Alana Benson
Appearances
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
So despite what some TikTok influencers might have you think, life insurance is not an investment, full stop. It's pretty simple. Life insurance is a policy where you pay premium so that if you pass away, the company pays your beneficiaries. There are lots of different kinds of life insurance, but most often the folks on TikTok are talking about permanent life insurance, which includes life
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
whole life insurance and universal life insurance. A 401k, on the other hand, is an investment account offered by your employer. You add money to it and often your employer will match some of the money you're putting in and it can be invested in the stock market. And then when you are retired, you can use that money to support yourself.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
So you have to think of life insurance as a completely different product than an investment account. You know, life insurance is not inherently bad. It just serves a different purpose.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
The actual advice that people are pitching and people who are most definitely not financial advisors is that you should invest in life insurance instead of a 401k or an IRA. And they make some claims that it is more flexible in terms of investment selection and that will make you more money over time. But those claims are almost entirely false.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
There are some policies like the whole life insurance policy you mentioned that have an investment component, but they often come with high fees that can quickly erode the return. And in some cases, they also erode the money that you pay into them. So these really shouldn't be treated as investments accounts.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
With a real retirement investment account like a 401k, you'll typically pay very low fees and you'll get to enjoy stock market returns, which historically average about 10% per year before inflation and over the long term.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
With insurance, it's only after around a decade of paying into this policy that you can start accruing premium money and interest in a cash value account that the insurance company holds for you. Also, the interest on that account is likely to be far less than either a high yield savings account or the stock market average.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
Well, in this case, part of their job is to persuade you to buy insurance because they are going to make money off of it. Ah, I guess. Yeah. So they earn a commission if they sell you a policy. And some of these brokers don't just earn a commission once. You actually keep paying them commission fees for the duration of your policy. So you could end up paying commission fees for like a decade.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
These fees are also really sneaky. They're often not listed on your statement, so it can be hard to figure out exactly what you're paying.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
So yes, technically it can, but a 401k is straightforward. It's easy to understand. It has low fees compared to most insurance policies, and it often offers a match. That's like free money that you'd be turning down. Plus, contributions come out of your paycheck, so you don't have to worry about prioritizing that money after it lands in your bank account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
Absolutely. Most of these influencers are not fiduciaries, meaning that they have zero obligation to act in your best interest. And yes, they are likely trying to sell you an insurance product so they can earn a commission.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
It's kind of tricky. So there are some influencers who have legitimate backgrounds that are using TikTok to offer great advice to just a wider audience. But it's always a good idea to vet someone. So if an influencer says that they're a financial advisor, you can actually look up their certifications.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Life Insurance as an Investment? We Fact-Check the TikTok Trend
Also, if they're trying to get you to buy something, it's always a good idea to be skeptical of that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
I know that's right. And I actually love calculators for that reason. I always end up motivated when I'm bored in my free time. Who uses calculators in their free time? Anyway. We do.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
Right. I do. But I love to see the potential returns that I could get. And I do think these tentative numbers are great, but I also still worry about the risk as the listener does too, because there's no guarantee the company they're invested in or the stock market will yield any of the mentioned yields consistently over the next few years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
So I think this is a good time to touch on the diversification piece because that can increase the odds of the listener achieving their goal.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
I love when people ask me what I think. Okay. I think it's noble to wanna invest in the company that you have some kind of sentimental attachment to, but I don't think it's the best financial strategy because companies can underperform at any time, right? I do think a great real life example for me is that I was recently looking to rent a house and I only applied to one house.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
And I fell in love with that house. The shower was incredible. I was picturing myself in the house, all the things I'm going to be doing, quote unquote manifesting. And then unfortunately, I did not get the house and I shed some tears. And I had to start back at square one because I did not diversify my options.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
And there was some financial risk, too, because I went all the way to the place I'm moving to, spent money to look at all these houses. And in the end, you know, didn't yield any fruit.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
So I have actually not done that. I don't have experience in that. But one thing I will say is I invest mostly in index funds and ETFs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
They're essentially like a basket of stock, right? You get a little bit of this, a little bit of that. There are different kind of ETFs and index funds that you can get, but it exposes you to different industries, different type of companies, so that if one is underperforming, hopefully the other one is doing pretty well.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
Exactly. Did y'all know that Sean was studying for his CFP exam? See, the knowledge is poking through.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
So I do have some stock, though, that I am hoarding. And to be honest, I do need to sell it and would like to put it in an index fund because I have quite a bit of it. What the listener could do if they're savvy with investing is do some research and analysis to see which stocks have consistently performed over the past few years and invest in those companies.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
But, but, but have to put a clause there. They should also keep in mind that just because the stock did well in the past, it doesn't guarantee it will in the future. And that, my dears, is the risk of investing. They will need to know how to do the numbers to do that. There are different websites, platforms they can use to do that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
There's also the option of throwing their money into an index fund or a mutual fund with relatively high returns. But again, they need a calculator to run the numbers. Another alternative is to pay a fee-only investment advisor who can give them some strategies to try.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
Yeah, I definitely second the savings account because I had just been popping in there, unfortunately having to make withdrawals for this move. And I've been seeing lots of green that didn't come from me. So I've been getting some nice, healthy deposits in there from the great interest rate. So that's definitely a good option for people.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
Hey guys, I love this topic and I am hoping that the universe is hearing and is going to send me a windfall because moving is hurting my feelings. The cost is hurting my feelings. It's expensive. It would be awesome.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How You Could Grow $26K to $44K in 7 Years: Smart Strategies to Try
MELANIE WARRICK- So what did you find, Sean?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Exactly. And that is to just make more money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
So much of this is difficult to do and every company is different. And I think it's so important to get help and support along the way as you're trying to not only be better in your role, but be making more money. So what can you tell me about how you can use mentorship to further your career and help you increase your income? What can mentorship look like and how do you find a mentor?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I've talked about this on here before, but before I started working at NerdWallet, I worked at a small company where I was making less than $30,000 a year with no benefits. So I actually tried to negotiate to $32,500 and I was told that I was greedy and selfish.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
So it doesn't need to be nearly as formal as what a lot of people think of when they think of entering a mentorship relationship. It can be as simple as, I saw you do this. You're great at it. Can you help me with this one presentation?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
To that point, obviously a mentorship and mentoring relationship is different than working with a career coach. But how can you find a career coach who can maybe help you? And how do you navigate that search? There's obviously a widespread of what people charge for career coaching services and
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Are there any certifications that people should look for when it comes to working with a career coach to kind of make sure they're working with someone who knows their stuff?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And so aside from a lack of experience, is there anything else to kind of look out for in this industry?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that seems particularly important for people to think about if they're trying to increase their income in a role that they're already in?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I know. How dare I?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
But it messed me up for like a long time. And to any listeners who have been told something similar, I want to tell you right now that you are not any of those things. I had to check my bank account like every time before I went grocery shopping at that job. And I felt stressed about money all the time.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Well, Tessa White, aka The Job Doctor, thank you so much for talking with us today. And we really appreciate your time. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Totally. And there's so much that goes into what we do at work and how we can grow and eventually make more money. And if you're looking for inspiration on where exactly to figure out what type of experience you should be getting, try looking at job listings for jobs you'll eventually want, but maybe aren't qualified for now. That will clue you into where you should start looking.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
For example, if you're in a job that doesn't currently give you management experience, but you're looking to work as a manager in the future, you could give informal mentoring a try.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And then when I finally started working at NerdWallet, overnight, I went from that stressed out lifestyle to being able to save for retirement and a down payment on a house, which was just like a fever dream before then. And then it was a reality.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Yeah, and once you identify what areas you want to get more experience in, there are thousands of online courses you can take for free or for just a small amount of money to exercise those skills. You can learn how to code, you can learn about AI, how to use spreadsheets, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
So think about what courses could help you out in your current role or help make the case to give you a promotion.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
That's a great call.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Next up, we are going to hear from an expert from LinkedIn about how to best optimize your profile so you can make the most out of a job search.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland. Sean helped with editing. Kevin Barry helped with fact-checking. Sarah Brink mixed our audio. And a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Yeah, Sean. And this is not to say that this is easy. These are a little more difficult. They may not happen overnight, but there are some really critical factors that make increasing your income almost imperative if you want to meet particular financial goals. If that's buying a house, if you're making a college fund, investing for retirement, these are all the things that you usually do
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
after you fill out your emergency fund or you pay down high interest debt and cover your day-to-day expenses. And by those metrics, it just makes it really hard for a lot of people to ever get to the point where they can afford to save and invest for those long-term goals.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And for a lot of folks, increasing their income is literally the only way they're going to be able to afford to invest for retirement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Yeah, exactly. So here's an example. If you're making $50,000 a year, the money you actually get on your paycheck after taxes, and generally this is without state taxes and Everyone's tax situation is different, but that would come to about $42,000 a year or $3,495 per month. The average monthly mortgage payment in the US is $1,768.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Now factor in groceries, bills, car payments, and other necessities, and the truth becomes something that we already know, which is just that life is really expensive and most of us are not making enough to cut it, let alone save for the future or just like, you know, make enough to enjoy life and take a vacation every now and then.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Exactly. So over this three-part series, we're going to talk about how you can get started increasing your income, some concrete steps you can take regardless of whether you want to change jobs or not, and what you can start to do once your income does increase.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
We'll be talking about everything from sprucing up your LinkedIn profile to working with a career coach, negotiating, and whether that's for a raise at your current job or a salary bump at a new one.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
We are going to the doctor for a checkup, Sean.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Well, hopefully nothing, because today we are talking with the job doctor, also known as Tessa White, who spent a good chunk of her career heading up HR departments, mostly for tech companies. She's now founder and CEO of The Job Doctor and author of The Unspoken Truths for Career Success.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Tessa White, welcome to Smart Money. Hello, thank you for having me. In this series, we are really focusing on ways to increase your income in kind of any form. So what would you say is the easiest way that people can increase their income?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And you mean that in terms of salary negotiation or like looking for another job?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I want to go back to something that you said about increasing the value where you're at. Some people may have tried to negotiate or they've hit a financial ceiling for some ways. But how can you get extra experience at your existing job? For example, if you want a role in management in the future, maybe take on some mentoring to work towards that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
For people who negotiating isn't really on the table right now, how can people get some of that extra experience? First, you have to know what to ask for.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And I'm Alana Benson.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I love what you said about visibility because I think that is so, so important, especially a lot of people are now working in remote environments. And so you don't really get that face-to-face time. And so what are some ways that people can kind of increase their visibility? Kind of like you said, talking about a presentation, but just ways to get exposure.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
And then how does that value come back to them?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Yeah, Sean, you alluded to this at the beginning, but there's just so much advice out there giving people flack for spending on like straight up normal stuff like going to Starbucks or like getting some tacos at a food truck instead of making them in your kitchen. And like, yes, technically, all of these things can have a negative impact on your bottom line. But like you have to live.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I think about that a lot where I work in terms of even just posting on Slack and making sure that I post regularly in the channels that my boss and my boss's boss and even my boss's boss's boss are because that visibility is so important. So they say, oh, I know who this person is. I know what they're working on.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
I know they're doing X, Y, and Z. So what are some other ways to make sure you're getting that managerial attention that could potentially lead to a raise or a promotion?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
So when you go into those meetings, it's so hard to kind of know what your value is or what people call your market value. So how do we figure that out? Like, how do you essentially see if there's space to grow in terms of pay in your existing role? How do you figure out what you should be getting paid?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
There's two things, figuring out what the company kind of needs from you and what you can bring to it. And then obviously, what can the company do for you?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Boost Your Income and Career: Negotiating Salary, Navigating Promotions and More
Yeah, I think it's so important to think about what are the problems that need to get solved here and sort of apply yourself to those and be moldable and be able to say, yeah, I can help you with that. I feel like that goes so far and feeds into the visibility thing that we were talking about earlier, because then you become known as someone who can fix problems.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I think it's fascinating, really, because you get to see the niche aspects of just about anything. And yes, it could be designer purses, but it could also be like Magic the Gathering cards. It's so much more personal than investing in the stock market. And people really get to tie together their personal interests with their wealth for better or for worse.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I think people get into investing in collectibles because they're maybe easier to understand than the wider financial markets. And if you're already just personally interested in something, it doesn't feel as daunting to dive into that world. Unlike with investing, you may feel like you have to learn about a bunch of stuff that doesn't interest you to do it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I am not a financial advisor, but I'd say for most people, you probably shouldn't bet your entire retirement on one category of any asset. If you have a closet full of designer purses, it's sort of similar to having your whole portfolio in one stock. If something happens to those purses, like a fire or the fashion industry decides that purses are very out this season,
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
It's sort of like if that one company goes out of business. And generally, it's never a good idea to have your whole financial portfolio tied up in one asset, no matter what that asset is.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I think something that's really good to think about is that if you have an otherwise well-diversified portfolio, so think S&P 500 index funds, stuff like that, you can use a small percentage of your overall portfolio, like 5%, to explore some fun things, whether that's crypto or comic books.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I'd also like to add that some people know a lot more about their niche markets than I do, pretty much anyone, because I know nothing about it. But if you've been tracking the prices of baseball cards for 20 years and you know the ins and outs of that specific arena, that's amazing. And you're probably pretty qualified to ascertain the value of those things and that specific market.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
And you could say the same thing for, say, designer purses, but it's usually a good idea to do it in conjunction with a well-diversified portfolio.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
So that is a very good point. With physical goods, there is definitely more of a concern with storage or pets in that case than with stocks or bonds. You don't have to worry about your dog eating your stocks. But some things like cards, comic books, or art, they need to be stored in a special way. Maybe they require sleeves or climate controlled temperatures.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
There's also the concern of insurance like you brought up. Personal property insurance costs can really vary, but generally it's around $20 a year for every $1,000 of personal property coverage. If you insure $10,000 worth of items, you might pay around, I don't know, $200 each year.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
I would imagine so. And again, I don't know each of these individual markets, but selling your collectibles may come with some risk. I'd say across the board for each of these markets, one of the biggest ones is that they're often controlled by taste, not cold, hard numbers. So usually investors make decisions to buy or sell stock because they can look at the company's fundamentals.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
Say, is the company making money? Is it growing? But with collectibles, taste can just be a bit more nebulous than that. It's like, do I like it? Do I think it looks cool? Stuff like that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
You'll actually still owe capital gains taxes, meaning that you have to pay tax on the difference between what you bought it at and what you sold it at, also known as the gain. Unfortunately, collectibles can be taxed at a maximum rate of 28%, which is even higher than the typical long-term capital gains tax rule.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
If you want to dive into the world of collectibles, I'd say become as much of an expert as you can. Maybe don't just buy something because you think it looks cool. Try to get a sense of the market, its resale value, and how much you'd be willing to pay for insurance.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
And maybe try to keep your collectible budget to be about 5% of your overall portfolio, prioritizing investing in index funds or mutual funds through an investment account first.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
Absolutely. Aside from obviously all of our socials and our podcast.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles
That'd be great.