About this episode
If you're like most people during the big holiday season, it's not really a question of IF you go over your budget, but WHEN--and how badly. With another "can't miss" deal around every corner who can keep themselves from doing a little splurging when shopping this month? Believe it or not, studies show that we plan for all of those expenses....it's the fact that the muffler sometimes drag behinds the car or another emergency expense happens which sends the budget into a tailspin and your credit card debt soaring. To solve that problem, today we'll talk to Michele Cagan, author of Budgeting 101. You'll be happy to hear that Michele doesn't think you need to track every penny. There's a better (and easier) way to make sure you get ahead without devoting your whole life to spreadsheets and money tracking programs. Then, in our headlines segment...what would you do if you found a $7.5 million stash of someone else's cash? One lucky guy bought a storage unit on the cheap and found a life-changing amount of money hiding inside. Would you invest it, or maybe dash out of the basement and jump on the first plane to Tahiti? We all have our ideas... but this story probably isn't going to turn out how you're expecting. We'll share the rest of what happened during our headlines segment. In our second headline, Sallie Mae has a new study detailing how people pay for college. Taking a pit stop in the basement to help us make sense of how people save for college, pay for it, and then pay off loans, we'll talk to Rick Castellano from Sallie Mae. Of course, that's not all. We'll throw out the Haven Life line to Nick, who's been having some issues with his budget. What can Nick do to cut costs on his operation? And don't worry... we'll still take some time for Doug's trivia. Looking for something deeper than what we give you on the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: The Stacker . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices