Recently, Financial Finesse was fortunate enough to hire Steve White – a bright and handsome gentleman from Texas. If you doubt the handsome part, just ask him…he’ll tell you! Steve shared his view with me of why an emergency fund is critical for your life, and it sounded like something I should share with you. Continue reading “Why You Need Emergency Cash Reserves”
As the political season continues to drag on and presidential candidates drop out, we are inevitably going to be faced with a decision that makes many of us say “THIS is the best we can do from a pool of 300 million people?” Yet, the day will be upon us shortly and we will make a choice. One of the things that I found interesting and a little bit fun was this political quiz that calculates how much you agree with the different presidential candidates on certain policy questions. The answers surprised me a little bit (and I’m not going to share how the quiz came out for me) and I’ve shared it with some friends to see where they landed. Continue reading “Two Calculations That May Surprise You”
For the last week, I’ve read a lot about Apple vs. the U.S. government regarding the request of the government that Apple build a back door into the phone of one of the San Bernadino killers. The case is very controversial and I understand why both sides feel so strongly. The government wants to break into the phone to see if there is evidence that can help understand and track down anyone who might have helped the killers. Apple is concerned that an important part of their products, a strong encryption that makes them very secure, could be no longer a strength if the encryption code they would write gets into the hands of the wrong people. Both sides have strong arguments, and I will keep my opinions out of this. Continue reading “How Do You Make Financial Decisions?”
I woke up one morning recently and scrolled through my emails on my phone before getting out of bed. I was shocked to see that one of my coworkers was involved in a hit and run accident. A car came barreling through an intersection, hit her car and drove away. She was injured in the accident and was, a day later, more upset that her workout routine was disrupted than being in a pretty major accident. Continue reading “Why You Need a Plan B”
One of the TV moments that I still find absolutely hilarious a long time after its first airing is Reverend Jim from “Taxi” taking his driver’s license exam. This clip STILL cracks me up every time I see it. While Rev. Jim not knowing what a yellow light means is not a big financial issue (although, I swear that A LOT of drivers I’ve seen lately have absolutely no clue what it means either), not knowing what a 1099 means could provide quite a shock to the recipient. Continue reading “How To Make That 1099 Less Taxing”
I’ve recently become a huge fan of the show Lip Sync Battle. Seeing celebrities “sing” the hits of their favorite artists while doing some very entertaining dances is absolutely hilarious. While it’s one of my guilty pleasures and has led to some world class laughter (“The Rock” as Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway as Miley Cyrus, Channing Tatum vs. Jenna Dewan Tatum), in one of my odd “connect the dots” moments, I realized that I was having a conversation with someone who was lip syncing her life. Continue reading “Are You Lip Syncing Through Your Financial Life?”
The first two weeks of 2016 have been horrible for the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 8.25% from 1/1 through 1/15. That is a bad year and it only took 2 weeks! Continue reading “Worried About the Stock Market Decline?”
As I type this, the Powerball lottery jackpot stands at $1.1 billion. Yes…that’s BILLION with a B: 1,000,000,000 – nine zeroes. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professional, I can attest to the fact that that’s a whole bunch of money! It’s fun to listen to the radio and hear what people would do with that kind of windfall. As with almost everything, there is both good and bad to what could be viewed by most people as an all good scenario. Continue reading “What If You Won the Powerball Lottery?”
I love stories about things that don’t always go together. Sometimes it creates a wonderful combination. That’s why when I read this story about a Siberian tiger that isn’t eating the goat it was fed (and is actually becoming a good buddy of the goat), it brought a smile to my face. Continue reading “Are You Financially Fearless?”
We at Financial Finesse hope your 2015 was a memorable year. Here’s one thought for a New Year’s Resolution: Make 2016 your Financial Independence Year!
Financial Finesse wishes you, your family and your friends a very Merry Christmas!
For some reason that I can’t quite figure out, I’ve been getting a bit contemplative about my future lately. Maybe it’s because my daughter is about to turn 20 and she’s been reminding me that I’m very old and falling apart so I should think about my future while I am still lucid. Letting my mind wander a bit to what my life could look like when my youngest goes away to college and I’m officially an empty-nester (unless they move back in!), I realized that I have a lot of options on the table. For my job, all I really need is a telephone, a good Wi-Fi signal and an airport. Those three things are available virtually anywhere on the planet. Continue reading “Nomads Don’t Have To Be Hobos”
As I write this, I have clothing in the dryer and when it’s done, I’m throwing some of it in a bag and hitting the road. The university where I played rugby is playing in the college national championships this weekend. Some of my old teammates are the coaches and I’m still involved with the team in various capacities. I will probably be watching game tape of our Saturday opponent in the round of four and if we win (yes, I still say “we” when talking about a group of college kids playing rugby), I’ll spend part of Saturday night breaking down tape with the coaches for our Sunday opponent in the National Championship game. I’m pretty excited and can’t wait to hit the road to see the boys play with the prospect of a national championship trophy in reach. Continue reading “Financial Lessons From a Rugby Field”
I have to admit that I’m not actually a fan of this day. I think it encourages blatant consumerism and I’ve talked to too many people who overspend on Black Friday and have credit card bills for the rest of the year. It’s easy to go overboard and spend more than your budget would allow since the sale prices, commercials, and constant chatter about shopping are impossible to escape. Continue reading “Why I’m Not a Fan of Black Friday”
As I was whining about not having a topic to write about, I got this email in my inbox:
I’ve got a co-worker who wanted to consolidate his credit card debt into one manageable loan with a lower interest rate.When he started looking though, he continued to find either consolidation loans with higher interest rates than his credit cards or he’d find what he calls “scam artists” that claim to try to find consolidation loans that he would be eligible for but then would say that he wasn’t eligible for them or they were for a “3rd party investor loan.” (Don’t really know what he meant by that.) I said I’d help him find reputable companies and I did. BUT that’s hard to do with all of the information – good and bad – on the Internet.
Boom! That’s a real life blog topic…. Continue reading “Consolidating Isn’t Always Easy”
One of the things that I have heard people say in conversations regarding money is “every dollar counts” and…I agree with that. To that end, there is some money that a lot of employees leave on the table on a fairly regular basis. With just a few slight tweaks, they could recover some out-of-pocket expenses that far too often are being put on a credit card and creating a gradual increase in debt level. The best part is that these are all 100% above board and employer-sanctioned. We all work hard, and in the course of doing that work, you should be able to recover some of the expenses of working. Continue reading “Are You Leaving Money On The Table?”
I was talking with one of my fellow financial planners, Cynthia Meyer, about a wide range of topics recently. During our conversation, I laughed that I was feeling too lazy to walk the two blocks from where I live to the grocery store. That’s when she told me this story of when she decided to walk EVERYWHERE…. Continue reading “Can You Walk Your Way Out of Debt?”
Within the last several months, I’ve been contemplating the purchase of a home and my sons are a big part of that contemplation. My ex-wife and I split up about 8-9 years ago and I have lived in a few places since the separation/divorce. I’m currently about 15 minutes from my old house (that she still owns) and it’s a quick, easy drive but with two teen boys with active social lives, it seems like that 15 minutes is resulting in 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes on the Beltway (our version of a highway) on a regular basis. Continue reading “Don’t Let An Old Rule Drive You Broke”
I was talking with one of my friends about a recent experience she had while watching a movie that is a twist on an old Disney fairy tale. It made her question some of the “financial fairy tales” that she believed, based on her life experience. Here’s her story: Continue reading “Do You Still Believe These Financial Fairy Tales?”
In one of my recent conversations with an employee preparing for retirement, we covered a lot of territory over a number of sessions. In running his retirement projections, he was WAY ahead of the curve. He had his estate plan prepared by an excellent attorney. Continue reading “What Are Your Funds Really Costing You?”
