Want money advice that you can actually understand? So much money advice ignores who we are, our background, our values, and our emotions. I’ll show you how to be in better control of your money every week, even if you’re just starting out.
💰I never negotiated my pay
Hey friend,
The summer I graduated from college, the housing market crashed, which kicked off the Great Recession. In a contracting economy, I felt lucky to land a job with a small business consulting and management firm. And I didn’t negotiate my pay.
I didn’t negotiate my pay for any of the jobs I’ve held. It wasn’t until I started working for myself and having to land clients that I finally got comfortable talking about rates.
I try not to focus on what could have been, but I wonder how much I set myself back financially from years of never negotiating. I know I’m not the only one who had to face this hard realization. So has this week’s Weird Finance guest, Nadia De Ala, a coach who helps folks negotiate their pay.
In the episode, she shares her journey, the powerful lessons she’s learned, and how those lessons give way to practical strategies you can use in your negotiation.
Your friend,
1.💰 Strategies for Negotiating Your Pay with Nadia De Ala (Weird Finance) In this episode of Weird Finance, Paco talks to Nadia De Ala (@nadiadeala) about strategies for negotiating pay, including the importance of research, mindset, and self-advocacy. This episode also features The Economic Outlook with financial astrologer Susan Gidel.
2. 🤑 Two Types of Money Problems (Young Money) You can graduate to post-wealth issues.
3. 🧊 How I Started My Ice Vending Machine Business That Made $33,000 (Insider) One of the weirdest things about me is how much I fantasize about starting an unsexy business like a vending machine or painting company
4. 🤓 A bookkeeping thing - How to Catch Up on Your Bookkeeping (HYG Original)
5. 💻 What Social Media Is Doing to Finance (The Atlantic) The world’s first online-inspired bank run doesn’t bode well for the next major crisis
6. 💭 Blackmail Kink: Inside BDSM Fantasy That Can Go Too Far (Rolling Stone) Some fans of "findomming" claim they're being taken advantage of in ways that they didn't agree to — but the dommes say they're the ones really at risk.
7. 😨 How do you overcome scarcity? (Paco on The Examined Life Podcast) Are you scared that you’re one mistake from losing it all? We all experience some form of the scarcity mindset. This mindset warps money into our self-worth, our “enough-ness,” safety and security amidst the real (and imagined) risks out there. We look at climate change, our childhood numbing ourselves with consumerism/substances, childhood money stories and whether you actually need money to change your money mindset.
8. 😔 How Monopoly Became America’s Cruellest Board Game (New Yorker) “The game was originally designed in 1903, by Lizzie Magie, a charismatic feminist, actor, and poet. At the time, most board games, like most novels for children, were viewed as vessels for moral instruction. Magie called her creation the Landlord’s Game, basing it on the theories of Henry George, an influential economist who argued that the value of land should be shared by the people rather than extracted by property owners. The game, which was meant to depict the evil of such owners, spread like a folktale, adopted by communities who tweaked the rules to suit their tastes and circumstances.”
If you have a question you’d like me to answer on the Weird Finance podcast, you can leave me a voicemail at 1-833-ASK-PACO. You can also email me your question by replying to this email or emailing us at weirdfinancepod@gmail.com.
The Nerdletter by Paco de Leon
Want money advice that you can actually understand? So much money advice ignores who we are, our background, our values, and our emotions. I’ll show you how to be in better control of your money every week, even if you’re just starting out.
Hello friend, I grew up in a time when food delivery was mostly limited to pizza. You picked up the phone, called in an order, and if it didn’t get to you within 30 minutes, the pizza was free. This had to be the peak of pizza delivery. But everything in life changes. Fast forward to 2026: Pizza Hut has completely lost the plot. They tried to deploy AI to speed up delivery times, but instead it caused a cascade of problems that could end up costing them $100M in lawsuits filed by their...
Hello friend, Here are some numbers that caught my eye this week. Revenue between $10k - $50k and production costs between $30k - $80k. What emerging artists on the 2026 Coachella line up earn and spend in production costs. Compare that to headliners like Justin Beiber’s record-breaking $10M fee. After $500k - $2M in production costs, there’s still a hefty profit. $0.004. What Spotify pays per stream. In California, artists must rack up ~733,000 streams a month in order to earn minimum wage....
Hi there, I had a roommate who, at one point, was one of the most powerful assistants in Hollywood. She was 1 of 4 assistants and her life was chaotic, but when you’re in your twenties, you have the energy for it. One day I remember coming home, walking into the kitchen and seeing several deli platters full of uneaten food. There were multiple loaves of bread and packs of cigarettes. My immediate thought was, “Score.” “Where did all this come from?” I asked my roommate. She was standing in...