Sep 23, 2026 · 34 min · 20 segments
Join Jonathan I. Shenkman, President and Chief Investment Officer of ParkBridge Wealth Management, this week as he discusses a variety of timely investing and financial planning topics, including…
I received the following question the other day, and it's an area that I've not spent too much time on, so I'm happy someone finally brought this topic up to me.
A young woman recently asked, I've been self-educating myself on principles of personal finance over the last year.
I'm wondering if you could address some financial guidance for my demographic, particularly how to maximize this stage of life.
Personal finance podcasts typically address topics like mortgages and tuition and rarely address the single audience who want to make the most of this time financially.
So in the from world, the phase between finishing school, entering the workforce, and getting married can feel both liberating and confusing.
When I was young and single, I remember enjoying the financial flexibility of earning an income while not yet carrying the responsibilities of full adulthood.
At the same time, there was pressure to find a shirach and move on to the next phase of life.
Still, this stage offers unique financial opportunities, especially for people who have minimal expenses because they live at home while earning a healthy income, which is often overlooked in traditional personal finance discussions.
Many young people today are burdened with enormous debt, often from higher education.
The debate over whether expensive degrees are worth the cost is for another discussion.
The reality is that these debt loads can leave people struggling financially for decades.
It is not uncommon for me to meet people in their 40s who are still paying off graduate school loans, and undergraduate for that matter.
And if you have extra cash flow and flexibility right now, use it to eliminate debt as quickly as possible.
It is difficult to build wealth while carrying large balances and paying substantial interest.
The sooner the debt disappears, the sooner you can begin building financial security.
Having low fixed expenses early in life allows you to save aggressively and build a foundation that can compound for decades.
Saving a significant portion of your income now can accelerate wealth building far more effectively than trying to save later in life when expenses and responsibilities increase.
In particular, maximize contributions to tax-advantaged accounts such as a Roth IRA or employer retirement plans.
During my first job in corporate America, I was not making a particularly impressive salary, but I had limited expenses because I lived in a dilapidated townhouse in Washington Heights, part of New York, with nine roommates.
I received the following question the other day, and it's an area that I've not spent too much time on, so I'm happy someone finally brought this topic up to me.
A young woman recently asked, I've been self-educating myself on principles of personal finance over the last year.
I'm wondering if you could address some financial guidance for my demographic, particularly how to maximize this stage of life.
Personal finance podcasts typically address topics like mortgages and tuition and rarely address the single audience who want to make the most of this time financially.
So in the from world, the phase between finishing school, entering the workforce, and getting married can feel both liberating and confusing.
When I was young and single, I remember enjoying the financial flexibility of earning an income while not yet carrying the responsibilities of full adulthood.
At the same time, there was pressure to find a shirach and move on to the next phase of life.
Still, this stage offers unique financial opportunities, especially for people who have minimal expenses because they live at home while earning a healthy income, which is often overlooked in traditional personal finance discussions.
Many young people today are burdened with enormous debt, often from higher education.
The debate over whether expensive degrees are worth the cost is for another discussion.
The reality is that these debt loads can leave people struggling financially for decades.
It is not uncommon for me to meet people in their 40s who are still paying off graduate school loans, and undergraduate for that matter.
And if you have extra cash flow and flexibility right now, use it to eliminate debt as quickly as possible.
It is difficult to build wealth while carrying large balances and paying substantial interest.
The sooner the debt disappears, the sooner you can begin building financial security.
Having low fixed expenses early in life allows you to save aggressively and build a foundation that can compound for decades.
Saving a significant portion of your income now can accelerate wealth building far more effectively than trying to save later in life when expenses and responsibilities increase.
In particular, maximize contributions to tax-advantaged accounts such as a Roth IRA or employer retirement plans.
During my first job in corporate America, I was not making a particularly impressive salary, but I had limited expenses because I lived in a dilapidated townhouse in Washington Heights, part of New York, with nine roommates.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.