Courtney Harrell (Host)
speaker
376 appearances
10 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard May 2025
Courtney Harrell (Host)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
What we spend is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written and hosted by me, Courtney Harrell. Our producers are Margo Gray and Kristen Torres. Our editor is Jonathan Menjivar. Our executive producers are Maris Brunkheiser and Leah Reese Dennis. Theme song and original music by Matt McGinley. Additional music from APM Music. Mixing by Pedro Alvira.
Special thanks to Melissa Akiko-Slaughter, Joel Lovell, Jenna Weiss-Berman, J.D. Crowley, Maura Curran, Josefina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Scheff, Sean Cherry, Laura Berman, and Hilary Van Ornum. If you want to be on What We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at whatwespendpodcast at gmail.com.
Our guest today is a 38-year-old religious studies professor in Maine. He's a parent of two kids, and he's asked us not to use his real name. So we're going to call him Jay. How old are your kids?
And how many hours of sleep are you working off of right now?
For new parents, having kids comes with all kinds of life changes. And it can bring up all kinds of anxieties, new and old, that you have to figure out how to confront. And a lot of times, those anxieties are around money. That has definitely been true for Jay. This week, we'll take a peek into his life with a toddler and a brand new baby in the house.
And listen in as the week of diaries shows him something he didn't expect. I'm Courtney Harrell, and this is what we spend. how would you describe your relationship with money?
Tell me what that means.
What do you think was the biggest abstract kid money anxiety before you met kids? Pre-kids.
Jay and his wife are both educators. His wife works for a Waldorf school and makes $60,000 a year. Jay makes $92,000 a year. How do the two of you manage your money together? Like what's your system?
Let's get into Jay's numbers. Remember, their combined income is $152,000 a year. That's before taxes and health insurance. And they share their expenses.
Jay's referring to something called private mortgage insurance, or PMI. It's a fee that banks tack onto your mortgage when your down payment isn't big enough. So Jay is paying an extra $67 a month until they pay off 20% of their mortgage.
Their utilities really fluctuate in Maine. In the summer, they usually pay $300 to $400 a month, mostly on electric. In the winter, when the heat pumps kick in, it goes up to about $1,000 a month.
Does your wife have a phone bill too?
Transportation, $280 a month for their gas and tolls. Groceries, about $800 a month.
Their car insurance is a couple hundred bucks a month. And health insurance for the family is $383 a month. Medical debt, all baby-related, $170 a month.
And what kind of care is it? What are you paying for?
A family gym membership at the YMCA is $93 a month. And they pay about $50 a month for a combo of Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and the New York Times game subscription.
When do you think like this kind of relationship with money started for you?
Jay went on to college at a prestigious university that gave him a lot of grants. His parents did help him out a little too, taking out $10,000 in loans. And then he had a work-study job to pay for books and other needs.
Jay graduated with a degree in religious studies. After college, he worked for AmeriCorps for a stipend around $11,000 and just got used to living on very little. And then, around that same time, he had an experience that made him see money differently. His parents got divorced.
Showing 301–320 of 376 · page 16 of 19
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