We explore why money reveals our inner life more than our bank balance, and how purpose transforms financial decisions from optimization to meaning. Rev. Josh Bascom joins us to dig into self-help’s limits, AA’s wisdom, and the power of loving your neighbor.

• technical behavioral spiritual lens for money
• money anxiety identity and privacy around numbers
• rich versus wealthy and status signaling
• comparing our insides to others’ outsides
• self-help frameworks versus purpose
• suffering as catalyst for change
• 12 steps higher power confession and amends
• love of neighbor as guiding purpose
• money as tool not measuring stick
• practical planning once purpose is clear

Check out Josh’s writing on Substack: Cross Street.

We step back from “term good, perm bad” and map the real trade‑offs of permanent life insurance. We explain whole life, UL, VUL, IUL, and GUL, where they fit, where they fail, and how to avoid sales traps by matching the product to the problem.

• term versus permanent: cost, certainty, purpose
• whole life guarantees and steady cash value
• universal life flexibility and moving parts
• variable UL market exposure and premium risk
• indexed UL caps, floors, and illustration pitfalls
• guaranteed UL for low‑cost permanent death benefit
• permanent needs: special‑needs care, legacy, liquidity
• tax angles: income‑tax‑free death benefit, tax‑deferred cash value
• sales tactics to question and fee awareness
• what to do with an existing policy: keep, reduce, exchange, gift, sell
• guardrails: right sizing, clear goals, realistic expectations

Variable Universal Life is a complicated life insurance product that may not have the best reputation, but we visit with Victor Yates of Nationwide to learn about how they are doing things differently.

We'll discuss the role of life insurance in general in a financial planning, when permanent life insurance is a fit, how Nationwide's VUL works, and who it is best for.

As a reminder, Colin and Taylor do not sell insurance. This is a detailed discussion on the inner workings of an important financial planning tool.