Smart Money Podcast: The Best Financial Products of 2025 and Investing in Collectibles

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:

Learn how to pick the best financial tools for investing, mortgages, and travel rewards to meet your personal goals.

What are the best financial tools for investing, mortgages, and travel rewards in 2025? Should you invest in collectibles like designer handbags? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner discuss top-rated financial tools for achieving your money goals and what to consider when investing in non-traditional assets. They begin with a discussion of NerdWallet’s 2025 Best-Of Awards, which NerdWallet’s team of experienced finance writers and editors researched more than 1,000 financial products and narrowed them down to just one winner per category — to make it easy to choose the right one for you. Investing Nerd Sam Taube and mortgage Nerd Holden Lewis join Sean and Sara to share what they chose as the best product in their areas of expertise and why, offering tips and tricks on finding the right investment platform, understanding mortgage rates, and maximizing travel rewards.

Then, investing Nerd Alana Benson joins Sean and Sara to discuss the pros and cons of investing in collectibles like designer purses, coins, or Magic: The Gathering cards. They explore how collectibles fit into a diversified portfolio, the hidden costs of holding physical assets, and when it makes sense to sell.

Check out this episode on your favorite podcast platform, including:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

NerdWallet stories related to this episode:

NerdWallet’s 2025 Best-Of Awards

Fidelity Review 2025: Pros, Cons and How It Compares

Best Premium Credit Cards of January 2025

Have a money question? Text or call us at 901-730-6373. Or you can email us at [email protected]. To hear previous episodes, go to the podcast homepage.

Episode transcript

This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.

Sara Rathner:

Hey Sean, when's the last time a financial product changed your financial life?

Sean Pyles:

Well, last summer, I used credit card points from a sign-up bonus to pay for the flights of my summer vacation. I'm not sure that was life-changing, but it did save me several hundred dollars, which was pretty sweet.

Sara Rathner:

Well, I'm always a fan of doing that. In this episode, we'll talk about how using the right financial tool can help you meet your money and life goals.

Sean Pyles:

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Pyles.

Sara Rathner:

And I'm Sara Rathner. This episode, I'm joined by our co-host Elizabeth Ayoola to answer one of your money questions about, shall we say, a misguided investing strategy? And then we help you understand what kinds of investments might be better suited for the average investor. Before we get into all of that, I have to know, Sean, where did you travel to with all those points?

Sean Pyles:

I went to Chicago to meet up with my twin sister for a little belated birthday celebration. We happened to be there during Pride week, which was super fun, and I enjoyed it all the more because I wasn't paying some $700 in flights. My sign-up bonus covered that, so it felt pretty great.

Sara Rathner:

Well, that's awesome, and Chicago is one of my favorite cities.

Sean Pyles:

Especially in June. It is basically a beach town, which people do not appreciate. So I'm here to spread the gospel. Chicago's great in the summertime.

Sara Rathner:

Yes, that is the time to go. Huge fan.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah. But to your question earlier, the credit card that I had at the time made the vacation all the more feasible, which is why we're going to talk about why having the right financial product for you is really important and why it's so important to shop around for the right tool to help you meet your goals.

Sara Rathner:

And NerdWallet's Best-Of Awards for 2025 just dropped, so now is a great time to shop around for that right financial product for your needs. Every year, NerdWallet announces the Best-Of Awards, which is kind of like a shortcut for you to find the top financial tools across a huge range of products, like travel credit cards, insurance providers, robo-advisors, and more. And you can see the full list of winners at NerdWallet.com.

Sean Pyles:

To give you a shortcut to that shortcut, we are joined by investing Nerd Sam Taube and mortgage Nerd, Holden Lewis to share what they chose as the best product in their areas of expertise and why. And Sara, who writes about credit cards, will talk with us about what makes a travel credit card the best this year. And a quick heads-up that we'll talk about some NerdWallet partners in this conversation, but that does not influence how we discuss them. So Holden, Sam, welcome back to Smart Money.

Holden Lewis:

Hey, it's great to be here.

Sam Taube:

Good to be back.

Sara Rathner:

Sam, let's start with you. Let's not waste any time here. What is the best app for investing in 2025?

Sam Taube:

That would be Fidelity, and they've gotten the highest score among brokers we review for several years in a row now.

Sean Pyles:

A lot of people are familiar with Fidelity. I use the Fidelity app, and I like that it just works. It's not fussy or trying to push some newfangled features on me. What makes Fidelity the best for you, and what was the process for deciding that Fidelity is better than another similar product?

Sam Taube:

As you said, Fidelity just works. It's really streamlined and it's really easy to use for beginners, and it's great for passive long-term investors who want to keep things simple. But that doesn't mean it skimps on features for advanced traders. Our methodology for these awards looks at a lot of different variables. Some of those, like educational resources or mutual fund selection, are really geared toward beginners and passive investors. Others, like the interest rates on margin loans and the execution quality of trades, are geared more toward active investors and experienced day traders. Fidelity does really well across the board, which is kind of unusual. Most of the brokers we review are kind of specialized for either day traders or passive investors, but Fidelity bridges the gap in a way that very few other brokers do.

Sara Rathner:

A really big concern among investors is the cost of investing — things like expense ratios and commissions — and generally, folks want to minimize those so they can maximize their return on their investments. So what can people expect cost-wise from using Fidelity?

Sam Taube:

Fidelity got a lot of credit in our ratings for its low costs, particularly for those passive, long-term, retirement-minded investors I was talking about. It charges very few account fees, no trading fees or commissions for stocks and exchange-traded funds. Something that really makes Fidelity stand out in terms of costs is this line of index funds it offers called Fidelity ZERO. Most ETFs and mutual funds have an expense ratio, as you just mentioned. For listeners who don't know, that's a percentage fee that is deducted from the fund's annual returns. But as their name implies, Fidelity ZERO funds don't have expense ratios, and that's pretty unusual.

There are only a couple of costs I can think of where Fidelity isn't best in class. One is options trading fees. Fidelity doesn't charge a commission on options trades, but it does charge a fee of 65 cents per contract. That's pretty typical among brokers we review, although some other brokers like Robinhood and Public have done away with this fee as well. Fidelity also charges a relatively high fee for broker-assisted trades. That means if you want to place buy or sell orders the old-fashioned way — if you want to call up a human broker on the phone — that'll cost you $32.95 per trade at Fidelity, which is on the higher end.

Holden Lewis:

Sam, what's it like to switch from one investing platform to another? I mean, do you have tips for switchers who want to accomplish the change easily, quickly, without worrying that they'll end up doing something with disastrous tax implications?

Sam Taube:

That's a really good question, Holden, and it's especially a good question if you're talking about retirement accounts. If you're rolling over an IRA from one provider to another, you want to double-check that you're rolling over the right type of IRA. If you have a Roth IRA, you want to make sure that you've opened a Roth IRA at the new provider and transferred your investments into that. If you have a traditional IRA and you're not trying to convert it into a Roth IRA, then you want to make sure that you're rolling it over into another traditional IRA at the new provider. You don't want to accidentally convert a traditional account to a Roth if you don't mean to do that because Roth conversions generate tax liability. Generally speaking, you also don't want to go Roth to traditional because then you lose the tax-free withdrawals in retirement that a Roth IRA offers, and you don't get any benefit from that.

Sean Pyles:

Yeah, that's some pretty solid evergreen advice for any kind of financial decision. Read over the form a couple of times to make sure that you didn't check the wrong box.

Sam Taube:

Absolutely.

Sara Rathner:

Now let's turn to you, Holden. For folks who are looking to buy a house this year, what's the best mortgage lender of 2025 and what makes it better for borrowers compared to the competition?

Holden Lewis:

Well, first of all, if you plan to buy a house this year, good luck and I wish you well. Prices and rates are kind of high. As far as the best mortgage lender of 2025, our algorithm chose U.S. Bank as the best mortgage lender overall. They earned five-star ratings for three of our four objective criteria. Those three are mortgage rate transparency, variety of loan types, and customer experience. Let's break those down a little bit.

So, rate transparency means that you can go online and easily find out the interest rates the bank is charging. U.S. Bank is excellent at showing rates for its many loan products. And then that brings us to another five-star strength of U.S. Bank’s: variety of loan types. It offers fixed-rate mortgages, adjustable-rate mortgages, including for jumbo loans. It has FHA and VA mortgages. It offers construction-to-permanent loans for people who want to build a custom home. Renovation loans, mortgages to buy manufactured homes, even co-ops, which are kind of rare, and it even has specialty programs for doctors at the beginnings of their careers. U.S. Bank ranks well for customer experience. The way NerdWallet measures that, this means the bank offers convenience features such as online application and multiple customer service options. It also means that there’s a helpful mobile app and candid closing timeline communications. So in other words, if you're 21 days out from closing, they actually tell you you’re 21 days out and not keeping it a mystery.

Sean Pyles:

Holden, you mentioned that NerdWallet's algorithm selected U.S. Bank. Can you explain for listeners what that means, that NerdWallet's algorithm chose this bank?

Holden Lewis:

When we grade mortgage lenders, we use objective standards. Our opinions don't enter into it. So here's an example: Can you go online and look at today's mortgage rates? Some lenders don't show rates at all. Some show generic rates that assume you have a high credit score and you live in a certain ZIP code, and some will let you customize rates according to your credit score, location, loan-to-value ratio, and all that kind of stuff without digging into fine print. Each step along that continuum increases rate transparency and thus it raises the score. And so we have the same scoring philosophy for how many loan types the lender offers, how many communications options it offers, and so on.

Sara Rathner:

Mortgages are one area where it really pays to shop around, because you're borrowing a lot of money, folks — like six figures' worth of money in many cases, sometimes more. Are there any ways that U.S. Bank can make having a mortgage more affordable, especially as interest rates remain high?

Holden Lewis:

U.S. Bank offers homebuyer assistance programs with a limited scope. They let you make a down payment as little as 3%, and the bank pays the mortgage insurance. That’s a certain program they have for people who live in certain areas, like certain ZIP codes. It also offers several thousand dollars in down payment and closing cost assistance. So like I said, those programs are available in limited areas, so a lot of listeners might not be able to get that, and other lenders offer homebuyer assistance programs too.

Sam Taube:

On kind of a similar note, Holden, I’m wondering if there are any criteria that are especially important to first-time home buyers who are comparing mortgage lenders. You’ve laid out why U.S. Bank got the highest score overall, but how do they stack up for beginners specifically?

Holden Lewis:

First-time buyers, a lot of the time, are looking for loan programs that allow for, A) small down payments, and B) that are forgiving for imperfect credit scores — and mostly, we’re talking credit scores under 760. The FHA and the VA fill that bill. You can get an FHA-insured loan with a 3.5% down payment, and the VA requires zero down payment. Both tend to cost less than private mortgage insurance, and U.S. Bank offers FHA and VA loans. NerdWallet also gives a rating for the best lender for first-time home buyers. In that category, Rocket Mortgage won our Blue Ribbon. A big reason is that FHA and VA loans constitute a lot of Rocket’s business. You can apply via a mobile app, and Rocket closing times are quicker than average. That’s why Rocket Mortgage scored well for first-time buyers. Their origination fees are on the higher end, though. I’ve got to say, sometimes you get what you pay for. A more full-service lender might be charging higher fees, but you might find that more satisfying.

Sean Pyles:

Sara, you are up. Since you’re the credit card whiz, what’s the best travel credit card of 2025, and what makes it better than the rest?

Sara Rathner:

We have a few winners in the travel credit cards category, so check them out if you’re looking for premium cards, airline or hotel cards, or travel cards with no annual fee. Yes, they do exist. But our pick for the best all-purpose travel card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Sean Pyles:

I think this news will come as no surprise to anyone who’s in the travel credit card space. The Chase Sapphire Preferred was my first travel credit card when I began to dabble in the points game because way back then — almost nine years ago — it was ranked among the top travel credit cards. How has this card managed to stay competitive throughout the years?

Sara Rathner:

For the benefits you get with the card, it actually has a pretty modest $95 annual fee. And it’s funny to say $95 is modest — that’s a lot of money, let’s be real. But in the travel card space, a fee of $100 kind of counts that way because some of the higher-end cards charge $300 a year and up, sometimes way up — more than double that. For $95, you get this generous sign-up bonus, a $50 annual statement credit for hotel stays booked through Chase, and every year you have the card, you also get a point bonus of 10% of your total purchases for the year. So you can offset that fee just by taking advantage of the many benefits that the card offers.

Holden Lewis:

Sara, I’m not a newbie to traveling, but I’m a newbie to travel rewards cards, so I have a really naive question. When you use the Chase Sapphire Preferred to rent a car, does it automatically provide insurance coverage?

Sara Rathner:

That’s not a naive question because some level of travel protections are built into many different travel cards as a benefit, so that’s absolutely something to consider when you shop around for a travel credit card. And in the case of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, when you rent a car, it does automatically provide primary coverage for theft and collision damage. That means the coverage from your card will pay out first before you need to tap into your own auto insurance policy. So you don’t have to worry about your insurance rates going up if you experience a little bit of trouble with your rental car, let’s just say.

Sean Pyles:

Holden, Sam, Sara, thank you for sharing your insights about the best financial products of 2025.

Holden Lewis:

It’s my pleasure.

Sam Taube:

Good to be here.

Sean Pyles:

Listeners, if you want to see more of the Best-Of winners, visit nerdwallet.com/awards.

Sara Rathner:

And if all this talk about different financial products makes you think of a money question that’s been living rent-free in your head, we’re here to help you start charging that question some rent.

Sean Pyles:

Maybe you want to learn more about which travel credit card is right for you, or you want to switch over to a new brokerage account but want to minimize the tax implications. Whatever your money question, leave a voicemail or text us on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD, or email us at [email protected].

Sara Rathner:

One more time, send your money questions to us by leaving a voicemail or texting us on the Nerd hotline. That’s 901-730-6373, or 901-730-NERD. Or you can email us too at [email protected].

Sean Pyles:

We’re about to turn to this episode’s money question, but first, we have an exciting announcement. We’re running another book giveaway sweepstakes ahead of our next Nerdy Book Club episode. Our next guests are Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni, authors of the new book Buy What You Love Without Going Broke, which focuses on how to be smart about spending.

Sara Rathner:

To enter for a chance to win our book giveaway, send an email to [email protected] with the subject “Book Sweepstakes” during the sweepstakes period. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on January 24th. Include the following information: your first and last name, email address, ZIP code, and phone number. For more information, please visit our official sweepstakes rules page.

Sara Rathner:

Next up, Elizabeth Ayoola and I are tackling a listener’s question about investing in collectible items and how to tell if doing that is a good idea for you. Stay with us.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

We are back, and we are answering your real-world questions to help you make smarter decisions about your money. This episode’s question comes from a listener’s text message, and here it goes: “This is a question or topic I’d like to see on the podcast. Recently, I’ve been seeing things on social media about an Hermès Kelly or Birkin or Chanel flap bag appreciating as well or better than the market. Can someone at NerdWallet do research on this topic and report the findings? Thanks.” Yes, we can, listener.

Sara Rathner:

Okay, so for anyone who has absolutely no idea what the listener is asking about, they listed a few kinds of very expensive designer purses. Some Hermès bags sell for six figures. Yeah, as in probably more than you make in a year. To help us answer this listener’s question, on this episode of the podcast, we are joined by investing Nerd Alana Benson to talk with us about investing strategies and how to think about non-traditional investment strategies like buying and selling handbags. Alana, welcome to the show.

Alana Benson:

Thanks for having me.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

Now, we’ve talked on the podcast about investing in stocks and mutual or index funds. We’ve also talked about real estate investing and even crypto. But what about investing in other things like collectible items? What’s the appeal of this?

Alana Benson:

I think it’s fascinating, really, because you get to see the niche aspects of just about anything. And yes, it could be designer purses, but it could also be Magic: The Gathering cards. It’s so much more personal than investing in the stock market, and people really get to tie together their personal interests with their wealth — for better or for worse. I think people get into investing in collectibles because they’re maybe easier to understand than the wider financial markets. And if you’re already just personally interested in something, it doesn’t feel as daunting to dive into that world. Unlike with investing, you may feel like you have to learn about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t interest you to do it.

Sara Rathner:

To use a little journalism phrasing, let’s not bury the lede here. Let’s just answer this question. Social media makes this look like fun, and you do get to put your money into things that matter to you, that are fun to you, that are enjoyable to you. You get to go shopping and call it investing, which is awesome. But is this kind of non-traditional investing a good idea for most people?

Alana Benson:

I am not a financial advisor, but I’d say for most people, you probably shouldn’t bet your entire retirement on one category of any asset. If you have a closet full of designer purses, it’s sort of similar to having your whole portfolio in one stock. If something happens to those purses, like a fire, or the fashion industry decides that purses are very out this season, it’s sort of like if that one company goes out of business. Generally, it’s never a good idea to have your whole financial portfolio tied up in one asset, no matter what that asset is.

Sara Rathner:

So it’s kind of like that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie can’t afford her apartment because she owns $40,000 worth of designer shoes.

Alana Benson:

Exactly.

Sara Rathner:

Obviously, designer clothing and purses are one thing, but you can also collect everything from baseball cards to coins to works of art and jewelry. These items can be very expensive, and it can be hard to collect them in a way that you’re not losing your shirt here.

Alana Benson:

I think something that’s really good to think about is that if you have an otherwise well-diversified portfolio — so think S&P 500 index funds, stuff like that — you can use a small percentage of your overall portfolio, like 5%, to explore some fun things, whether that’s crypto or comic books. I’d also like to add that some people know a lot more about their niche markets than I do — pretty much anyone, because I know nothing about it. But if you’ve been tracking the prices of baseball cards for 20 years and you know the ins and outs of that specific arena, that’s amazing, and you’re probably pretty qualified to ascertain the value of those things in that specific market. And you could say the same thing for, say, designer purses. But it’s usually a good idea to do it in conjunction with a well-diversified portfolio.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

One thing to think about before buying a collectible as an investment is the cost of holding onto it, and it’s very different from the potential costs you might have within a brokerage account, like expense ratios. For one thing, you need insurance to protect things like art, jewelry, or designer purses. Now let me tell y’all, I once heard about a dog eating someone’s Chanel bag. Yes, it was uninsured.

Alana Benson:

So that is a very good point. With physical goods, there is definitely more of a concern with storage — or pets, in that case — than with stocks or bonds. You don’t have to worry about your dog eating your stocks. But some things like cards, comic books, or art need to be stored in a special way. Maybe they require sleeves or climate-controlled temperatures. There’s also the concern of insurance, like you brought up. Personal property insurance costs can really vary, but generally, it’s around $20 a year for every $1,000 of personal property coverage. If you insure $10,000 worth of items, you might pay around, I don’t know, $200 each year.

Sara Rathner:

Let’s talk about the next step of investing in collectibles: eventually selling them so you can recoup some money on that investment. Selling off stock is relatively easy — just log into your account, click a few buttons. But what about selling a physical object? That has to be way more complicated.

Alana Benson:

I would imagine so. And again, I don’t know each of these individual markets, but selling your collectibles may come with some risk. I’d say across the board for each of these markets, one of the biggest ones is that they’re often controlled by taste, not cold, hard numbers. Usually, investors make decisions to buy or sell stock because they can look at the company’s fundamentals — say, is the company making money? Is it growing? But with collectibles, taste can just be a bit more nebulous than that. It’s like, do I like it? Do I think it looks cool? Stuff like that.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

I agree, and I think for the few people who I have spoken to who collect designer purses, something they say — don’t quote me — is that they like to buy the classics because apparently, those tend to be in season even when the more trendy ones aren’t. That’s just a thought that came to mind. But now, the really fun part: taxes. When you sell a traditional investment at a profit, you usually owe capital gains taxes. Now, what happens if you sell a collectible item, Alana?

Alana Benson:

You’ll actually still owe capital gains taxes, meaning that you have to pay tax on the difference between what you bought it at and what you sold it at — also known as the gain. Unfortunately, collectibles can be taxed at a maximum rate of 28%, which is even higher than the typical long-term capital gains tax rate.

Sara Rathner:

Alana, let’s get your overall take on this then. All of this stuff being said, if someone wanted to invest in some kind of collectible — art, jewelry, comic books, whatever — how does that fit into an overall investment strategy? How would these kinds of investments mix in with things like stocks and funds?

Alana Benson:

If you want to dive into the world of collectibles, I’d say become as much of an expert as you can. Maybe don’t just buy something because you think it looks cool. Try to get a sense of the market, its resale value, and how much you’d be willing to pay for insurance. And maybe try to keep your collectible budget to about 5% of your overall portfolio, prioritizing investing in index funds or mutual funds through an investment account first.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

I couldn’t agree more. And maybe this is a good time to just say, maybe avoid taking investment advice of any kind from TikTok or other socials. I can say it louder for the people at the back if you want. It’s so important to do your own research or chat with a financial professional before investing in any of the things we mentioned.

Alana Benson:

Absolutely — aside from, obviously, all of our socials and our podcast.

Sara Rathner:

Well, here we are on the podcast telling you to be very, very, very thoughtful in your decision-making when it comes to this stuff. Alana Benson, thank you so much for your help today, and may we all go out and find the perfect $150,000 designer purse to complement our entire wardrobe.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

Amen.

Alana Benson:

That’d be great. Thanks for having me.

Elizabeth Ayoola:

All right, folks, that’s all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also pop us an email at [email protected] and visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more information on this episode. Remember, you can follow this show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio, to automatically download new episodes.

Sara Rathner:

And here’s our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Elizabeth Ayoola: