So Money with Farnoosh Torabi

If you've ever felt like the math just doesn't work anymore, you're doing everything right, still coming up short on your housing payment, groceries, student loans, this episode's for you.

My guest, Freddy Smith, spent nearly 20 years acting, including nine of those years on Days of Our Lives, before a business manager, who was supposed to be handling his money, stole it and stopped filing his taxes. Then came the pandemic. He lost the show. He moved to Florida and had to rebuild his finances from zero in a brand-new career. That personal collapse turned into a mission.

Freddy started sharing what he was learning about taxes, investing, inflation, and the Fed on TikTok and Instagram, not as an expert, but as someone figuring it out in real time alongside his audience, and that honesty struck a nerve. He's now built a community of two million people in three years, and it's now the subject of his new book, Generation F'd: How Millennials and Gen Z Were Robbed of the American Dream and How We Can Fix Our Futures.

In this conversation, Freddy and I get into why he thinks the real crisis for millennials and Gen Z is not financial illiteracy, it's wages that haven't kept pace with the actual cost of living.

We talk about his big four: housing, student loans, childcare, and healthcare, why he thinks college needs a hard math test before anyone signs on the dotted line, his wild but genuinely compelling case for how a young person could retire with millions just by investing early, and why he's cautiously optimistic that his generation is about to be the one that finally changes the system.

This episode first aired on July 27.
How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Ask Farnoosh, we unpack the latest updates to Trump Accounts, including new workplace contribution options that could make these child investment accounts more appealing for families. We also dive into the rise of "money maxxing"—what this viral trend gets right (and where it goes too far)—plus the surprising economics behind the stay-at-home boyfriend phenomenon.

Also on the show: why customer service frustrations are fueling record levels of consumer rage, what Realtor.com's hottest ZIP codes reveal about today's housing market (including why Montclair, NJ, ranks #2), and answers to two listener questions on avoiding common pre-retirement mistakes and deciding where to put your next dollar after you've built an emergency fund and are saving for retirement.

This episode originally aired on August 14, 2026.
How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when you've checked all the boxes? The career, the family, the financial success, the home. You've done everything you were supposed to do, and yet something still feels...off.

Maybe you're exhausted. Maybe you've become so good at achieving that you don't actually know how to stop. Or maybe, as you move through midlife, you're starting to wonder: Is this really what I want? And who am I when I'm not busy getting things done?
My guest today knows this reckoning intimately.

Unni Turrettini is an author, speaker and former Wall Street professional whose latest book, Soulware, explores how we can reconnect with ourselves in a world that increasingly rewards productivity, performance and external validation.

Unni spent years in high-pressure legal and financial roles, pushing herself so hard that she once physically collapsed at a professional event. But even after building what looked like a picture-perfect life, she found herself questioning why she still felt unfulfilled.

Today, we're exploring the difference between healthy ambition and what Unni calls fear-driven overachieving. We'll talk about why midlife can trigger a crisis of identity, how to stop operating in constant survival mode, and why giving yourself permission to work less might actually make you more creative, productive and even profitable.
And in a very timely twist, we'll explore how Unni uses AI, including ChatGPT, to help reconnect with herself rather than become even more dependent on technology.
How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a business in midlife, you probably know the idea is often the easy part. Finding the money, the support and frankly the confidence to actually do it? That’s where things get complicated.

Today we’re talking about what it really takes to launch and grow a business in your 40s, 50s and beyond, especially at a time when borrowing is expensive and traditional funding can be tough to come by.

My guest is Trae Bodge, longtime consumer expert, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Threadneedle Alley Foundation, a nonprofit helping midlife entrepreneurs turn their ideas into sustainable businesses through grants and mentorship.

Trae and I talk about where entrepreneurs can find funding right now, including grants that many business owners don’t even realize they qualify for, why applying for every grant you see may actually be a terrible strategy, and how even $5,000 can completely change the trajectory of a small business.

We also get into something I think is especially important in midlife: building your own board of advisors. The people who can help you think through the things you don’t know, make smarter decisions and keep you from operating in a vacuum.

Plus, Trae shares what she learned after reviewing more than 450 grant applications last year, including the surprisingly simple things that can move your application to the top of the pile.
How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Ask Farnoosh includes Farnoosh's best money moves in her 30's that led to more ease and financial flexibility in midlife. Plus: the cost of dinner and the iced coffee internet wars. Is it OK to bring an iced coffee to work?

Check out the WSJ article about the hell that is family dinner planning.
How's midlife going? Fill out Farnoosh's survey and help shape the podcast in 2027.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.