What’s my financial New Year’s Resolution for 2016? It’s all about dealing with paper. Much of daily life really does come with an instruction book, helpfully printed in four languages. Plus it comes with legal disclosures, bills, prospectuses, receipts, health insurance notifications, magazines and professional journals. Continue reading “2016 New Year’s Resolution: Deal With Paper Daily”
I am a huge fan of the movie “What About Bob?” starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus. Bill Murray’s character was so overwhelmed by life that he went to see a psychologist (Richard Dreyfus’ character) for help. The psychologist introduced him to the concept of “Baby Steps,” which suggests taking small steps to achieve your goal. In the movie, Bill Murray took baby steps, literally, but the steps were baby steps based on Bill Murray’s mental state, not someone else’s mental state. Continue reading “Take Your Own Baby Steps”
I’m a huge fan of lists: to-do lists (yes, I sometimes add things just so I can check them off), best-of lists, pros and cons lists and yes, top 10 lists. Want a reading list to take you through the end of the year? Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite money-related articles of 2015:
Do you really need more stuff for the holidays? If you are like most working Americans, “stuff” is not a problem. Time is where you are falling short. Continue reading “Why Time is the Ultimate Financial Wellness Gift”
Science has proven that the more time you spend with people, the more likely you are to emulate their traits. There’s even an entire PSA campaign focusing on the peer pressure aspect of money. (The Game is my favorite.) Continue reading “Do You Have Financial Frenemies?”
Dear Financial Finesse: I’m a working mom with three kids and a busy job. I read Financial Wellness @Work and you guys make everything look so easy, but that is just not realistic to spend so much time on financial stuff! I don’t seem to have time to figure out what to do with my 401(k) or work out a college savings plan, and frankly, I’d rather relax or hang out with my family. Is there something simple I can do to manage my money without spending a lot of time on it? – Alexandra, FL Continue reading “The Two Hour a Week Money Prescription”
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”
As I take over Financial Wellness@Work on Mondays (following in the very big shoes of Dr. Scott Spann, who is bringing Financial Finesse wisdom to the retirement planning pages of About.com), I thought I’d take some time upfront to tell you my story so you know my perspective. Twenty years ago, I declared financial independence. I remember my Financial Independence Day very clearly… Continue reading “My Declaration of Financial Independence”
The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to enjoy endless samplings of every chocolate dessert imaginable, while spending time with the people I love. How can it get any better? Continue reading “How to Give Back During the Holidays”
It’s amazing how fast time flies but today marks my final appearance as a weekly blog contributor for Financial Finesse and you will have a new voice who will communicate her passion about financial wellness topics. I’ll still be here at Financial Finesse doing that financial wellness thing that I do along with conducting some research and continuing education for other CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. I will also occasionally make some guest appearances here on the Financial Wellness@Work blog, but you can still follow my Forbes contributions and my new role as the retirement planning expert writer for About.com. I may even be able to complete writing another book tentatively titled Live, Plan, Thrive by the end of 2016. Continue reading “A Few Last Words”
I recently had the chance to sit down with Brian Kelly, CFP®, an expert “money coach” and one of our more recent additions to the financial planner team and the Think Tank at Financial Finesse. I asked him a series of questions designed to find out more about how he became interested in joining our group of financial planning professionals who are committed to providing unbiased financial guidance to employees in the workforce. Here is a summary of our discussion with some unique insights about how an experienced financial planner uses an unbiased perspective to help others learn how to take control of their financial future: Continue reading “Meet Brian Kelly, Money Coach”
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”
With two teenage daughters, my wife and I grew tired of the requests. “Can I have money for…” “I need you to buy me…” “I must have…” Continue reading “How We Taught Our Kids To Manage Money”
Do you ever feel like you have no idea where your money is? When I do individual consultations with people, I often find that they have trouble managing their money simply because it’s spread around in so many different places that it’s hard for them to keep track of it. If that sounds like you, there are a couple of ways to simplify your financial life: Continue reading “Simplifying Your Finances: Consolidate Or Aggregate?”
During the last few weeks, I’ve pointed out some of my own financial failures. Well, these failures weren’t exactly complete financial fails because I learned something from them and moved forward with a greater sense of purpose for how to better use wealth to accomplish life goals. Perhaps it is the voyeuristic culture that we live in with constant social media updates and reality TV shows that condition some of us to enjoy seeing others make mistakes right in front our eyes. I don’t know what that really says about our society, but it may just make us feel better to see that others are a little more messed up in the head than we are. Continue reading “Finding Some Good In My Worst Financial Decisions: Part 3”
Have you ever made some really dumb mistakes with your money? Perhaps your rational brain was screaming “No!” at the time but your emotional brain won the battle.Well, even though I may be a professional financial planner tasked with leading others to smart financial decision-making, I’ve had some major money missteps along this journey called life too. This week is the first in a series of blog posts about a few of my biggest blunders and how I tried to turn those mistakes into some good old fashioned life lessons. (Unfortunately, some life lessons can be quite expensive.) Continue reading “Finding Some Good In My Worst Financial Decisions”
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?”
It has undoubtedly been an excellent start to the college football season for Clemson University. No matter what happens the rest of the year, Coach Dabo Swinney created some bulletin board material for locker rooms and office environments across the country. After Clemson held off a spirited comeback by Notre Dame, Coach Swinney delivered this masterpiece video when asked about the team’s success: Continue reading “What Coach Swinney Can Teach Us About Financial Wellness”
In addition to writing for the Financial Finesse blog, I also write for Forbes. One of the Forbes staff members, Samantha Sharf, laid her wallet bare and shared her last ten purchases. She then challenged other writers and readers to do the same. One of our financial planners, Scott Spann, took the challenge and shared his last ten purchases. Realizing first with horror that I am older than he is and second the need for people to see that we are not perfect, I took up the challenge to share my last ten purchases over the weekend: Continue reading “The Last 10 Things This 42 Year Old Mom Spent Money On”
It seems like almost every week I’m reading about another company getting hacked and customer data being breached. Within the last month, I’ve read about at least five major security breaches. So far, I have been fortunate enough to escape being one of the impacted customers of these hacked companies. Continue reading “How To Protect Your Credit From Data Hackers”
