Staying Relevant: Treating a New Skill as an Investment
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stale, with the World Economic Forum's finding that workers can expect 39 percent of their skills to be transformed or outdated by 2030; and works through a $3,000 certificate step by step, counting the money, the hours, and the years the skill will keep earning.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.
Purpose at Work: What a Job That Doesn't Fit Costs You
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.
Human Capital: Your Earning Power Is Your Biggest Asset
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.