How to Make Your Child a Millionaire Using the Child Tax Credit

How to Make Your Child a Millionaire Using the Child Tax Credit

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics, Kids and Money, Mommy Money

In a few weeks, many families will start receiving an advance of the Child Tax Credit. This advance can mean having extra cash to help with raising dependents each month for the rest of the year. Alternatively, you can opt-out of receiving the advance payments and wait until you file your taxes next year to receive the full amount. If your income changes in 2021, there could be a possibility that you will have to repay a portion of the advance. You can head to this tool to make adjustments to the payments or other income info. Note: this tool will need to verify your ID so you’ll need to provide some sensitive information to do so.

It’s a good idea to have a plan for this money. If you have the means to and are fairly sure you won’t have major income changes to affect the payment, it may be wise to plan to invest this money for the sake of your child’s future.

In this post, we will review a few options on how you can invest the money you will receive.

LGBT Finances: 5 Financial Factors that Impact the LGBT Community

LGBT Finances: 5 Financial Factors that Impact the LGBT Community

Elaine Gamolo
Alternative Lifestyle, Financial Basics, Financial Education

Financial issues can affect anyone and everyone. While many of today’s financial concerns affect the LGBT community the same as everyone else, LGBT Americans can also face another set of additional issues that can pose obstacles to one’s financial wellness and planning.


In this article, we will briefly cover 5 financial concerns that the LGBTQIA+ community may face

A Beginner's Guide to Slow Fashion - #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet

A Beginner's Guide to Slow Fashion - #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet

Elaine Gamolo
SaveMoneySaveThePlanet, Socially Conscious Series, Conscious Consumer, Alternative Lifestyle

Since it’s Earth Month, we’ve been running a #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet Challenge with our email subscribers. Sign-up here. We can’t let this month pass by without talking about fashion, more specifically how fast fashion affects our wallets and the planet and how we must all transition towards the concept of slow fashion.

You might have heard of fast fashion — clothing that can be both cheap in costs and in quality. But have you heard about slow fashion? Slow fashion focuses on the opposite, curating clothing that is more sustainable in its production and material, while having a newfound appreciation for consumer transparency, ethics, and local, artisan craft.

25 Tips for Successful Thrifting - #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet

25 Tips for Successful Thrifting - #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet

Elaine Gamolo
Conscious Consumer, Socially Conscious Series, SaveMoneySaveThePlanet, Alternative Lifestyle

When I was a kid, my mom used to wake me up early on Saturdays to bring me to the local flea market or to scout nearby yard sales. I would pick at miscellaneous toys and gadgets, while my parents browsed for clothes and homeware. When we would go to thrift stores, I would quickly do a pass through of the aisles and claim that I didn’t find anything interesting. I didn’t find it particularly interesting at the time, but now, as a twenty-something year old, I realized how much fun and affordable it was. For some thrifting is new, and for others, it was an activity out of necessity. Some people prefer to thrift to find unique clothing pieces, while others do it for sustainability reasons. Regardless of your reason, here are some tips that can help jumpstart your thrifting journey:

40 Day No-Spend Challenge: Here’s What I learned

40 Day No-Spend Challenge: Here’s What I learned

Elaine Gamolo
Debt Free, Conscious Consumer, Alternative Lifestyle

A No-Spend Challenge is self induced commitment or challenge to one’s self to not spend money in a certain period of time. No-Spend challenges can range from one week to a month, or whatever you heart desires.

I actually did this last year, but I basically gave up online spending for 40ish days. This year, I wanted to do the same as a way to challenge myself and practice self-restraint, but also give my wallet a break.

Here are some of my observations from my no-spend challenge.

Love Makeup? You Can Invest in Cosmetics and Beauty Companies

Love Makeup? You Can Invest in Cosmetics and Beauty Companies

Catherine Agopcan
Alternative Lifestyle, Financial Education

Do you love makeup and beauty products?

Makeup and beauty products typically depreciate the moment you open it. They expire and it’s hard to get your money back on them. If you use them, then you can get your dollar’s worth, but for many of us, some of our makeup languishes at the bottom of our drawers especially if we have a lot of options to choose from. That’s just the nature of a consumer product. Today though I want to introduce you to the concept of buying beauty and cosmetic stock for every cosmetic product you buy. The goal is to buy assets that have a potential to appreciate which means money in your pocket for the future.

The College Series: 15 Free Things to Take Advantage of in College

The College Series: 15 Free Things to Take Advantage of in College

Elaine Gamolo
College Series, Alternative Lifestyle

It’s never too late to take advantage of free things in college. Whether you’re reading this as an incoming student, an undergraduate, or masters student, be on the lookout for freebies that are both physical and digital. Free things are all around, but it’s up to you to pursue them.

To be fair, are these things really “free”? Your tuition is paying for something.

21 Financial Moves for 2021

21 Financial Moves for 2021

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics, Financial Education

“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.

25 Money Goals for my 25th Year

25 Money Goals for my 25th Year

Elaine Gamolo
Alternative Lifestyle, Financial Story, Financial Basics, College Series

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:

8 Personal Finance Metrics to Track

8 Personal Finance Metrics to Track

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics, Financial Education

“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.

Book Summary: The Color of Money - Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran

Book Summary: The Color of Money - Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Books, Financial Education, Socially Conscious Series

“...the currency of the South was the slave”

This month’s book is “The Color of Money - Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap” by Mehrsa Baradaran. It covers the history of Black banking and the role of racism in the economic independence of the Black community.

Today, on every socioeconomic level, Blacks have significantly less wealth than whites. The book explains how the racial wealth gap was created that continues to affect millions of families in the United States. There were also many laws and policies like the GI Bill, the Homestead Act and the FHA that denied the Black community the opportunity to advance and economically prosper.

Common Retirement Savings Options

Common Retirement Savings Options

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics, Mommy Money

“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.

Load More