After six years and 163 episodes of Creating Wealth, we're turning the page.

This is the episode where we tell you what we're building, why now, and what drove each of us to take this step. Because Finerate came from something we kept seeing and haven't stopped thinking about.

Anastasia has spent years watching the financial planning industry concentrate its resources on high net worth families. But what about the people who are earlier in their journey, who are trying to figure it out, who know they should be doing something with their money, but don't have a clear path to professional guidance? They've largely been left out. Finerate is their answer to that gap.

Bill has spent 45 years in the room for conversations about money that most people never get to have, watching what separates the people who build financial security from those who don't, and wanting to give that knowledge to the people who need it.

Together, we're building Finerate: A financial education community for people who are ready to act. Not just another place to get financial information, but a place to close the gap between knowing and doing.

In this episode:

• Why we started Creating Wealth in April 2020 and what six years of conversations with listeners taught us about what people actually need
• The gap in the financial planning industry that motivated us to build something new
• What Bill has witnessed across four decades of advising that drives his conviction
• What Finerate actually is, including what the name means and who it's for
• Why this has to be a community and not just content
• The one question to ask yourself if you're trying to figure out whether Finerate is for you
• How to join from the very beginning and help shape what this becomes

If you've been listening to Creating Wealth and wondering what's next: This is it.

And if you're new here, this is actually a perfect place to start.

Join the Finerate waitlist at getfinerate.com

Finerate is the home of the podcast formerly known as Creating Wealth. Hosted by Anastasia Taber, CFP®, and her father Bill Taber, a 45 year investment advisor. New episodes every other Friday.

If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, start there first.

Part 1 laid out what's happening and named some truly wild predictions. Part 2 answers the question that actually matters: given all of that, what do you do?

With your money. With your career. With your mindset. And with the fear that many people feel right now.

In this episode:

• One prominent thinker predicted we're heading toward an "emotional pandemic" driven by the pace of AI change. Not a technological failure, but an emotional one.
• The United States is the most pessimistic country about AI. What does that tell us, and is the fear proportionate to the actual risk?
• If your income is less certain and your career is harder to predict, do the fundamentals of financial planning actually change or do the old principles hold?
• 55% of Americans now use AI to help manage their finances, up from 10% just a year ago. How good is that advice and what are the risks most people aren't thinking about? The research on this is more surprising than you'd expect
• The traits that matter most in an AI-disrupted world and what it means financially to invest in yourself right now
• Our honest gut reactions to where all of this is heading. Not the CFP® answer or the advisor answer, the human one
• The one thing each of us would tell you to do differently this week because of everything we discussed across both episodes

Finally, we're thrilled to announce that we are building Finerate: a financial education community for people who are ready to move from financial anxiety to financial confidence. Join the waitlist at getfinerate.com.

Check out our previous episodes on AI:

AI in 2025: What's New, What's Next, and What It Means for You, Part One

AI in 2025: What's New, What's Next, and What It Means for You, Part Two

2024 - Navigating the AI Revolution: Insights for Investors and Workers, Part One

2024 - Navigating the AI Revolution: Insights for Investors and Workers, Part Two

2023 - Are You Prepared for the AI Revolution?

We do this once a year: a dedicated episode on artificial intelligence and what it means for your financial life. And every year, the material is big enough for a two-parter.

Part 1 is the orientation: what's happening with AI right now, our honest reactions to some crazy predictions, and our biggest takeaways for adapting to these turbulent times.

We're not AI experts. We're a CFP® and a 40+ year investment advisor making sense of what we're seeing through the lens of our work, our experiences, and our long-term approach.

In this episode:

• What each of us has noticed in our daily lives over the last 12 months
• Why this technological moment feels different from any change that has come before it
• The predictions being made by those closest to the technology
• Why one prominent CEO says we're in the "hard takeoff" right now and wakes up to an AI breakthrough every morning, and how to evaluate a claim like that without either dismissing it or panicking
• The counternarrative: the more measured voices pushing back on the extreme predictions, and what approach to take
• What the mind-boggling investment numbers and record-breaking IPOs say about where we are in the cycle

Part 2 covers your money, your career, your mindset, and what to actually do. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so it lands directly in your feed in two weeks.

Check out our previous episodes on AI:

AI in 2025: What's New, What's Next, and What It Means for You, Part One

AI in 2025: What's New, What's Next, and What It Means for You, Part Two

2024 - Navigating the AI Revolution: Insights for Investors and Workers, Part One

2024 - Navigating the AI Revolution: Insights for Investors and Workers, Part Two

2023 - Are You Prepared for the AI Revolution?

We're bringing this one back, because the problem it covers is even more relevant in today's environment.

Social comparison has always been part of human nature. But financial social comparison in 2026 is a different beast. TikTok has entire subcultures built around money. Algorithms are engineered to show you exactly what makes you feel behind. The explosion of AI generated content will make the problem worse, not better.

This influences more people to make financial decisions based on what they think others are doing, without considering the consequences.

In this episode, Anastasia and Bill dig into the psychology and financial reality behind social comparison:

• How common is it for Millennials and Gen Z to compare their financial situations?
• What are some negative effects to comparing your finances to others?
• What strategies can you use to avoid comparison?
• Are there benefits to discussing finances with friends, or should you keep it confidential?
• What really matters when it comes to building your own version of financial success

Originally recorded in 2024 and more relevant than ever.

Creating Wealth is hosted by Anastasia Taber, CFP®, and her father Bill Taber, a 40+ year investment advisor. New episodes every other Friday.

One in three Americans plans to start a side hustle or business in 2026. Most of the conversation around that number is about how to do it. Few conversations are about whether you're ready and what to do with the money when it starts coming in.

That's this episode.

They cover:

• What's actually driving the side hustle surge: ambition versus necessity
• The financial readiness checklist before you start
• The order of operations when you start receiving consistent side hustle income
• The self-employment tax surprise that blindsides many first-timers
• Why building a side hustle around what you genuinely want to offer beats chasing trends
• Whether 2026 with its slow hiring market, AI disruption, economic uncertainty, is actually a good time to start something new

If you're sitting on an idea, already running something informally, or wondering whether the timing is finally right, this one is for you.

Remember to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who could benefit.

Creating Wealth is hosted by Anastasia Taber, CFP®, and her father Bill Taber, a 40+ year investment advisor. New episodes every other Friday.

The S&P 500 is near record highs. So why does your financial life still feel uncertain?

In this episode, Anastasia and Bill tackle the disconnect that a lot of people are feeling in this moment where markets are up, hiring is slow, costs are still high, and a general sense that the headline numbers don't match what's happening on the ground.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why the gap between what markets are doing and what households are experiencing is real and what it means for your decisions
• Bill and Anastasia's revised emergency funds number
• How to guard against your own protective instincts
• Why millennials have been conditioned to buy the dip, and why that assumption deserves a second look
• What Bill and Anastasia both believe will define the people who look back on this economic moment and say they made it through stronger

This is about laying the financial foundation that makes you okay regardless of what the headlines say.

Creating Wealth is hosted by Anastasia Taber, CFP®, and her father Bill Taber, a 40-year investment advisor. New episodes every other Friday.

What does Star Wars have to do with building wealth? More than you'd think.

In this episode, Anastasia introduces Bill to the core framework from James Clear's bestselling Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. This wide-ranging conversation connects several threads like Daoism, Newton's First Law, and what Yoda would say, to help you establish your best financial habits.

• Bill shares three real patterns he has seen across 40+ years of working with clients and the small mistakes that can quietly derail wealth building over time.
• Why "I am someone who builds wealth" is fundamentally different from "I want to save more money" and the ancient philosophy behind it.
• Anastasia and Bill disagree on what they have seen when it comes to money beliefs.
• The specific moment when people damage the compounding curve without fully understanding what they've lost.
• The single financial habit Bill recommends above almost everything else and the small salary move Anastasia says will compound your wealth.
• Why starting is the hardest part, what a gym story about 100 lbs has to do with your savings account, and what Social Security and AI have to do with urgency right now.

Listen in to learn how Atomic Habits by James Clear applies to your financial life.

Creating Wealth is hosted by Anastasia Taber, CFP®, and her father Bill Taber, a 40-year investment advisor. New episodes every other Friday.

Fair warning: this one is a little different.

Every April Fools Day, Anastasia and Bill take a break from their regularly scheduled financial wisdom to do something a little silly, and this year is no exception. In today's episode, they take a "deep dive" on cryptocurrency, unpacking blockchain technology, decentralization, volatility, peer-to-peer transactions, and the importance of planning for your ultimate long-term investment.

Yes, that one.

If you make it to the end without groaning at least once, we'll be genuinely impressed.

Six years in, and this might be our favorite tradition. Thank you for being part of it.