How Technology Has Helped Me Keep Closer Tabs On My Goals

December 29, 2017

Note from the editor: As we round out 2017, many people will be setting goals and intentions for the year ahead. To help with that, our blog team will be sharing their take on goals throughout the week — we all have a different opinion! We hope you enjoy hearing how each of us approaches the idea of goal-setting and New Year’s resolutions. From Michael:

You’ve probably heard the old expression about the cobbler’s children not having shoes. As a financial planner, I have to admit that looking at my own finances is sometimes a chore. After talking with people about financial issues all day long, the last thing I want to do at night is look at my own situation. I’d much rather turn on some music or podcast or a news channel or even clean a bathroom or read a good book. If keeping better tabs on your daily money is on your list of goals, perhaps my experience can help.

Tracking the day-to-day

What I have found lately is that it isn’t always a chore to keep an eye on my budget, which is great. Technology has allowed me to get a quick look at my financial life at a glance and it’s not all that intrusive. I use an online budgeting tool (there are lots of them to choose from now) to keep track of my spending, and to set monthly targets. When I reach or go over budget in a category, I get an email or a text message. This tool also has an app, so I can take a quick peek at my daily financial life as I’m waiting for coffee to brew (or popcorn to be ready in the microwave).

There’s an app for that

A recurring bill is due? I get a text message to let me know that the statement has been generated and a link to the website so I can schedule a payment. Need to check out if the stock market has gone up or down? A quick look at one of the apps on my phone can give me specific stock quotes, a look at the overall markets, big news items. Wondering what’s going on in the financial world? There’s an app for that too.

Information overload

Whether it’s the world at large or my own personal day-to-day financial management, it’s getting easier to keep track of your financial life without a big investment of time and effort. Is there a downside to this? Absolutely: information overload. At one point I got so many notifications on my phone each day that I stopped paying attention to them & eventually turned them off. I had to unsubscribe from all but a few of the most useful email lists. These apps only work if you work them into your daily routine.

The missing app 

Here’s where my 2018 goal comes into play: I have only been able to find useful ways to manage my day to day; my long term financial picture is something I still visit only periodically. I know my long term goals, and use technology to manage the short term items in a way that is consistent with my long term goals, but I wish there was a way for me to check my progress at a glance for the big picture stuff without having to crunch all the numbers and look at several different accounts first.

If I can find a technologically simple way to view my long term financial goals, then I will consider my 2018 money goals a success — after all, I’m doing all the day to day stuff, so they should, in theory, lead to achievement of the long term. But having a way to check that regularly would help to ensure that outcome.

When used in the appropriate amount, technology can add a great deal of structure and clarity to your financial life and goal setting.

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How I’m Teaching My Polar Opposite Daughters About Money

August 25, 2017

If you’re a parent, you probably know that sometimes you can be around your kids and wonder just how in the world they are actually related because they are so different. As a father and financial planner, I have really seen that difference in my two daughters this past year. My girls are teenagers and both are now working part-time and taking on more financial responsibility. That is where the similarities end.

Polar opposite financial personalities

My oldest daughter has a great work ethic and is a practical shopper when it comes to big ticket items, but she struggles to really plan or track her daily spending at all. My youngest daughter, on the other hand, will work only as hard as she needs to in order to make money and that’s it. When it comes to spending money, she values fashion over function and plans her expenditures down to the penny. Total opposites.

So how does a dad help these two very different daughters reach the same goal of financial well-being? Here’s how I am approaching it with each of them.

Work smarter, not harder

I don’t worry about my oldest daughter working hard enough. If things get tough, I know that she will do whatever it takes to make ends meet. As a result, my advice to her is not to work harder but to work smarter. She needs to take a look at the big picture before diving in to a project or a job to see if there are ways to be more efficient or even farm out the easier, less costly parts of a job.

Letting perfect get in the way of good enough

For my younger daughter, I know that she will have analyzed things from every angle to make things easy and efficient for her. Her challenge is that sometimes she lets the perfect get in the way of the good.

For example, she had a host of reasons for not wanting to work at the pool this summer – one of the few jobs that would take her before turning 16 this fall. She eventually found a job that was more to her liking, but she ended up only able to get 20 hours a week instead of the 32 per week she probably would have been able to get at the pool, which limited her earning potential. So for her and analyzers like her, sometimes it is better to take the good opportunity instead of waiting for the perfect one.

Finding a way to keep the little things in check

My oldest daughter is pretty good about finding a good deal when it is a big ticket item, but the little things kill her. When it was time to find a car – which she had to pay half of – she did extensive research and even though her dream car is an SUV, she realized that a compact car made more sense and found a great deal on a Ford Focus that should last her well into her young adulthood.

Day to day purchases are just the opposite – the debit card and apps like Starbucks make it very easy for her to fritter away her hard-earned money on convenience and impulse buys. She needs a better way to track her money.

She doesn’t need to spend hours each week planning out her spending, but I’ve suggested that she find a “hack” to make things easier like an app on her phone or using envelopes to limit impulse spending. Perhaps one of these six ideas from my colleague Kelley might help.

When fashion gets in the way of function

My younger daughter is constantly looking for car options… and she keeps looking for champagne cars on her beer budget. She likes crossovers but the challenge here is getting her to realize that they are more expensive so she would have to buy an older, higher mileage car that likely won’t last as long. Plus they would cost more to insure and burn more gas. She may feel cooler now, but will she still feel that way having to buy a new car all on her own in her very early 20’s? The jury is still out on whether she’ll listen to me or go with her penchant for fashion over value.

On the plus side, she has planned her day-to-day spending like a pro. She has literally budgeted every paycheck she is expecting between now and March to parcel out how much will go for the car, gas and her drama department trip to New York, while she plans to use her tips for fun money.

She puts her debit card away to prevent her from using it for impulse buys and only uses the cash tips for her spending money. I have given her a lot of praise for her planning and how she is managing her daily expenses.

The challenge that I talked to her about is over-planning – an issue that I have dealt with. She doesn’t really have an emergency fund or any wiggle room, so when she doesn’t get enough hours or things happen, it puts her into a tizzy. Planners like her and I will always struggle with over planning but having an emergency fund or a “life happens” line item in the budget can help ease the stress of things not going according to plan.

Different girls, same end goal

Despite their differences, my girls are great kids and both have a lot of money skills. The different personality traits mean that they may need different approaches to get to the same goal but I expect them both to do well in life.

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Are You Having Trouble Sticking to Your Budget?

October 18, 2016

I love what I do for a living, but there are definitely some drawbacks. My friends and family will come to me with financial questions but will run from me like I have the plague if they are not following my advice. In fact, a family’s or friend’s communication with me after I give advice is my best indication if they are actually following my guidance. I find the more voice mails I leave, the more likely they are not following my guidance. Such was the case with one of my young cousins.

Samantha is a recent college graduate in her early twenties that recently landed her first job. Immediately, the “I wanna have” disease took over and she quickly found herself barely able to make it from paycheck to paycheck. We sat down and worked on a spending plan based on her lifestyle. As a Starbucks fanatic, I am the last person to deny someone a pumpkin spice latte, but I encourage people to create a budget so you are not “latteing” yourself out of paying off debt, building an emergency fund or saving for retirement. She took my advice…or so I thought.

After not hearing from her for months, which is unusual, I finally got her on the phone and she admitted that she had been avoiding me because she was not following the budget. Once I told her that it was okay, that a failed budget only means re-strategizing, we looked at ways to help her stick to her spending plan. If you are having trouble sticking to a budget, consider doing the following:

1. Consider increasing some of the areas where you continuously overspend. Samantha struggled with eating out. She is young, single and in a new city. Her income allowed for some eating out so she decided to eat out 5 days a week, bring her lunch into work and eat at home twice a week.

She reduced her grocery budget and increased her eating out budget. Since part of the reason for her eating out was loneliness, I suggested having a potluck or pizza/home movie night with friends on one of the days when she eats at home to share the cost and for her to have company. Consider increasing your budget in areas where you constantly overspend. Remember, you have to make up for the overspending by decreasing spending in another area though.

2. Consider using cash for areas where you overspend. If you have areas where the problem is simply a lack of discipline as opposed to a need to increase spending, consider using cash. Some of the popular areas where people overspend are: groceries, clothing (this includes kids), eating out, entertainment, and gifts. If you overspend in any of these areas, consider using cash.

3. Find the method of tracking spending that works best for you. Samantha was tracking her spending with a great budgeting tool that she thought was too much work. She switched to her online banking budgeting tools, which streamlined the budgeting process for her. Her bank offered a robust app so she can stay connected to her budget online.

Consider how you want to access your info. If it is through your smartphone, consider online apps. If you want to not only budget but review investments and tackle debt, review online tools that can help you. If you are not sure where to start, consider doing what Samantha did and start with your bank’s online programs.

Remember to be patient when you start a new budget. There is almost always a need to make adjustments during the first three months. Hang in there and you will be a budgeting guru in no time!

And I Thought I Was Living a Low Cost Lifestyle…

February 07, 2014

One of the things that gives me a little bit of a smile is knowing that I can make a dollar stretch pretty far. I’m pretty good at either saying NO to myself and not spending money or finding great bargains and saving a lot of money. That translates into me being able to live on not a whole lot of money. At least I thought so… Continue reading “And I Thought I Was Living a Low Cost Lifestyle…”