Money Lessons with Andrew Temte, PhD, CFA

In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy treats a new skill the way he'd treat any other investment: what it costs, what it returns, and when to make it. 

He defines skill gap, upskilling, and reskilling; explains why skills go stale, with the World Economic Forum's finding that workers can expect 39 percent of their skills to be transformed or outdated by 2030; and works through a $3,000 certificate step by step, counting the money, the hours, and the years the skill will keep earning. 

Fun fact: an employer with an educational-assistance plan can pay up to $5,250 a year toward your education — or, since the 2025 tax law, your student loans — with no tax on it.

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In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy asks whether the work you're paid for fits the purpose you have — and what it costs you when it doesn't. 

He defines purpose, alignment, misalignment, and golden handcuffs, then prices misalignment three ways in dollars: disengagement that lets your skills fade, golden handcuffs that make leaving a calculation instead of a feeling, and drift that keeps your human capital from growing. 

Gallup's newest numbers are here, including the fun fact that low engagement cost the world economy about $10 trillion in 2025. 

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In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy turns from what you earn this year to what you can earn over a working life. 

He defines human capital — the competence, experience, and health an employer or customer will pay for — and measures it against the asset most families count as their largest, home equity. 

Drawing on the Federal Reserve's survey of family finances, Georgetown's lifetime-earnings estimates, and the World Bank's wealth accounts, he shows why earning power is the largest asset most people will ever own, even though it never appears on a personal balance sheet. 

He explains why a raise compounds the way investment returns do, why that makes skills built early worth more, and why only skills that last keep compounding. 

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In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy turns to the earners the pay stub episodes left out: the self-employed, the independent contractor, and the side gig. 

He defines the five terms that matter — self-employed, the 1099, net earnings, self-employment tax, and estimated payments — and works through the tax bill on the same $50,000 last week's employee earned, so listeners hear what happens when both halves of Social Security and Medicare land on the self employed. 

A trip back to 1943 explains why the self-employed still pay the way every American once did, and why the IRS wants four payments a year instead of one. The episode closes with Andy's rule for anyone earning without a pay stub: set the tax money aside the day the payment arrives, and put the four dates on the calendar.

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In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy adds up what a job is worth beyond the salary: the employer's share of the health premium, the employer's half of Social Security and Medicare, and the retirement match. 

He follows one employee earning $50,000 and shows that total compensation comes to $63,100, and $750 less when a default contribution rate leaves half the match uncollected. Along the way he defines vesting, points to the one line on a W-2 that shows what your health coverage costs, and shares the Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that benefits are 30 percent of what private employers spend on pay. 

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