Tyler Smith
Financial coach for working professionals
Appears in 47 Episodes
Developing your marketing strategy, with Juliana Weiss-Roessler
While it might be easy to jump straight into marketing tactics (posting on social media, making videos, running paid ads), your marketing will be much more successful ...
Growing your business at the right pace, with Erica Goode
How much money does your business need to make for your life? Would you rather have an extra $50k this year or get back 10 hours a week? What time bucket of your life ...
Managing your equity compensation, with Alex Crouch
If you're a tech professional at a big company or a small startup, chances are good that you get at least some of your compensation in equity: stock options, restricte...
Cybersecurity basics for solopreneurs, with Don Sesler
What do a meteor strike, a laptop in a canoe, and a cyberattack have in common? They all require you to have a business continuity plan, both so you don't lose your da...
The Many Hats of an Entrepreneur
We're back with a new series of interviews, and this episode introduces the theme: the many hats of an entrepreneur. Our framework is the "five parts of every business...
YNAB Rule 4: Age your money
What if you could put all your bills on autopay, treat your credit card like cash, and step back from the stress of worrying about when your transactions happen? That'...
YNAB Rule 3: Roll with the punches
Best-laid plans rarely survive contact with reality, but getting your budget to reflect reality is where the clarity comes from. Tyler and Steve have both had aspirati...
YNAB Rule 2: Embrace your true expenses
In part two of our series, we discuss YNAB Rule 2: Embrace your true expenses. Not every expense happens regularly or predictably. Budgeting for the infrequent or high...
YNAB Rule 1: Give every dollar a job
The first episode in four-part series on the YNAB Four Rules. Today: Giving every dollar a job, and why embracing the reality of your financial picture empowers you wi...
Steve makes a spreadsheet of McDonald's points
Tyler and Steve have a McDonald’s…problem? And Steve dives into the numbers to figure it out. Along the way, they discover the value of McDonald’s rewards points, what...
Tax brackets (and why they're not as scary as they seem)
Steve attempts a dubious analogy to explain how tax brackets actually work. It involves buckets, a garden hose, and a very tall ladder. --- Steve Nay: https://daybreak...
Book Club: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)
Steve might have too many things going on. “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown provides ideas on how to focus your efforts on the things that truly matter. Along the way, T...
Steve gets a letter from the IRS
Steve gets a surprise letter from the IRS, and it’s not good news. But with his wits about him, and with copious documentation, he’ll ride out the storm in style. Gett...
Book Club: You Need a Budget
As much as Steve and Tyler talk about You Need a Budget, it was finally time to review the book written by YNAB founder Jesse Mecham, which explains the mindset and pr...
Solopreneur Taxes 101: From W-2 to Schedule C
How are taxes different when you’re self-employed? Steve discusses how things change when you go from a W-2 job to being your own boss. The biggest changes are the way...
Retrospective: The first year(ish) of the podcast
Tyler and Steve discuss the first year of “It's Not About The Money,” including numbers (surprisingly not zero!), popular episodes, favorite episodes, paradigm-shiftin...
Zapier and business process automation
What processes could you automate in your business? Steve, a software developer turned tax professional, talks through several automations he’s built recently using Za...
Side hustles to start with minimal capital
Steve and Tyler have both learned so much from actually starting businesses, rather than just learning about starting businesses. So if you want to start one yourself,...
Revealing our business finances for 2023
Steve and Tyler pull back the curtains, open up the closets, and get very vulnerable about how much it has cost to start their businesses. Tyler proposes a rubric for ...
The philosophy of tax deductions
Sure, that big business expense may land you a tax deduction, but that doesn't make it a good idea. On this episode, Steve describes how the tax code is a tool to achi...
Implementing "Getting Things Done"
Steve has had a few weeks trying to implement Getting Things Done and has lots of questions for Tyler, the resident GTD veteran. Capturing actions, weekly reviews, sel...
Everything is budgeting
In this episode, we acknowledge that maybe we love the word "budgeting" too much and what we really mean is "making better decisions". Allocating resources (time, atte...
Boredom in all its forms
Boredom typically means your brain is telling you something is not sufficiently meaningful or engaging, and once you recognize that you can decide how to deal with it....
Creativity and the drive to create
The desire to create is a core human impulse. Tyler and Steve talk about things they've created that they're proud of, whether it's a family, a business, an early-2000...
How do we get things done?
Steve describes his process for managing work, and Tyler convinces him to read Getting Things Done. Links: David Allen's "Getting Things Done" https://www.goodreads.c...
The power of focus
Tyler has a breakthrough in saving for his true expenses, and it's about more than just rearranging the financial deck chairs. What are the benefits of focusing on one...
Appliance Repairs, or, What is the Client Really Buying?
Steve has repaired a handful of appliances himself, but others he won't touch without hiring a professional. Why the difference, and what is he really trying to buy? W...
Tyler hires a coach
Tyler is a coach, and now he has hired a coach. Steve asks him about how it works, what he's learned, and how it's making him a better coach to his own clients. But fi...
Optionality
Steve discusses an iPad purchase and its accompanying sheet music adventures. Tyler finds a surprise bank account. An acquaintance buys a house for cheap. Having cash ...
Book Club: Psychology of Money
Steve and Tyler discuss Morgan Housel's 2020 book, "The Psychology of Money". It distills a lot of financial wisdom into an easy-to-read anthology of advice and, espec...
