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Dealing With Student Loans: Refinancing and Consolidating Debt
This seems to be the new reality for millennials in the United States. By the time you’ve graduated and realized just how much debt you’ve amassed, it can feel crushing and nearly impossible to dig yourself out from beneath it. However, you do have options we're discussing on the blog today.
Are You Saving Enough for Retirement?
It’s the eternal question… How can you know if you’re saving enough for retirement? Everyone is different and their needs for retirement are different, so here are some guidelines to frame your thoughts on retirement and to calculate if you’re doing enough to get there.
Why I Assume My Identity Has Been Stolen: And What I Do About It
Between the Equifax and Target data breaches, whether you’re making a purchase online or in person, your information is at risk. As a result, I’ve taken the stance that I will always assume that my information is out there on the dark web for anyone to use, and here’s what I do about it.
Zero-Sum Budgeting: How to Make It Work for You
For most people budgeting is not a fun exercise, but not all budgets are created equal. Today we spend some time talking about the zero-sum budget, how it works, and why it may help bring you closer to your goals
Retirement Planning 101: Options for Retirement Savings
Where pensions used to be the standard structure, we now have a hundred flavors of retirement savings accounts. Today we’re breaking down some of the most common retirement investment vehicles to make it easier for you to determine where you should funnel your money.
Making the Most Out of Your Mid-Month Budget
You started the month with the best intentions, you put together a realistic budget, spent the first week packing your lunches, and were feeling good about things. Then life happened. Here are a few things you can do to get through the mid-month budget fatigue and salvage what’s left of your month.
How My Father's Death Changed My Views on Finance
There’s no arguing that money can be an extremely emotional topic, but factor in a sickness or family death and those effects can be multiplied exponentially. I was 17 when my father passed away. Here are some of the ways his death helped shape my financial views along the way.
Five Mistakes You’re Making with Your Credit Cards
As credit cards usurp cash as the predominate payment method, we should stay aware of the pitfalls that can often accompany them. Here are five of the top mistakes you can make with your credit cards.
Four Reasons Your Budget Fails
If you’ve ever made a budget, you know just how hard it is to stick with it. You may fail month after month to meet your monthly goals, and you’re definitely not alone in that camp. Life will always throw a wrench into your plans no matter how good your intentions may be, but there are some reasons your budget might be failing time and time again. Below we highlight four of the most common reasons and how to troubleshoot them.
How to Prioritize Your Financial To Dos
Time and again, the question I hear from clients the most is how to choose what financial priorities to put first. It sounds like it should be a simple exercise, but most of us don’t have unlimited money lying around to fulfill all our current and future financial needs and wants. So when you’re working with limited funds, what’s really important? How can you invest for the future and still live the life you want today?
How to Recession-Proof Your Assets
So far this year, we’ve seen the stock market put up record breaking numbers, but several analysts have come out to claim that a market “correction” may happen within the next 18 months. It’s certainly enough to make you take another look at your finances and consider where you have exposure and what can you do to hedge against the next recession.
The Two Investment Tools You Need to Know About
Investing for retirement is important, but some people might be surprised to know that the IRS actually limits the amount you can contribute to certain retirement funds. So where should you be putting your money? Luckily, there are two great investment vehicles to consider when you want to grow your money, but have the flexibility to withdraw funds prior to retirement.
How to Pay Yourself First Without Going Broke
At this point in your financial life, you may have heard the advice to “pay yourself first”. As much as this is good advice to give, very few people actually follow it, and there are two big reasons why. Here we address steps you can take to pay yourself first without going broke.
A New Addition and New Financial Challenges
Let me sum it up in one word… MOTHERHOOD. For those of you that are already raising children, I’m sure you are well versed in the triumphs and challenges of raising a family while maintaining your everyday life. With that said, I wanted to discuss some of the financial changes and challenges we made to make room for our expanding family.
Four Ways to Save Money Without Impacting Your Lifestyle
Saving money is always a good goal, yet often we’d rather focus on our immediate needs and wants rather than our long-term financial picture. But saving money and enjoying your current lifestyle don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Here are four ways to save that won’t impact your enjoyment of your everyday life.