All in Financial Basics
It’s important to realize that our kids need parents who are physically, emotionally and financially stable so by extension, we need to take care of ourselves first and that means investing in our well-being. Here are 7 financial moves that will benefit your children.
“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” - Vern McLellan
Happy New Year!
2020 wasn’t exactly the year we all hope it would be. Many of us were pushed into situations that we didn’t desire, but the great thing about humans is that we are all very resilient beings. While a date and a year change shouldn’t stop us from making changes, it does give us permission to make the changes that we’ve long wanted to make, but never did because of fear: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of alienation and fear of the unknown.
This list focuses specifically on the financial moves you should make for a more successful 2021.
I don't know how to act my age. I've never been this age before.
I turn 25 this December. I didn’t think this is what it was going to be like leading up to my 25th birthday. I feel old and young all at the same time, but most importantly I still feel lost. My mid-twenties have been thrown in for a loop, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t give up. My birthday is another celebration — another benchmark. I’m not here to tell anyone where they should be in their mid-twenties. Physically, mentally, financially, we’re all at different points. As I enter my 25th year, here are some of my goals that I’d like to meet:
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
How do you measure success?
In business, this is usually based on Key Performance Indicator (#KPI) set up at the beginning of the year and evaluated throughout. KPIs keep you focused on the goal at hand.
But, what about your personal finances? How do you know you are managing your finances well? Earning more is great, but are you using your money efficiently?
Well, enter the Personal Finance KPIs. It's a list of metrics that you should track and work to improve as the years go on. A little Google search will result in multiple iterations of this list, so you’ll have to find which ones work for you. Each one of us have different financial goals after all, so one metric may work for one person for a few years, but after a while, it may be time to retire an old metric and add a new one.
Friends, today, I’m sharing a giveaway I found on a whim, which could be worthwhile for many people.
Fidelity is running a Student Loan Giveaway through their new finance learning app Fidelity Spire.
Giveaway ends December 8, 2020.
“Stop buying things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.”
I recently asked my Instagram followers this question: Why are people willing to pay $50 a month for life to get a new phone, but find it hard to save $20 a month?
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
Since most companies are doing their benefits enrollment period in the next few week’s, we though we’d share some of the most common retirement savings options. Even if you are young and have just started your professional career, it’s important to start saving and planning for retirement now so that you can use the power of time to build yourself a hefty next egg when you are older.
As the effects of COVID-19 are being felt globally, many leaders have asked citizens to self-isolate and self-quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus even further. Self-quarantine can seem scary as it means being isolated from people and things that we love. Instead, let’s look into self-quarantine as an opportunity to catch-up on the things we’ve not had time to do due to personal, professional and familial obligations. I think the biggest opportunity here is the time you’ll have to review and manage your finances. Now is the time to act. If you have a bit of downtime, instead of fully engaging on Netflix marathons (which is fine in moderation), may I suggest taking a look at this list of items you can do to strengthen your finances for the days ahead.
The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today.
The talking heads on TV are putting fear into our heads and hearts with the word “recession”. While I think we always have to be weary of the talking heads, it’s important that we start planning for an uncertain future and the best time to plan for an uncertain future is when the going is good. The thing with fear is that it paralyzes most of us from taking any action. Fear never goes away. We are wired to fear because it keeps us safe. While we sometimes think humans are complex creatures, our inner core and need is to ensure we survive from whatever could hurt us. The challenge is that wherever we turn, we are made to fear anything and everything because fear is used to sell us things. Instead of letting fear get to us, let’s put a plan in place that we know we can easily execute to get our finances in order before the slowdown happens for the sake of our future selves and our families.
A money journal can be a diary of sort that tracks your daily spending habits. It may be a list of expenses. It may be a list of money goals and your progress. It may be a list of debts. For many, a money journal can just be a ledger of money coming in and out. Instead of relying on an app, Excel or monthly statements from a bank or credit card, a money journal can be a record of accounts. A money journal can be started on any plain notebook. The most important thing with a money journal is to do it consistently. This is where you will learn to see patterns on spending or doing deeper, patterns on emotional spending. It’s imperative that you review your journal often and write down your thoughts and feelings about recent money moves. This will inform you of where you money mindset is at this point in time.
“Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after.”
I recently came across a post on Facebook about how a woman took out what essentially amounted to be a very expensive loan for underwear. I’ve included the text below and you can find it here too. It’s a public post so hope it’s OK for me to repost. Credit to her for admitting to it. Upon reading it, it got me thinking about my own spending habits and the “loans” I’ve taken out by putting certain items on credit so here goes.
Women are very clear about what we want from our money. We want to satisfy our needs for safety and security.
This month’s book is Women with Money: The Judgement Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve by Jean Chatzky.
Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.
After more than 30 years as a nurse (most in the ICU), my mother retired last year just shy of her 62nd birthday. It was her goal to retire before this birthday milestone. She shares her story her as immigrant nurse from the Philippines doing what she could do survive and thrive in a new country. For this blog post, I thought I would round up some of the more popular blogs and posts on personal finance from those who work in the medical industry.
Today’s post is a little different. It’s a roundup post of money advice for teachers and educators. For majority of my posts here, I’ve written from the perspective of someone who was in the corporate world. By nature, being in the corporate world has it’s own unique system, terminology, career ladder, retirement, etc. After reading the TIME piece “13 Stories of Life on a Teacher's Salary” late last year, I was aghast at how little we pay and pay attention to the people that are shaping our children’s future.
To that effect, I think it’s equally important that teachers also take it upon themselves to do what they can to get themselves financial independent.
I have to admit that 18, all I wanted to do was get out of my parents house. Not that I had any issues at home, I just felt I needed some independence. I was pretty lucky because my parents are awesome people. A few years ago, my husband and I came back to live with my parents. It's a strange feeling after being out of the house for over 10 years. So we ended up co-habitating with my parents in our 30s and I have to stay it was not as bad as they say it is. Here are some tips to make the most of this time.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
There is absolutely no shortage of investing materials on the internet, but the problem is that there’s too much, it can be overwhelming where to even start. So to help you with that, we’ve compiled a list of resources, from YouTube videos, blog posts and books to help you navigate the world of investing. These are not your mother’s resources.
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.
Who is Responsible for Teaching Financial Literacy?
This has been a question that has been weighing on my mind lately. I write and read a lot about personal finances and I wanted to figure out who really is responsible for financial education. I’ve observed a great deal of fear and hesitation when it comes to financial conversations, partly because many of us are just not used to it talking about the subject and partly because many of us aren’t well informed about finances.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
Happy New Year! Another year, another 365 days of well-meaning resolutions. To help you achieve your financial goals, we’ve come up with 19 actions items to take into the New Year. Yes 19! Pick one or two to focus on the first quarter, then another two for the next quarter. Do not overwhelm yourself by doing too much.
In Behavioral Economics, there is a term called the Pain of Paying in which we feel pain when we have to pay for something. Today, the Pain of Paying is harder to achieve because of new payment options that don’t allow us to experience a loss. How can we use this concept to curtail spending?
If it’s not going to the waist, it is going to the waste bin.
There is a great irony when it comes to Thanksgiving. It’s a day to be thankful and show gratitude for what we have, but it is also one of the most wasteful holidays. Let’s change that with these tips.
