FinCon '24 continues from Atlanta, and the conference has a heavy emphasis on financial coaching this year, which comes through in a few of today's conversations from the annual meeting of bloggers, podcasters, content creators, coaches and more. Chuck's guests include KeyAnder Early of How Money Works, who focuses on financial literacy and teaching young adults; Bill Yount, co-host of the "Catching Up to F.I." podcast, which helps people who start their journey to financial independence later in life; Jen Yip, founder of the Lunch Money app, a fintech start-up that provides budgeting services and financial management; Stacy Blackshear of Rewire Behavior Financial Coaching, which works with parents of kids with disabilities to give them financial control and hope; and Dr. Disha Spath, the founder of The Frugal Physician. Plus, in The NAVigator, portfolio manager Jonathan Browne of RiverNorth Capital Management discusses why muni-bond closed end funds are a particularly good value play right now.

Gwen Merz Joiner, who runs the Fiery Millennials blog, says that living a radical financial life trying to amass a nestegg to quit working left her exhausted and unfulfilled, but as she loosens the purse strings today, she notes that she is in her 30s and has amassed a nest egg sufficient to get her through retirement without ever setting another dollar into her 401(k). She describes the ups and downs of FI/RE -- financial independence, retire early -- in an interview from FinCon 2024. In other interviews from the conference being held this week in Atlanta, Chuck chats with Doug Nordman of Military Financial Independence, Charly Stoever of the Unicorn Millionaire podcast, and Zach Whelchel of My Budget Coach. plus, making his regular Thursday appearance on the show, Todd Rosenbluth, the head of research at VettFi, makes Fidelity Corporate Bond fund his ETF of the Week.

For all of the complaints consumers have about inflation, George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors says that the precious metal needs "sustained high inflation" — which he defines as at least two years with inflation above 5 percent — and those conditions were not met, so gold didn't respond to rising prices. Meanwhile, gold has been rolling because it is a good hedge against geo-political risk and Milling-Stanley expects that to continue, given global tensions now. Moreover, Milling-Stanley expects a soft landing for the economy, though he believes that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is determined to deliver "a period of below-trend growth" to return the economy to stable well-being, and that transition could feel rough for investors. Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage Advisory Services, agrees that a soft landing is likely, though he expects that the market will face more turbulence and will fly at lower altitudes as the economy slows during the rate-cutting cycle the Fed recently started. Plus, Kristine Stevenson of Proverbs 1616 — the author of "How to Avoid Trouble With the IRS 10 Best Tax Tips for the Self-Employed, Gig Worker, and Indie Contractor" — answers a question from a listener who is hoping to resolve tax problems that have arisen during a health crisis, troubles that she doesn't want to leave her kids as an inheritance.