Make Your Nest Egg Last as Long as You Do

October 20, 2011

Once you’ve saved and invested for financial independence, the final step will be figuring out how to turn that nest egg into an income stream that will last as long as you do. With people living longer and longer, this can be a challenge for all retirees but is especially difficult for anyone looking to retire early. There’s even a good chance you’ll live longer in retirement than you did working.
Continue reading “Make Your Nest Egg Last as Long as You Do”

Searching for the “Holy Grail” of Mutual Funds: Less Risk and Higher Returns

October 13, 2011

In the last few blog posts, we discussed the danger of the “greed, hope, and fear cycle” (in which people tend to earn below average returns by buying high and selling low) and some ways to overcome it by diversifying and rebalancing your portfolio to earn the average return. But what if you were to actually buy low and sell high?  Could you actually earn the “holy grail” of higher returns and lower risk that way? Continue reading “Searching for the “Holy Grail” of Mutual Funds: Less Risk and Higher Returns”

The Investment Strategy That Actually Made Money in 2008

October 06, 2011

Last week, I wrote about some common ways to diversify your investments and make sure you don’t get caught up following the herd into the vicious “greed, hope, and fear” cycle that can lead to buying high and selling low. But even if you followed one of those strategies, you still probably haven’t been too happy with your portfolio’s performance lately. Your “early retirement plan” may have started looking like the “never retirement plan.” Is there a way to earn that 8-10% average return without all that risk? Continue reading “The Investment Strategy That Actually Made Money in 2008”

Simple Strategies for Investment Success

September 29, 2011

Last week, I shared some pretty sobering numbers about how little the average investor has actually been earning in the stock market over the last 20 years. This is largely because investors tend to jump in and out of the market at the worst possible times, reacting largely based on emotion.

The good news is that there are some pretty simple ways to avoid this fate. Continue reading “Simple Strategies for Investment Success”

How to Optimize and Simplify Your Daily Finances

September 08, 2011

In my last few blog posts, I wrote about how  we can manage our spending to save enough to reach our financial goals.  Ideally, you’d pay yourself first by having your savings set aside before you can even spend the money.  If you have retirement plan contributions deducted from your paycheck, you’re already doing this.  But you can do the same thing with your other savings too.  At Financial Finesse, we have the option to have a percentage of our paycheck diverted into a separate bank account.  See if your company offers something similar, or have the savings transferred automatically from your checking account. Continue reading “How to Optimize and Simplify Your Daily Finances”

Why Adults Need Allowances Too

September 01, 2011

In previous blog posts, I covered each of the “fixed” expenses and how you can cut back on them to save more for your goals.  This leaves discretionary expenses like food, entertainment, and shopping that you have more control over on a day-to-day basis.  The problem here is that because the amount we spend on these items tends to change so much from month to month, they can actually be harder to manage.

There are lots of tips out there for how you can save money in these areas.   Continue reading “Why Adults Need Allowances Too”

How to Lower Your Bills

August 25, 2011

One of the great things about your 401(k) is that it allows you to put away a small amount of money each month and end up saving quite a bit of money over time. The “fixed” expenses I’ll write about in this post work the same way, except in reverse. While they individually aren’t as big an expense in most people’s budgets as the housing and transportation costs discussed earlier, these relatively small costs can still add up to a lot of lost savings each month: Continue reading “How to Lower Your Bills”

Pimp Your Bank Account, Not Your Ride

August 18, 2011

There’s a show on MTV called Pimp My Ride, in which people would get extreme makeovers for their cars. But this post will be about a different kind of extreme makeover for what is probably your largest monthly expense, after your home. After all, getting from point A to point B can be expensive. It’s not just the sticker price on your car. It’s also the interest on the car loan, insurance, gas, maintenance, and repairs that go with it. An employee in one of my webcasts said she spends $400 a month on gas alone.  To make it worse, unlike owning a home, a car is usually a depreciating asset.

Here are a few keys (no pun intended) to minimizing this cost: Continue reading “Pimp Your Bank Account, Not Your Ride”

7 Steps to Make Credit Card Debt Work FOR You

July 28, 2011

NOTE FROM LIZ DAVIDSON, FOUNDER AND CEO OF FINANCIAL FINESSE, ABOUT THIS POST:  The strategy Erik discusses below has huge risks if you are not extremely financially disciplined.  Most of us aren’t.  Erik Carter happens to be the most financially disciplined person I’ve ever met in my life, so I can see how he was able to use this strategy without over-extending himself and getting into serious debt problems.  If you are one of the few who is like Erik, this is a great strategy.  Otherwise, it has the potential to lure you deeper into debt and you need to be very careful to implement it the right way and avoid the temptation to spend money you don’t have.

With that, here’s the post– hope you enjoy it: Continue reading “7 Steps to Make Credit Card Debt Work FOR You”

Are Emergency Savings Really Enough?

July 07, 2011

We often hear that we should keep at least 3 – 6 months of expenses in savings for emergencies. Some experts suggest increasing it to 6 – 12 months or more because of the economy. The main reason usually given for emergency funds is to have something in case Continue reading “Are Emergency Savings Really Enough?”

A Second Chance

June 30, 2011

You might be wondering who I am and what happened to Bruce. Well, Financial Finesse originally had a contest to determine which planners would write for our blog. Bruce didn’t really want to write (if you’ve ever seen him speak you’d know that’s his natural domain) but submitted an entry anyway. I actually wanted to write…but too much. My blog samples were way too long. So yes, I lost to a guy who didn’t even want to win.

However, I decided to come back and try again (which obviously worked since you’re reading this). Why? For the same reason that I wrote too much the first time. You see, financial planning is more than a just career for me. It’s a life-long passion.

Continue reading “A Second Chance”