Education
Money Unlocked
Most personal finance advice sounds like it was written for someone who already has money.
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Episodes
The archive
25 episodes, newest first.
- Do the Midterms Change Your Bills?You watched the midterms wrap up and now you're wondering: does any of this change what I pay for my student loans, my health plan, or my taxes? This episode sorts out what Congress can do from what the administration controls. We cover where your student loan plan stands, what the lapsed ACA subsidies mean for open enrollment, and how tax rates and dollar thresholds work for 2027. We finish with a short list of what to do now and what to ignore. It's especially useful for borrowers, marketplace shoppers, and anyone who doesn't want to wait on Washington to plan their budget.
- What the 2027 Limits Mean on $50 a PaycheckYou hear that the 401(k) limit is going up again and wonder what that has to do with the $50 you can actually spare. This episode translates the headline 2027 numbers into small-paycheck terms. We cover the official HSA limits and how they compare to this year. We explain why the 401(k) number is still a projection and the IRA figure needs a hedge. We run simple arithmetic on what $50 a paycheck adds up to. We finish with a 10-minute year-end checkup of your W-4 and contribution rate. It's especially useful if you contribute a little and have never been sure it counts.
- Your Income Estimate Is the Key NumberYou're self-employed, open enrollment starts November 1, and the marketplace wants you to guess what you'll earn next year. That guess may matter more than any other number on the application. We cover why premiums are rising and some insurers are leaving. We explain the 400% poverty-line cliff and what happens at tax time if your income guess is off. We sort out the December 15 versus January 15 deadline confusion. We finish with a checklist you can work through in about 15 minutes. Especially useful for freelancers and gig workers who have no HR department to ask.
- What Does the Social Security COLA Tell You?You keep hearing that Social Security is getting a raise, and you wonder what that has to do with you. The 2027 cost-of-living adjustment is announced October 14, and it works as a public scoreboard for inflation. We walk through how the number gets set, why the Medicare premium takes a bite out of it, and what you can do about it. We compare it with your own raise and ask how much to count on the program decades from now. Here is what we cover. How the COLA is calculated from consumer prices. Why the raise you see is smaller than the raise on paper. How to check whether your own raise kept up. What the trustees say about the program's future. This episode is especially useful for workers who are nowhere near retirement but want to understand the number everyone is quoting.
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- Why Your Health Insurance Costs More in 2027You opened your benefits portal, saw a bigger number, and wondered how you are supposed to cover it. This episode goes through why health insurance is getting more expensive for 2027 and what you can do about it. We cover what employer plans are projected to cost. We look at what marketplace insurers are asking for. We explain what the $12,000 out-of-pocket limit means, and why it is a ceiling and not a price tag. We finish with a short checklist to use before enrollment closes. It is especially useful for people on a job plan with an enrollment form to fill out, and for freelancers and gig workers buying their own coverage.
- The Real Cost of Pay in 4 This Sale SeasonEver click 'Pay in 4' at checkout during a big sale and forget you already have three more of those plans running in the background? Prime Big Deal Days lands October 6-7, and buy-now-pay-later apps are pushing pay-in-four at every single checkout. This episode covers what actually happens when you stack multiple BNPL plans in the same shopping week. We revisit whether BNPL counts as a tradeline now that a major credit score model is built to factor it in. We walk through survey data on how many shoppers expect to carry real debt into the new year. We break down what 'loan stacking' actually means and why it sneaks up on people during sales season. And we give one concrete rule for using Pay in 4 during a sale without losing track of what you owe. This one's for anyone about to open a new 'Pay in 4' plan this week without checking what's already on their plate.
- The Fed Meeting With No Dot PlotYou just watched the Fed hike rates in September — so why does the October 27-28 meeting matter if there's no new forecast to read? This episode breaks down why some Fed meetings come with fresh projections and some don't, and why that gap turns every single word in the October statement into something traders obsess over. Becca and Maya cover what actually happened in September, why traders are calling October a genuine coin flip, and how a 'quiet' meeting still reaches into your credit card APR, your savings account yield, and your car payment. They also flag the one mistake that makes people miss rate changes that already happened, and give you one thing to check this week. Especially useful for anyone with a credit card balance, a car loan, or a savings account who tunes out Fed news because it 'doesn't apply to them.'
- The One-Day RAP Payment TrapMissing your RAP payment by even one day doesn't just mean a late fee — it means losing that month toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, with no grace period, and as of this month, no way to buy it back. This episode covers what actually triggers the one-day rule, why RAP borrowers can't use the same PSLF Buyback option IBR borrowers can, the wave of servicer calculation errors sending some borrowers' bills from $50 to thousands of dollars overnight, and the exact steps to take if your account numbers look wrong. Especially useful for anyone already enrolled in RAP or pursuing PSLF who thought hitting submit on time was the hard part.
- The Credit Score Rules Just ChangedEver wonder if your Klarna installments are quietly showing up on your credit report? Or whether the score you check on your phone is even the one a mortgage lender is about to pull? This episode breaks down two shifts hitting real credit files right now. We cover whether Buy Now Pay Later plans actually count as tradelines, and why the answer depends on which app you use. We explain what FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 change by looking at up to two years of payment history instead of one snapshot. We walk through how far mortgage lenders have actually gotten in adopting these new models. And we translate all of it for someone with a thin credit file, a few BNPL payments, and a credit card balance they're paying down. This one's especially useful if you're planning to apply for a mortgage in the next year or you've never been totally sure how your score gets calculated in the first place.
- The Fed's September Decision, TranslatedThe Fed meets September 15-16, and this time it's not just a rate call — a full dot plot means the committee is signaling where rates go for the next year, not just this month. President Trump has spent weeks publicly demanding cuts, while new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh keeps warning inflation is still too high. Becca and Maya walk through why the July vote was closer than people realize, what a hike would actually do to your credit card APR versus your mortgage, and why the dot plot changes the math on locking in a savings rate now versus waiting. They also cover the one mistake people make assuming all their debt moves together when only the variable-rate pieces do. This episode is especially useful for anyone holding a variable-rate credit card, HELOC, or high-yield savings account and wondering if they should move before or after September 16.
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About
What the show is
Money Unlocked is for the 64% of people navigating their financial lives without a clear plan. Each week, two hosts break down one money topic you probably never learned in school: how credit scores actually get calculated, what your 401(k) is doing with your contributions, why budgeting apps keep failing you, and what "invest early" means when you're still paying off student loans. No jargon walls, no aspirational nonsense about "building generational wealth" when you're wondering if you can afford the dentist. Just clear, specific answers to the money questions most people are too embarrassed to ask. Built for renters, new grads, mid-career workers staring at confusing benefit enrollment forms, and anyone who suspects they should know more about money than they do.
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