Last week, I attended a continuing education seminar titled Elder Law Boot Camp for Financial Advisors that was hosted by an estate planning attorney. I know. Sounds fun, right? But it was actually much better than I thought it would be and it had some great takeaways.
Back to School: Student Loan Edition
4 minute read
Last week, Amanda was faced with a significant financial decision that millions of others have had to face as well without ever having any education or guidance on what they should do: take out student loans for the next year of college or figure out how to pay for it out-of-pocket? From the perspective of a financial planner, this process was completely not transparent. Luckily, Amanda knows a guy.
Where Should I Keep My Cash?
3 minute read
Something that I’ve been coming across lately is people who are keeping too much cash in a checking or savings account with a 0% interest rate. They want to keep the money in cash because they want to maintain an emergency fund or they have a short-term goal that they need to pay for, but they don’t know where else to keep it besides where it is.
Money Meeting
4 minute read
A concept that I’ve always really liked the idea of and that I’ve heard thrown around quite often lately on the financial podcasts that I listen to and financial blogs that I read is the “money meeting”, “money date”, or “money talk”, as some call it. No matter what you call it, I think it’s important to set aside time to have serious conversations about your finances with your spouse or significant other.
Halfway Through 2019
3 minute read
Somehow, we’re already halfway through the year. I have no idea how that happened, but it did and there are some things that we can do now to evaluate our progress towards our goals, and get ourselves back on track if we need to, that will help to set us up for success over the next 6 months to end the year strong.
Repost: Work Together
5 minute read
In March of this year I wrote an article titled Work Together which speaks about how married couples can optimize their financial lives through combining their personal finances. As I think about and prepare for my wedding this weekend, this is the topic that continues to come to the top of my mind to write about. Not only that, but one of my favorite podcasts published an episode around this topic as well. When I was gathering my ideas, I remembered that this is something I’ve written about before, but I didn’t realize how recently it had been. So, since this is top of mind for me this week, I thought I’d repost the article from March with some additional commentary.
Auto Insurance
6 minute read
Auto Insurance
Since I wrote about my thoughts on cars last week, I thought I would write about auto insurance this week as a follow-up. Most people, even those who you might consider financially responsible, don’t look through their insurance policies to evaluate if the coverage they have is appropriate or if they’re paying too much. A lot of the time I think this may be because they find it to be too confusing and overwhelming. Do you know what coverage you have, or did you just take what the agent told you to? Hopefully, this article can give you some tips to figure out if you have the right insurance in place and/or save you some money.
Cars
3 minute read
My uncle, who is the master of finding deals on vehicles and somehow actually making money from selling used cars even after he drives them for a while, sent me an article titled Opinion: The road to riches is this simple: Drive a junky car by Jared Dillian. Obviously, this article resonated with both of us, but I suspect that many wouldn’t even begin to read it simply because of the title.
What Does Money Mean To You?
3 minute read
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of money is, “something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment…” However, money can mean a lot of different things to different people.
One Year In
2 minute read
One year ago today, on June 11, 2018, I shared this blog on my personal social media channels for the first time. I had been posting shorter “mini blogs” about personal finance topics on my social media since the beginning of 2018, but I decided to create the website as a way for me to store my writing. I want to say thank you very much to all of those who have at least taken a second out of your day to read what I’ve written. I know that there are some who read everyone of my posts, no matter how terrible they are, and there are some who have seen them on social media tons of times and have never bothered to read. I understand how many different ways your attention gets pulled and how much information is out there to consume, and I truly appreciate those who direct their time and attention to reading what I have to say even for a couple of seconds of their day. I can only hope that I’ve provided you with some value and have been able to teach you something or challenge your thinking in a positive way.