When Heather Boneparth was eight years old, her grandfather screamed at her for wanting to give money to a homeless man on the side of the road. Years later, on his deathbed, his parting words to her were "all that matters in this world is your blood and your money."
In a rerun of this fan-favorite episode, Heather (attorney and director of business & legal affairs at Bone Fide Wealth) opens up to Chris Hill about the money lessons she’s spent her adult life trying to unlearn, as well as:
- The importance of sticking your neck out for people
- An event that made her feel back in control of her financial life
- Why interviewing relationship experts for her book felt like "two hours of free therapy"
- The best TV series about money
Check out Heather's book Money Together.
Opening clip – “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze”

Kristina O'Neill spent more than a decade at The Wall Street Journal as the editor-in-chief of WSJ. Magazine. Then, in 2023, she got fired. The financial implications were immediate: a severance cushion, but no guarantee of what would come next in a media industry with few opportunities at her level.
Instead, she and Laura Brown turned the experience into the bestselling book All the Cool Girls Get Fired, and a podcast built on the same premise. Kristina talks with Chris Hill about:
- A childhood shopping trip that still shapes how she spends money as an adult
- The “unicorn” college she couldn’t resist
- Why she decided to stop hiding the fact that she got fired
- The money lesson she learned from covering the luxury industry
Email info@moneyunpluggedpod.com with questions, suggestions, etc.
Opening clip – “Sex and the City”

What happens when you have so much money that you stop thinking about the dollars—and start thinking about the zeros?

Adam Katz spent two decades in financial services, then went through a major wealth-creation event of his own. Now he helps people rethink their relationship with money, using ideas including what he calls the "Three-Digit Rule."
Adam talks with Chris Hill about:
- A surprising way his childhood shaped his relationship with money
- What he learned on his way to winning a state arm-wrestling championship
- What the movie Brewster’s Millions can teach us about the surprising challenge of spending
- The benefits of practicing "random acts of daily financial kindness"

Tell us about a thing you bought that makes you happy! Email info@moneyunpluggedpod.com

Opening clip – “Chinatown”

Spencer Ela had a steady job at a bank and a clear path to management. Then he quit — with no job lined up — to try to make it in Hollywood, an industry where (despite growing up in LA) he knew almost no one.
Today, he's a senior vice president at Miramax — the studio behind Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and No Country for Old Men.
Spencer talks with Chris Hill about that leap, what his parents thought, and the surprisingly strange economics of moviemaking once you're on the inside.
- Why a $100 million movie might actually cost a studio only $50 million
- How a movie can keep making money for decades after it leaves theaters
- The BMW leases that Spencer now wishes he'd traded for NVIDIA stock
Opening clip – “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Some of the best money lessons don't come from a textbook. They come from watching an institution fall apart—or making an expensive mistake of your own.
Dan Messeca, CFP, is the co-founder of Craftwork Capital and co-host of the podcast Check Your Balances. He talks with Chris Hill about watching the Wells Fargo–Wachovia merger from the inside and co-founding Crooked Crab Brewing with two friends. They also discuss:
- An unusual first job he had as a teenager
- Starting his finance career as the 2008 financial crisis was reshaping the industry
- The five-figure mistakes he and his partners made while building a brewery
- His father’s unforgettable advice in four simple words
Got a question for the show? Email info@moneyunpluggedpod.com
Opening clip – “Ray”

Couples rarely argue about dollars and cents. More often, they're arguing about security, freedom, priorities, and the future they want to build together.
Ross Anderson, CFP, is the co-founder of Craftwork Capital and co-host of the podcast Check Your Balances. He talks with Chris Hill about growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, what it’s like sitting across from couples who are miles apart on money, and how digging himself out of debt changed the way he thinks about money. They also discuss:
- Why he couldn’t wait to get his first job at 14
- Entering the financial industry at exactly the wrong time
- The innocent budgeting question that raises a red flag
- How Together We Bake is changing lives—one cookie at a time
Got a question for the show? Email info@moneyunpluggedpod.com
Opening clip – “Boiler Room”

We think about wealth as a finish line — hit your number and the anxiety stops. Blair duQuesnay, a financial advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, says it's almost never that simple. Her clients (ultra-high-net-worth families) aren't worried about running out of money. They're worried about screwing it up.
Blair talks with Chris Hill about growing up in a Southern family where money was never really discussed, transferring colleges to study finance (after starting as a dance major), and writing The Belle Curve, her newsletter on money, markets, and wealth, as well as:
- Having a front-row seat to the 2008 financial crisis while working in an office right next to Lehman Brothers
- Starting her own RIA and having to wait tables to make ends meet
- What she wishes she had understood about risk earlier in her career
- The $400 phone call she would like to take back
Discover Mar Mar, the chili garlic flavor that goes on everything. Go to ilovemarmar.com and use the promo code “MONEY” for 10% off.
Opening clip – “Margin Call”

Jesse Cramer had two engineering degrees and a stable, well-paying career designing hardware for an aerospace company. Then one day, about six months into his first job out of college, he looked at his 401(k) statement and saw $11,000 sitting there. That single moment sparked an interest in investing and compound interest that eventually pulled him out of engineering altogether and into a career managing other people's money.
Jesse talks with Chris Hill about:
- Why he kept a full-time engineering career for years after that moment
- Starting a finance blog after colleagues kept asking him 401(k) questions at work
- What surprised him most about managing real money for clients versus just writing about it
- The hot tub purchase he still regrets and what it taught him
Why do YOU listen to Money Unplugged? Tell us at info@moneyunpluggedpod.com.

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Opening clip – “Moneyball”