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Although Cait Flanders and Carrie Smith focus on finances from their personal standpoints as freelancers, there’s advice that anyone can follow. Each podcast in the 12-episode seasons focuses on a different topic, including where to save money for a large purchase such as a new car, budgeting when you don’t have a set monthly income and talking about money with a romantic partner.

Money can be an intimidating topic, especially when people are throwing around terms like RRSP and TFSA and assuming their audience is already money-literate. Though Flanders and Smith are each experts with professional careers talking about money, they come to the podcast with a more casual tone, making their advice accessible even to those who don’t understand the first thing about finances.

They also come to the podcast as friends, asking one another for advice, joking around and having conversations about their personal situations. Highlighting that even the experts need a little guidance can make the audience feel a little less bad for not yet understanding the ins and outs of investing or the benefits of different types of savings accounts. This conversational tone also makes learning about money sort of fun.

A lot of podcasts and apps focus exclusively on what’s up in the U.S., but because one host of Budgets & Cents lives in British Columbia and the other in Portland, there’s advice from both sides of the border.

Published in Volume 71, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 26, 2017)