pattern of giving, or you are looking for new ways to support your personal generosity, vehicles like Donor-Advised Funds, Qualified Charitable Distributions, and Single Charity Funds can help you make the most of every gift.

As we kick off the New Year, it’s a great time to get intentional about creating a meaningful future. On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, Jeff and Mike offer a buffet of insights and information to help you start the year out strong. Focusing on key goals that drive improvements across your life; operating from a place of humility and gratitude; and working with a coach that offers technical, operational, and relational excellence are at the forefront of this wealth management smorgasbord.

One of the biggest financial decisions in your 60s is when and how to claim Social Security. Postponing your claim until age 70 can significantly increase your benefit amount, and yet more than half of eligible recipients file at age 62—decreasing their potential monthly income by as much as 57%. On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, Alicia Lipscomb (aka “The Social Security Lady”) sheds light on strategies to increase your lifetime benefits, as well as how to claim spousal benefits (even if you’re no longer married) and benefits for widows and dependents.

By its nature, holistic wealth management encompasses a lengthy list of components. As year-end approaches, working through a carefully constructed checklist is one of the best ways to ensure every piece of your own financial puzzle is fully optimized. On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, Mike and Jeff walk through the most critical items on the list, what has to be tackled when, and how to manage time-sensitive tasks that must be completed by December 31.

Does it surprise you to know that how an investor behaves can have a much greater impact on the success or failure of an investment strategy than an investment strategy itself? On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, psychologist, behavioral finance expert, and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Daniel Crosby discusses the psychological and biological factors that can thwart wise investment decisions, and why doing less is often better then doing more in the world of investing.

Often, the path to building a meaningful second half of life is rooted in challenges from the past. On today’s episode of Money & Meaning, Rick Thompson, co-founder of Atlanta-based Champions Community Foundation, shares his own story of how parenting a child with mitochondrial disease inspired a public charity that empowers young adults with conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, and physical injury to live independent, productive, and physically active lives.

Every decision in our lives plays a role in dictating our future. In this special episode of Money & Meaning, Dimensional Fund Advisors’ Moulaya Niang shares how his own decisions and long-term outlook took him from his boyhood dreams of becoming a pro soccer player in Senegal, to becoming a star athlete at the University of Kansas, to helping investors and advisors build efficient portfolios.

Things don’t always go as planned—in our lives or in our finances. The challenge is to take every experience, good or bad, to learn and move forward with greater confidence. In this episode of Money & Meaning, Jeff and Mike discuss what to do when things go awry and how to answer the question, “Where do I go from here?”