Category: Personal Finance

John Schneider

When you a that big date, you want everything to go right.

If everything goes just right, you’ll get lucky. Maybe enjoy more than dinner and drinks.

To have the kind of fun you really want to have, you must first prepare. You need everything in its place, everything looking good. And feeling good.

To get the results you want, you must plan, plan, plan.

This is the same when making a date with your money.

If you want your money date to be bigger, better, and more exciting, this six-step plan will satisfy you.

Prepare.

Sure, you could dive right into it and hope for the best. With a little pre-date prep, though, you can make your money date pleasurable and certain.

Get online access to all your accounts and account statements. Include investment and savings accounts with bank and investment firms, retirement (company sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement accounts, such as your Traditional or Roth IRA), and credit card accounts.

Don’t forget about your Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA). Get access to your mortgage account and any personal and home equity lines of credit (HELOC).

Get access to any account you have anywhere. Have all this information accessible so you can peek at it as needed.

Gain an understanding of what kind of accounts you have and how they work. If you have a company-sponsored retirement plan, what kind of plan do you have and how does your employer manage it? If you have a HELOC, know your terms, such as withdrawal limit, interest rate, and payoff requirements.

Lay the groundwork for a successful date with your money so you aren’t stuck.

Get intimate.

It’s hard to get what you want when you don’t know what you want. You can’t be fulfilled if you don’t know what you crave.

To get the most from the date with your money, know your goals and dreams. If you don’t know your goals and dreams, do some self-reflection, meditate, journal, read, and talk with friends and family.

Find out what it is you most want in life and then structure your financial plan to achieve those goals.

While you’re self-reflecting, figure out what scares and concerns you. If you’re afraid to lose money, for example, you want more conservative investments.

If you’re concerned by what would happen if you lose your job, you want to devise a plan to save six-months’ worth of living expenses in an emergency savings account.

Be honest about your limitations and weaknesses. If you’re prone to misuse credit cards, then all those credit card hacking articles you’ve read don’t apply.

If your dream is to be a social worker, then a top-tier college that costs six figures doesn’t make sense.

Understanding what you desire and what you can handle will take you a long way in creating a financial plan that works for you. Most people create a financial plan to simply look like they’re doing better than their neighbor.

That’s a plan for failure.

Shoot to score.

If a date with your money includes someone else, good on you. The more the merrier.

If your money date includes someone else because that someone else is included in your family plan, know all the above about them as well as you do about yourself. When you have that level of understanding, you can seek mutually happy endings.

Money is one of the top three leading causes of stress in relationships. Understanding your partner’s financial personality and having them understand your financial personality will help you both feel satisfied.

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t need to have the exact same financial goals as your partner. You can support your partner in reaching for their individual financial goals.

Protect yourself.

Because you’re getting so intimate, it’s wise to use protection.

Get life insurance, even if you don’t have a spouse or children. Today’s life insurance isn’t our parent’s life insurance.

Policies today often allow you to leave an inheritance to heirs that include partners, children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, or anyone unrelated to you by blood but related to you by love.

Many policies permit leaving charitable donations. You may leave a donation to one or more organizations in your name. If you choose the latter, it’s wise to assign a trustee to your estate to oversee that the donations are distributed appropriately and not a la Eva Peron.

Get life insurance as soon as possible because the earlier you do the cheaper it is.

Whether you have health insurance through an employer or through the Affordable Care Act, make sure you have enough coverage to meet your needs. Risking that you won’t get sick or hurt is taking the risk of losing your health and your wealth.

Bank or credit union savings accounts or money market accounts with no bells or whistles are ideal to use as emergency savings accounts. You don’t want this money too easily accessible, so decline debit cards and check writing.

In a real emergency, you won’t mind driving to the bank or requesting a wire for this money. If you have an urge to buy a new television, the effort it takes to access your emergency savings funds may motivate you to find the money elsewhere.

Clip, pare, prune, and trim.

Less is more. As designers, writers, and editors often say, “Edit. Edit. Edit.”

That’s often the case that our lifestyles grow proportional to our incomes. We spend all we earn – and sometimes more.

In any case, cut excess spending and waste. When you trim, your prize becomes clearer and appears bigger. You will achieve any and all financial goals sooner rather than later.

Concentrate.

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that balancing your accounts and paying bills is low on your list of enjoyable activities.

To make this date with your money a quickie, take a deep breath, relax, and release. The more you focus on the task at hand and the goal in mind, the sooner you’ll be finished. We don’t always want dates to end quickly, but sometimes it’s all we can do.

With these steps, you can have the money date you need and achieve the money goals you want. It’s only as hard as you make it or want it to be.

Now make that date!

Michelle Jackson

One of the best developments for people’s money in the digital age is the ability to take advantage of the sharing economy. You can hack your way to substantial budget savings.

When I discovered that I could save money with a few simple strategies and my phone, I drank the kool-aid to begin hacking my savings, and you should too.

Are you still paying full-price?

If you’re paying full price for anything, I have to ask: how much money you’re making to leave cash on the table? The best thing about the sharing economy is that you are rewarded for talking about your favorite goods and services.

You get discounts, access to promos, and a host of other budget-saving perks. Thanks to the rise of the sharing economy, you can do more while spending less.

What is the sharing economy?

When we talk about the sharing economy let’s talk about what that actually means. It’s a system that allows citizen/consumers to share: their own skills, actual homes, cares, or affiliate links to save money or make money through collaboration.

It’s the best thing ever.

I love the sharing economy and hope you’ll embrace it like I have.

How to save money with the sharing economy.

Let’s walk through the process of saving your money the sharing economy way.

First, it pains me to ask this, but, do you have a smartphone? Not everyone is a millennial. You just may be the one random person who is a holdout or from a different generation stopping by to see what Adulting is all about.

Ok, now that we’ve established that your technology is from this century let’s ease into some of the easiest ways you can share your way to savings. 

Figure out your money habits. Ask yourself (and be honest): are you a shopper, a saver, or a mix of both? Do you love to travel? Or do you stay home? By asking yourself these questions you’re better able to scout out the right apps and websites that will help you save your money.

I lean towards the spending side of things so I had to find sharing economy tools that help me manage that habit and save me money at the same time.

Download the right tools.

Now that you’ve figured out your money habits, download the Honey extension to Chrome.

I love Honey! Basically, it finds coupon codes and applies them to before you finalize your purchase. How is this a part of the sharing economy?

While Honey is a little outside of what I will talk about later but part of the sharing economy is to share information with your friends and family.  Basically, one of the most important components to the sharing economy is sharing ways that people can save or make more money with cool digital tools.

You can also download other extensions and tools like Ebates and Swagbucks. These tools can help you pocket a little extra change each time you buy.

Evangelize your favorite tools.

Next, become a cheerleader for your favorite apps, products, or resources.

Companies want you to become evangelists for their products. They have created affiliate programs for their customers to share shoutouts about their favorite products and companies. The customer (you) receives either credit towards future purchases or cash. Nice.

A couple of years ago I discovered that ThredUp.com (an online consignment store) had an affiliate program and I was able to share my way to almost $2,000 in clothing credit. Yep, that was a lot of clothing and I ended up buying clothes for my friend’s kids.

If you’re curious about whether or not your favorite product or company has an affiliate program, go to your personal profile for the product or service and see if there is an affiliate link. Companies like Ibotta, Digit, Ebates, and more all provide an affiliate link to members who sign up to use their product.

Stop by the library.

The next stop in slashing your budget is checking out your local library.

Yep, it’s a little geeky, but some libraries have begun a program called “The Library of Things.” Basically, you can check out items that you would normally purchase. I am currently on the waitlist for a GoPro. Some libraries allow patrons to check out sewing machines, videos, and projectors. The list goes on.

Bartering.

There are also bartering communities and sharing systems where members pay a small fee to check out an item that they would use infrequently.

Maybe you’re about to do a small remodeling project and need a piece of equipment to work on this project. Instead of buying that equipment for a couple of hundred dollars, you could rent it for a nominal fee.

Grow your income in the sharing economy.

Are you broke and you’re a great driver and not creeped out by strangers? 

Driving for Uber or Lyft may be a great way to grow your income. Likewise, you can open up your home as an Airbnb host and make money by hosting guests to your town.

There are tons of ways to make a little extra scratch with the sharing economy.

Perhaps the best thing about the sharing economy is the ease at which you can be rewarded for sharing your strengths, your time, or your home. You work hard for your money, don’t throw it away, and have fun while your discover all the ways that you can save or make money in today’s sharing economy.

You work hard for your money; don’t throw it away. Have fun while you discover all the ways that you can save or make money in today’s sharing economy.

Zina Kumok

Resolutions are for suckers.

Well, sort of.

The idea of accomplishing specific yearly goals almost always ends up being a pipe dream. There’s a better way.

Rather than setting hard benchmarks that lead to clear win/lose scenarios, try aiming to improve in a more general sense. When you take away the pressure of abject failure, it’s much easier to work towards a better you.

For most of us, that probably includes learning how to better manage our finances.

Money management skills may not be the most important thing you could work on, but it’s probably the most needed. When’s the last time you checked your credit score? Re-filled your emergency fund? Talked to a financial advisor?

Even if you’ve done all these things recently, there’s probably a blind spot somewhere in your financial habits. Here’s how you can spot those weaknesses and address them.

Find your weak points.

Working on your money management skills is like trying to lose weight. You have to know what your weak points are if you want to see success. Are you eating too much or not exercising enough? Knowing where you’re deficient is the only way you can reach your goal.

Personal finance is the same way. You have to investigate what’s going wrong before you can improve anything. Are you spending more than you earn? Are your expenses too high? Are you not saving enough?

Go through your bank and credit card statements for the last couple months and write down how much you’re spending and saving. Divide your expenses into the following categories:

• Rent/mortgage
• Healthcare
• Transportation
• Groceries
• Entertainment
• Debt Payments
• Utilities
• Miscellaneous

Seeing your expenses laid out will show where you’re going wrong.

Compare your spending to your income. Are you spending almost 90% of what you earn? Are your loans taking a huge chunk of your income? That might explain why you can’t seem to save for emergencies or retirement.

Before you can work on a solution, you have to figure out what the problem is.

Start small.

Once you’ve identified what’s going wrong, you might be tempted to jump in the deep end. Don’t. Starting too quickly will lead to burnout and exhaustion, even before you’ve reached the one-month mark.

Don’t. Starting too quickly will lead to burnout and exhaustion, even before you’ve reached the one-month mark.

Starting too quickly will lead to burnout and exhaustion, even before you’ve reached the one-month mark.

Start with small, measured changes. For example, if you eat out three times a week, try cutting back to one or two. Then after a month, see if you can dial that back even further.

Going cold turkey might work for some people, but it can backfire for others. Like working out, if you do too much too fast, you might end up injured and less motivated than before.

Changing your financial habits and building better money management skills take time, so be patient with yourself and confident in the direction you’re heading. If you’re putting in consistent work, you’ll get there eventually.

Try different methods.

When you Google “how to budget,” you find millions of search results. Some experts recommend the cash envelope method, while others advocate using a mobile app. Each method has its own proponents who claim that nothing else works as well. In reality, it all depends on the person.

The best budgeting method is the one that works for you — and that you stick to in the long run.

If you’ve failed at budgeting or saving in the past, maybe the method you chose sealed your fate. Try a few different strategies until you find one that works for your personality and tendencies.

Seek outside inspiration.

No matter your financial goal, making the journey with other people is better than going it alone. You can find a community of like-minded people on internet forums, by taking financial classes or even searching on Facebook.

A community can make you feel more supported in your goals. Personal finance is still a taboo amongst many groups of people, so seek the support of strangers if your own loved ones are squeamish about the subject.

Reading finance blogs and books, as well as listening to podcasts, can inspire different ideas and serve as educational tools.

No matter what you’re trying to do, there’s someone out there writing about how they did it.

Track your progress.

When I decided to pay off my student loans quickly, I started blogging about it. I thought I’d feel more committed to my goal if I made it public. That ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I tracked my progress on the blog – celebrating when I made big payments, when my balance got down to four figures and when I made my last payment. My readers supported me throughout my journey, especially when I felt stressed and discouraged.

You don’t have to start a public blog, but it can help to document what you’re doing. A simple notebook or journal – even a private blog that’s password-protected – can work.

Seeing where you’ve been can make you feel better about where you’re going, especially when it starts to feel like a slog.

Money management skills don’t just appear. You need to cultivate them. Make an effort to improve, track your progress, and reap the long-term benefit of better finances.