The real purpose of the financial planning process is often lost when we focus on just the specific elements of a plan such as budgeting, eliminating debt, investing, minimizing taxes, and saving for retirement. Financial planning is more than these things. It’s actually the process of aligning our financial resources with our life goals, values, and vision for the future. Continue reading “Putting It All Into Perspective”
As my friends, family and coworkers know, I am a bit of a news & politics junkie. Because of my interest in the area, I love to read look-backs about elections. Why did one candidate lose and another win? Especially in close races, there are usually a few obvious things that help turn the election in favor of one candidate over the other. Continue reading “How Committed Are You To Your Financial Goals?”
Prior to becoming a full time financial educator, some of the work that I did with my clients fell into the realm of what is often called financial life planning. Financial life planning gives money more meaning and purpose and helped my clients do more than just focus on typical financial goals such as deciding when to retire, where they plan on living, and how much the expected lifestyle will cost. Rather than simply focus on money and wealth, it helps people decide what is really important in their lives. Continue reading “Create a Financial Life Plan with a Few Simple Questions”
I try hard to live a very simple lifestyle and to be relatively frugal. But my cost-conscious lifestyle gets totally blown out of the water by this guy. I’ve joked about my retirement lifestyle being one where I live in a van down by the river…BUT I’M JOKING!!! Continue reading “And I Thought I Was Low Maintenance…”
This article caught my eye as I was doing some Internet surfing and really…. how couldn’t it? How many times do you get to read a story about a runaway llama? I know that for me, it’s a first. Continue reading “Do You Need a Taser For Your Inner Llama?”
Sometimes the best things in life start with a great idea or vision. Recently I have become a huge fan of the “Spotify” music service. This article talks about how the founder of Spotify wanted to create something that combined his two loves, music and technology, and bring the world something better than music piracy. And, since he wasn’t really good at playing music, being a rock star was out of the question! So, he did the next best thing and created a music company. Continue reading “Daydream! It’s worth it…”
I was in the car today and I heard a quick news story about some new words being added to the dictionary. “Brain cramp,” “bucket list,” “energy drink,” “life coach.” and “aha moment” were added to the dictionary, and the most talked about “new words” are “F-bomb,” “sexting,” and “man cave.” I have a feeling that if my high school English teacher weighed in with her opinion of these new words, her opinion would not be favorable. She was not a fan of “can’t,” “wouldn’t,” and “should’ve.” She preferred that we write both words without the apostrophe rather than use the contraction. She felt that we were getting lazy with our language and that traditional, established English had more than enough words to adequately express anything that you want to express. Sometimes evolution/progress is good, sometimes…not so much. That goes for our language as well as our financial lives! Continue reading “The Dictionary Now Includes What???”
If you saw the Olympic 100 meter sprint final in men’s track, the “world’s fastest man” race, you saw two Jamaican runners cross the finish line one right after the other. When I watched from my TV at home, I saw their bodies holding steady and their feet in a blur like the roadrunner cartoon. They were running so fast, my eyes couldn’t keep up with the pace and those neon yellow green tennis shoes just looked like big glowing circles to me. Usain Bolt defended his title in the race with 9.63 seconds and won gold but he was followed closely by his team mate Yohan Blake at 9.75 seconds said, “When you are sleeping, I’m working. I’m toiling through the night.” Continue reading “Usain Bolt Won Olympic Gold Because Someone Was Chasing Him – Who is Chasing You to Meet Your Goals?”
By now, everyone has broken their New Year’s resolutions. Never fear, taking one financial action step each month is easy and you still have time to finish January’s step. Taken together these steps can have a tremendous impact on your finances in 2012. Continue reading “12 Important Financial Steps to Take in 2012”
Last weekend, the final 4 teams left in the NFL playoffs squared off to see who would make it to the Super Bowl. This year, it’s the New England Patriots vs. New York Giants playing in the season’s final game. 2 teams, 1 trophy……….I can’t wait. I’m almost as excited about the commercials as I am the game. My favorite team was eliminated, so there won’t be a championship parade for me to attend this year. That made me think. The NFL has 32 teams. Only 1 wins the Super Bowl. Only 1 is considered “successful”. The other 31??? They all failed to meet their goals and have to wait another year to try to reach them. Continue reading “What I Learned Watching the NFL Playoffs”
Rather than give away more fish this holiday season, why not teach them how to fish with a gift of financial education? After all, New Year’s is coming up and better money management is one of the most common resolutions. (A gift about losing weight may not go over so well.) While unfortunately you can’t exactly buy our services as a gift for someone, here are 7 personal finance books that I’ve found to be particularly insightful: Continue reading “7 Gifts That Can Keep on Giving”
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”
At work recently I’ve been assigned something completely different than anything I’ve ever done before, so I’m doing a whole lot of training to learn some new things. This has been a test of “can an old dog learn new tricks?” The good news is that it looks like it’s possible! Continue reading “Achieve Financial Success by Managing Someone Important – You!”
If I had a dime for every time I heard this question – I would have a lot of dimes! This is actually one of those questions I feel shows that an investor has entered the introspective phase of their investing life. The good news here is that the sooner you can answer this question, the quicker you can get on with the business of putting your money to work for you! Continue reading “Should I Manage My Investment Account or Use a Financial Advisor?”
Over the years, I have unknowingly wasted thousands of dollars at the grocery store and the pharmacy. If I knew then what I know now, I could have saved AT LEAST $1200 per year by using coupons. If you add that up over 25 years that I’ve been a financial planner, it makes me cringe. Those lost dollars will never come back; they are lost forever but I am just glad that I know now and certainly don’ t want anyone else making the same mistake. As a financial planner, I’ve always paid attention to the big things in my financial life—my training gave me a keen focus on making sure I had low fees and low interest rates on loans such as my mortgage and auto, managing my 401k for the optimal risk/return ratio, and to make sure my family was protected should something happen to me. I felt like carrying around a 50 cent coupon for a laundry detergent was a waste of time. Continue reading “Cash Management: Saving Money Without Sacrifice”
My girlfriend and I joke about her country life in upstate NY (almost Canada!) versus my city life in Baltimore. While this time of year brings blossoms and green grass in my neck of the woods, her climate is still dominated by brown grass, barren trees, frigid winds and the residue of salt from the endless maintenance of those snow-laden roads. She laughs as I brace myself for the cold every time I walk out the door of her house. “My weather is so much better!” I joke, but deep down I am serious. I am always wishing her weather was my weather. I am always wishing my drive for a visit was on my terms…green, lush, and just plain old bearable. Continue reading “Financial Goals: Looking for Greener Pastures”
Have you ever found yourself at the end of the week with a little extra cash lying around? (I know, it doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, what exactly do you do with it?) For many, they just simply find something to spend it on, and who wouldn’t. I mean after all, you’ve worked hard all week to earn it, so why not enjoy it. Well, I can’t argue with that, but there may be another reason why you’re not sure what to do with it: you lack financial goals. Continue reading “Cash Management: How to Manage the Extra Money in Your Pocket”
Sometimes we just don’t want to look in the mirror and ask ourselves tough questions. I had one of those moments recently. I was going to a football game and the line outside of the stadium was incredibly long. It took 40 minutes to get inside the stadium when it usually takes 5-10. If we were going to get to our seats in time for kickoff, we were going to need to really hustle. Sitting in the upper deck, in a stadium without escalators, can be a challenge. I have seen a lot of people heading toward my section stop at a halfway point (it’s almost a legitimate cardio workout just getting up to our seats!) to catch their breath. I got to my section and realized that I was breathing heavily and felt very tired and out of shape. It was at that moment that I had to ask myself the question “Have I lost my focus?” Continue reading “Lost Focus: Planning Your Finances”
I never practiced Judo but I’ve been on the receiving end where I said, “What just happened here? Why am I flat on my back on the mat?” That is what happens when you are the mother of three boys! Judo practitioners use the opponent’s motion to keep them going in the direction they are going and in the case, take them down to win a match. Continue reading ““Behavioral Judo” – Don’t Stop at the Minimum Auto-enrollment”
Recently I was conducting retirement workshops and individual meetings at one of our client’s work sites. Nothing odd about that since THAT is what my job entails! But it was this particular client experience that added a special joy to me.
The employees at this site had recently gone through a very difficult time financially. The company had to bring down the work schedules of the employees to the point where they basically were working one week a month. I need not tell you that a schedule reduction like that would certainly impact a worker’s finances. Continue reading “A Lesson in Perseverance”
