Personal finance advice is everywhere, but how much of it actually works? A new podcast, Have You Tried Being Rich?, launched September 1 with the goal of separating sound financial guidance from misleading clichés. Hosted by financial experts Dria Benjamin and Kristin Geosits, the biweekly show takes widely repeated money tips and examines them with a critical eye, asking what holds up under real-world conditions and what falls apart.
The podcast arrives as personal finance content has become a massive industry, with books, courses, and social media influencers offering simple rules for building wealth. According to the hosts, much of this advice is presented as universally applicable when it is not. "Financial advice gets repeated like it applies equally to everyone, and it just doesn't," Geosits said. "Income matters. Debt matters. Housing costs matter. Your obligations, opportunities and stage of life matter. We want to talk about all of that, not pretend there is one trick everyone has somehow been too irresponsible to follow."
Each episode begins with the strongest version of a popular money tip, then explores why people believe it, where it can be useful, what the numbers say, and where the argument breaks down. The show concludes with a segment called the BS Meter, which assigns one of three verdicts: "This gets you rich," "This won't hurt," or "You'll die trying." This format aims to give listeners a clearer understanding of which financial strategies are genuinely effective and which are mostly hype.
The first three episodes tackle deeply embedded ideas in American money culture. Episode 1, "Stop Blaming the Latte: The $5 Lie Keeping You Broke," challenges the so-called Latte Factor—the notion that cutting small daily purchases like coffee can dramatically change your financial future. While small savings and intentional spending have value, the hosts argue that income, housing, debt, and investing play far larger roles. "If skipping coffee were the secret, every office break room would be full of millionaires," Benjamin said. "We're not here to yell at people about lattes. We want to know why some of this advice sounds so good, who it actually works for and what gets left out of the pitch."
Episode 2, "Rich Dad, Poor Advice," examines Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad and the "think like the rich" philosophy that followed. The hosts acknowledge what the book gets right about cash flow, ownership, and financial education, but they also delve into the messier realities of leverage, rental properties, entrepreneurship, and passive income. As the episode notes, telling someone to "buy assets" is very different from having the money, risk tolerance, and margin for error to actually do it.
Episode 3, "The Pyramid You Can't Climb: MLMs Won't Make You Rich," takes on multi-level marketing. The hosts break down why MLM pitches are so convincing, how recruiting spreads through friendships and social media, and what participant income disclosures reveal. They also raise a key question: something does not have to be an illegal pyramid scheme to be a terrible way to try to get rich.
The podcast is available on major platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with new episodes released every two weeks. By subjecting popular advice to rigorous scrutiny, Have You Tried Being Rich? offers listeners a fact-based alternative to the certainty often peddled by financial gurus, helping them make more informed decisions about their money.
