finances

How to Fix Your Finances in 30 Days

Written by adminJune 8, 2019

Managing your finances can be a difficult process and even overwhelming. Many people don’t do it at all, but rather just ‘wing it’ throughout the month. Sadly, that is what leads to many expensive complications that can hinder your financial health. In reality, if you take the next month and decide to focus your attention on fixing your finances, you will be good to go.

“If you outline a 12 month or 24-month plan, often times you will be discouraged,” says April Lewis-Parks, director of education at Consolidated Credit. “It’s not small enough to see progress right away. In a short amount of time, they can see progress and understand the different steps that need to happen to get to the next level financially.”

Here’s how to budget out your money through the month.

Day 1 – Day 5: Budget!

The first real step in fixing your finances is taking the time to budget. You really need to lay out what you’re working with. Look at your monthly income. Go through every dime that you spend each month. Use an Excel or Google spreadsheet to write down every bill and every expense, down to the subscription or coffee you get at Starbucks.

By doing this, you’ll get a clear picture of your financial health. Are you spending more than you’re making? Can you find a way to save money? Look for things to cut out of your budget to give yourself more room. If you’re not saving money, you’re setting yourself up for failure in the long run, especially if you lose your job or things go downhill.

Day 6 – Day 10: Saving!

The greatest goal you can have is to save at least 10% of your monthly income after paying for essentials. Put it into a savings account for a rainy day. If you want to truly be prepared for an emergency, the best word of wisdom is to have at least six months’ worth of expenses saved in case of an emergency.

Day 11 – Day 14: Determine Basic Changes

There are ways to cut down on your spending you may not even realize. There are a lot of small basic things you can do that add up to big savings. For example, switch out your light bulbs for something more efficient. Keep your heating and cooling during the extreme weather months set a better setting and turn off at night. Clean out your dryer vents. Cut the cable bill.

Day 15 – Day 17: Banking Needs

As you get through you month, you need to take notice at your banking habits. You might be paying extra fees you don’t realize every month. You can determine how your direct deposits every month are divided so a certain percentage goes towards bills, a savings account, and spending.

Day 18 – Day 20: Healthcare Needs

Your healthcare should be a priority. Sadly, many Americans skip this crucial step, mainly because they don’t think they can afford it. It can really hurt you in the long run. Also, there might be ways to lower your health care cost. Do the research. Look at your premiums. Consider what you’re paying out of pocket. It’s all part of the process.

Day 21 – Day 23: Manage Your Credit

A massive part of financial health is managing your credit. You should know what your credit score is. Having a bad credit score can make things a bit more expensive. Your monthly payments on things like a mortgage and auto loan can be less expensive if you have a good score. If you improve your credit, you can refinance your loans to make monthly payments cheaper.

Day 24 – Day 28: Manage Your Debt

If you have debt, the goal should be to pay it down as much as possible. Whatever you’re not stashing away for savings should be going towards your debt. If you want to gain financial freedom, you can’t do it sitting on a pile of owed debt.

Day 28 – Day 30: Prepare for Retirement

You might be thinking “Wow, this is more money I don’t get to spend,” but you really will get to spend it. It can take most of your working life to save enough to survive your golden years. Unless you want to work until you’re 80, start saving now.

Written by adminAugust 11, 2018

Life Style

Getting married is one of the greatest days of our lives, but it’s also one of the most nerve-wrecking decisions you can make. It’s easy for self-doubt to creep in as you prepare for living with someone else for the rest of your life.

One thing that terrified me was the reality that money problems are the number one cause of divorce. Citibank released a survey that revealed 57% of all marriages end due to money issues. They can include:

-Not communicating openly about money issues.
-Dishonest about money.
-Some type of power struggle over who controls the money.
-Stress when money is tight or someone loses a job.
-Not saving for an emergency.
-Potential lack of self-worth if the family isn’t making enough money or considers themselves poor.

These are all issues that can happen to any family. Before we married, I sat down with my fiancée to hammer out the details. You may already be married or single, but this article is still important for when that time comes to have that discussion.

Jordan Sowhangar, certified financial planner from the investment company Univest, agrees that couples need to put together some type of agreement.

“Have everything in writing, and set expectations about debt and income beforehand,” he said.

The worst thing you can do is get well into the relationship or marriage and find some major financial incompatibilities.

“Say someone is used to spending $200 a month on eating out. The other person loves cooking, going to farmers’ markets and wants to eat in every night,” Sowhangar said. If you’re a saver and your partner is a spender, that’s something that needs to be addressed early.

Here are six simple steps we took before we got married:

1) Agree to Talk It Out

This might seem like a simple proposition, but it can be the biggest step you take in keeping your marriage as peaceful as possible. If most couples have spats about money, coming to an agreement is important.

The fact that you’re breeching the subject takes a lot of courage, as most people don’t like to talk about money. Don’t wait until you mush your budgets together to get this done. To find out your money type, do online quizzes. Write down independently what your money habits are and compare notes.

It’s important to be 100% honest in your assessment and to talk about your goals, both short-term and long-term. And if you find that neither of you are particularly good at saving money, you should make sure you get in some financial counseling before saying, “I do!”

2) You’re Going to Have to Compromise

The worst thing you can do is going into this meeting ready to set the rules according to your standards. It can be difficult to find two people who are so financially compatible that they agree on everything. It probably won’t happen and you’ll have to compromise. Your partner will also have to compromise.

The first thing you can do is admit that you make some mistakes. Your style isn’t 100% perfect and without error. You might find different things you have to work on after taking an assessment.

If you’re a saver and your partner is a spender, then you will have to work out a budget that keeps both styles in mind. Any relationship will be give-and-take, so figure out a way to work it out between you.

3) Don’t Stop Talking to Each Other

The worst thing you can do is get complacent. Just having that one talk at the beginning won’t be enough.

“This isn’t a one-time conversation before you move in. Talk about it weekly, monthly or quarterly. The goal is to lay everything out on the table so there are no surprises,” said Sowhangar.

The reality is, your life is going to change. Your budget will change. The economy is a rollercoaster full of good and bad times. Retirement savings will be different. Investments can dip or surge. Your financial future is unpredictable. Even the richest have lost it all.

You can be prepared for all contingencies by having regular discussions. Plan your monthly budget accordingly. We did this regularly before we married and plan to do it long after.

4) Decide to Share Responsibilities

You and your partner may make differing amounts of money. That’s why often doing the 50/50 method of sharing might not work in one of your favors. If you make $60,000 per year and your partner makes $25,000, what’s fair in sharing the bills 50/50? Of course, hopefully your partner DOES want to contribute to the family.

So, the best way to do this is to delegate responsibilities when deciding to pay the bills. Another thing to keep in mind is who is doing most of the work. If your partner is doing the cooking, the shopping, and the cleaning, you might be glad to take on a larger portion of the bills.

Also: http://financialhelpers.com/5-ways-to-pay-of-debts-without-depriving-yourself/

This is especially true if you’re a stay-at-home parent, which studies have shown is like holding down two full-time jobs, with none of the pay or benefits. But, in today’s America, it’s difficult to get by without both partners working.

This should also fall under the compromise section as well, because you might end up having to take the higher share of the bill paying if you make more money.

5) Don’t Fully Combine Accounts

If your partner works and makes money, they may feel trapped if suddenly you both combine your bank accounts and they have no freedom to spend any of their money. Yes, it’s probably easier to get a joint account and pay all your bills from that, but it’s not good to stifle your partner’s ability to make their own decisions.

It also provides an option to protect yourself. There’s no shame in admitting that sometimes, couples get crazy and do stupid things. They can get mad and decide to clean out the account or run up a credit card bill. To allow each individual to have their own account and use a joint account for rent, groceries, or other shared bills is the safest option.

6) Don’t Forget the Will

Accidents happen and people die. It’s one of the two things that you can expect in this life, that and taxes. Even if you’re not married but in a serious relationship where you move in together, it’s a good idea to have a legal document written up. Who gets your money? What possessions belong to which person? What about the rest of your family?

These are questions that often get fought over in court after a loved one passes away. Protect yourself, your partner, and the rest of your family by having a will.

Written by adminAugust 10, 2018

Life Style

There’s no doubt that most Americans struggle with their personal finances. When it comes to managing money, most of us wouldn’t earn a passing grade due to financial troubles

The proof of that is in the record high debt that continues to rise well after the Great Recession has come and gone. Such a financial disaster should’ve taught us a fine lesson about debt. It doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the spending habits of most Americans.

It’s this lack of financial literacy that is 1) going to send us into another recession and 2) making us physically sick.

A workplace wellness company, Financial Fitness, recently released a study that found having increases chances of getting heart disease and diabetes. This is because stressors cause weight gain and unhealthy behaviors that lead to illness.

Financial Troubles Can Be Sneaky

Another study revealed that most Americans may not even realize they’re in trouble or where their sickness is coming from. Raddon, a financial service company, found that 44% of people surveyed believed they understood their finances well, but less than half of them passed a financial literacy test.

Only 6% of them scored a 90% or better. This is truly enlightening to the typical American mindset when it comes to money. We want those better things for our lives and for our family, but being in that much debt is putting untold stress on our minds…and our bodies.

Also: http://financialhelpers.com/4-things-every-parent-should-know-about-student-loans/

Of course, our mind has a powerful influence over the rest of us. According to the American Psychology Association, the number one stressor in most people’s lives are money issues. It must be difficult not knowing from year-to-year how the economy will do or if you’ll remain employed. Everything is getting more expensive while wages remain flatlined.

Still, that worry doesn’t seem to have any impact on many of us actually taking the time to properly educated ourselves on these issues. That stress caused by financial troubles is taking a toll.

“If stress becomes chronic, it can lead to significant health consequences. It’s important to remember that there are steps that people can take to manage their stress in healthy and productive ways, like exercising, spending time with friends and family, and finding ways to get involved in your community, including making your concerns known to policymakers,” says APA CEO Arthur Evans Jr.

Avoiding the Doctor Like the Plague

To make matters worse, Americans avoid going to the doctor…because they can’t afford their medical bills and/or insurance. 36% of Americans say they simply don’t have enough money to live a healthy lifestyle that includes going to a gym, eating healthy foods, and regular doctor visits.

This proves that if you want a healthy mind and body, one of the best ways to do it is by educating yourself on financial matters to help release that every day stress. Calm your mind. Have an emergency stash saved, Save money. This will go a long way in improving your physical and mental well-being.

The problem is, 84% of Americans have never been involved in any type of financial program to improve their knowledge. 51% say learning about money and investment is on a ‘need to know’ basis. They’ll learn it when they’re ready to apply the knowledge and start investing.

Another issue is most Americans sort of feel invincible, despite the stress that’s eating away at their peace-of-mind. We did a story recently about how most millennials believe they will be a millionaire at some point in their lives. Financial troubles are keeping them from reaching that goal. They aren’t saving for retirement, either.

Realistically, these issues are a recipe for disaster.

David Irwin, the president of Raddon, believes banks could be the key to helping Americans figure out a better way for them to invest.

“Financial institutions have a powerful role to play in developing financial literacy today. A majority of customers who participate in a financial education program find value. Providing financial education can help institutions to stand out and build depth with their customers. Closing the gap between customer perceptions of their own financial literacy and reality will help them develop the skills to build financial health.”

Written by adminAugust 7, 2018

Life Style

There’s a phenomenon happening in the United States, and it’s killing the middle class. The cost of living is rising significantly and its vastly outperforming salary increases. That means you could’ve once lived a comfortable life, the pinnacle of the American dream, but now you’re struggling to make it with virtually no change in your salary.

How can such a thing happen?

Matt and Nicole Barry are school teachers at Live Oak High School in California. Together, they make nearly $70,000. This, at one time, could afford the family life most of us wish we had. They live in a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood, but as of late, they’ve been getting squeezed.

Real estate costs in their city have skyrocketed. Not just that, but the price of literally everything has gone up too, from gas for the car to the food they eat. Taxes have risen, too. What was once a comfortable salary quickly turned into panic, as the Barry family found themselves not being able to cover their bills and their salary remains stagnant.

To make up for it, Matt has turned to Uber to make a bit of extra cash, which is a second job he really shouldn’t be forced to do. If you know anything about the teaching profession, it’s not a normal 9-to-5 job. It requires early mornings and late nights grading papers and planning a curriculum for students.

“Teachers are killing themselves,” says Matt Barry. “I shouldn’t be having to drive Uber at eight o’clock at night on a weekday. I just shut down from the mental toll: grading papers between rides, thinking of what I could be doing instead of driving — like creating a curriculum.”

Costs for the Middle Class Only Going Up

Currently, the cost of living in the middle class is up as much as 30% higher than it was two decades ago. Everything is more expensive, from housing, to healthcare, getting a college degree, and raising a child. For a lot of families, who were once enjoying the good life, that daily cost of life has more than doubled.

Only one-forth of U.S. citizens considered themselves as part of the lower class before the 2008 crash, according to a Pew study. Now, that number has risen to over 40%. If less than half of all Americans believe themselves to be financially in the lower class, it shows how much the gap is widening between the wealthy and what used to be a healthy middle class.

Also: http://financialhelpers.com/5-tips-to-get-lower-auto-insurance-rates/

It has really been the stability of our system that held up the middle class for so long. Jobs were secure, salaries rose to meet the cost of living, it was cheap to go to college and better your life, and benefits were plenty. Now, going to college is no longer a ‘need-to’ proposition. Students are graduating with useless degrees and with $40,000-$100,000 in debt.

It’s Tougher for Women

And these are just the jobs that are usually know for security. If you want to be a lawyer or a doctor, it’s becoming almost impossible to find meaningful work. But what about the rest of Americans who have been struggling at $20,000/year and women who can’t seem to catch a break?

The Center for WorkLife Law has found that discrimination cases have risen 269% in the last decade as women seem to make less and less. Their salaries appear to job 7% for each child they have. At a time when woman are trying to do everything they can to prepare for life as a parent, they face tremendous standard-of-living obstacles most of us don’t.

Technology also plays a major part. If factories and manufacturers can replace a working body with a robot, they can. They don’t have to pay a salary or benefits to robots who can work 24/7 without needing a day off. These types of jobs are being eliminated at a furious rate. It’s expected that 30% of the tasks currently requiring human hands will be replaced in the near future.

Some Jobs Are Economy Proof

There are a few economy-proof jobs that still exist, such as nursing, truckers, journalists, etc, but even these can see their share of drop-offs. Driverless trucks are making their debut and more doctors are seeing their patients via online Skype or FaceTime calls.

Most of these challenges appear to be holdovers from The Great Recession that hit our country in 2008. Jobs were hard to find and employers had a rush of new people coming in looking for work. Because the economy was down considerably, they didn’t feel it was safe to hire. That appears to be changing.

Currently, there are more open jobs than workers to fill them. Industries like the trucking industry have a rash of vacant seats they need filled immediately. The problem is, a lot of these jobs require training and/or being well-verses in a trade. Proponents for trade jobs like Mike Rowe keep pushing the need for skilled workers to fill these positions.

The country is changing, and everyone must figure out quickly where they belong in the new hierarchy. Those who figure it out are doing quite well and gaining most of the wealth. The others fall behind trying to work jobs that used to have security and a high wage.

President Trump has recently come out with a new tax idea aimed at helping the middle class. He wants to cut their taxes and create programs to incentivize saving money. Hopefully this move will help people like the Barry family get back to normal. They deserve every chance to continue to focus on changing the lives.

Written by adminAugust 3, 2018

Saving

Women are often the backbone of most American families. They are the caregivers and the glue that keeps everyone together. They’re also typically the financial stewards and keeper of the checkbook. But, studies show they are a vulnerable demographic when it comes to having personal finance knowledge.

Usually, it’s the men who make the money, do the investments, prepare for retirement, and because of this, more women leave it to their husbands to figure all of that out. Women who have a credit score below 700 are particularly inept at being financially prepared.

A survey by Elevate’s Center for the New Middle Class revealed that only 39% of women believe they have the right skills to manage their money. Because women live longer than men, it’s imperative that they prepare for life outside of retirement with their spouses. They need to go above and beyond knowing how to balance a checkbook.

Also: http://financialhelpers.com/4-things-every-parent-should-know-about-student-loans/

Of course, these statements do not imply women are just dumb with money, but rather they fall behind their male counterparts in taking the initiative to understand and prepare for their financial futures, leaving it to their husbands to figure it all out. This can leave them in an incredibly difficult personal finance situation.

Women are more likely to have their hours cut at work, three times as likely to have lost their job than men, and rarely have a safety net around them, like emergency savings.

Here are 3 ways women can educate themselves further and bridge the knowledge gap:

1) Unleash the Power of Apps

For women who aren’t knowledgeable in finances and struggle to keep up, there are a lot of apps out there that can help you figure it out. Apps can be helpful by showing you how to budget properly and stash away cash for an emergency. Doing this not only offers you better control of your finances, but peace of mind as well.

2) Get Aggressive About Personal Finance Education

Surveys show that non-prime women with lower credit scores have basic knowledge, usually learned from their parents, on how to manage their money. Beyond that, they’re clueless. Times have changed and women must be more aggressive in learning what they don’t know about saving, investing, and preparing for retirement.

You can study blogs, read books written by experts, take classes, and even counsel with professionals to catch up on tips and strategies you can use every day.

3) Follow Up on All Your Options

It’s sort of like having a contingency plan. Look ahead at all the issues and problems that could happen. What if you suddenly needed $2,000? How would you get the money? What if your car fell apart and insurance failed to pick up the bill? What if the economy took a downturn and you lost your job?

Be prepared for any and all personal finance situations that could happen any given day. By being prepared for these things, you won’t be caught in a stressful situation without a plan.

Personal finances aren’t too difficult to master if you give it time and energy to learn. If you find you’re struggling to save money or work isn’t that stable, a lot of women turn to online entrepreneurship to fill in the gap. It allows to make extra money while still being flexible around their family’s needs.

Written by adminJuly 30, 2018

Saving

It’s is super easy to get into debt. Life is chaotic and when someone is throwing around what appears to be ‘free money’. If you need (or really want) something hard enough, you can get the financing for it.

There are a number of Americans who stuck to their guns, followed intense programs, and got out of debt once and for all. The problem is, do they stay debt-free, or do they see themselves as having done it once, they can do it again?

It’s a truly liberating feeling to get out of debt, but a little less than half of the country spend more money than they have. A lot of it has to do with the cost of everything going up and wages staying low. If we can’t afford healthcare or to save money, then it’s quite easy to find ourselves pulling out the plastic to afford everyday costs.

In order to stop yourself from getting behind on payments, you have to be proactive with your spending. If you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. In the end, what is the point of eventually paying A LOT more money for something down the road just so you can have it today?

Here’s what you need to do in order to protect yourself.

1) Have a Savings Account

This might sound simple, but most Americans don’t have one! They don’t have one for emergencies, for saving up for vacation, or to pay for things down the line they might need or want. If they had such an account, it would save them wasting extra thousands of dollars down the line to pay for things.

If you have an unexpected bill, you have our emergency savings. If you decide to buy a house and need a down-payment, you have savings. If you break your arm and are out of work for a few weeks, you have savings. It’s better to save money now rather than something big happening later and having nothing at all.

2) Use Cash

This is a big one. Use cash to buy things. When you budget your money, stick the cash in an envelop to prevent overspending. For example, if you set aside $150 for groceries, put that amount of cash aside. When you go to the store, you won’t be tempted to overspend thinking you can just pull out the plastic.

If you want to prevent credit card debt, get rid of the credit cards.

3) Budget, Budget, Budget

This goes with point two, but staying strict means keeping on a budget. Know what you want to spend on things and keep it at that level. By budgeting everything, you will have a better chance at saving money to go into your emergency savings fun by not overspending.

It’s also easy to incur late payment or overdraft charges. If must have a credit card for when times are tough, don’t leave your balance hanging. Pay it off as soon as you can.

If you were able to overcome debt in the first place, these tips and strategies are things you already know work. It’s important to keep up with them to keep your financial freedom. Saving money will always be the preferred way to go over piling on more debt and getting deep once again.

Written by adminJuly 27, 2018

Saving

As the United States continues to move out of the Great Recession of the past decade, economic excitement is high. Jobs are up, unemployment is done, and optimism is through the roof. Tax cuts and promises of more tax cuts by the Trump administration has most Americans feeling pretty great about the future.

Despite this, recessions are a normal part of the economic cycle. Regardless of whether you’re prepared for it or not, the next recession WILL happen and it will come faster than you could ever imagine.

The majority of Americans who struggled during the last recession didn’t learn their lesson and kept pursuing the same behaviors that got them into so much trouble in the first place. They continued to add to their debt, refused to save money, and forced the government to spend trillions of dollars to keep the banks and other industries afloat.

There are a number of economic experts who believe the next recession is just over the horizon and say there’s a small chance it happens between the tail end of 2018 through 2020. In reality, the markets could tank in a matter of seconds and send this upward momentum into a tailspin.

If you want to be prepared so your family isn’t one of the millions who will suffer and struggle to get by during that time, there are steps you can take to make yourself recession-proof. Let’s look at several of them.

1) Create an Emergency Fund

It’s been previously reported that a majority of Americans don’t even have $400 saved in the event of an emergency. That’s bad news! If you lost your job tomorrow, how would you get by? Right now, you might not be without a job for long, as there are plenty of openings out there. But during a recession, work is often sparse.

$400 wouldn’t cut it. $1,000 is crumbs. What you need is at least six months saved in your account to help you for an extended period of time as needed. That’s good advice even during the good times, because companies still decide to close or move overseas no matter the economy. Be prepared for any emergency, big or small.

2) Reduce your Debt

If you have a bunch of debt, as most Americans do, it’s really to your detriment and makes life incredibly hard during a recession. In fact, high debt was one of the causes of the last recession, so when people stopped paying back what they owed, banks needed to be bailed out to survive.

You can consolidate and reduce your debt by calling Financial Helpers today. We can hook you up with various government programs designed to help Americans pay back student loans, reduce their debt payments, and so much more. Call us today to learn more at:

Call Now 1-844-332-2079

3) Balance Your Portfolio

A lot of investors pick a spot or two and throw all their investment into that, but it’s not a smart move. The market might be soaring today, but tomorrow could tank your whole investment. If you spread yourself out, you’re less likely to lose it all. There are a variety of recession-proof stocks and commodities that do fairly well even with everything else is dropping.

4) Improve Your Standing at Work

Most companies don’t shut down completely during a recession. Because so many customers are struggling, they lose money and end up cutting workers to save money. The more valuable a person is to their employer, the less likely they’ll be cut when bad news hits. The company will operate with reduced numbers until the turnaround happens.

5) Cut Costs

Paying off your debt will significantly make things a lot cheaper. If you have a car you’re no longer making payments on, and the house is yours, and the student debt is gone, you’re not making payments on those things. Cutting costs during the recession will be necessary, but cutting costs today to save money and pay debts TODAY is essential to survive.

In order to get through tomorrow’s recession, you must prepare today. Don’t wait until the last minute to decide you’ve been living above your means.

Written by adminJune 5, 2018

Life Style

As Americans, we expect our school experience to prepared us for life outside the bubble of our parent’s protective reach. We must know how to do everyday things, like change a tire and balance a checkbook. Some schools do have these life lessons as a required part of their curriculum, but sadly, that’s not always the case.

Seventeen states require personal finance courses, but this often isn’t enough. In most of those schools, it’s a simple semester-long class that might help teach kids how to budget, but the fact that it stops at the basic level education and is only required in less than half the states is difficult to understand.

According to a survey from Equifax, 90% of Americans want personal finance classes to be taught at the K-12 level and for it to be a requirement to graduate.

The poll revealed something else. When asking surveyors about their personal literacy, Americans tend to grade themselves on a curve, believing they have better-than-average financial literacy, but that’s not the case.

Every year, the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy releases its Financial Report Card and it often doesn’t look very good. Nine states received a failing grade. 27 states scored a “C” or lower. When you look at the massive amounts of debt Americans are piling on, it goes to show how much we really know about financial stability.

Americans keep falling into the same traps, year after year, decade after decade. There are moments that are outside of people’s control. No one knows when the next big recession will hit, but very few seem to be prepared for such occasions, including personal emergencies.

When Equifax asked people where they got their financial education, only a dismal 14% replied that they learned from school. 40% reported their parents taught them. 13% learned by reading financial blogs like this one. 8% picked up knowledge from their bank.

That statistics don’t stop there. T. Rowe Price, an investment group, found that over half of all students who did take financial courses were not prepared for handling finances as an adult. A lot of it comes from confusion, as both schools and parents clash on what students need to learn. No consensus means a variety misinformation is being shared.

Stuart Ritter, who is a senior financial planner at the company, knows what it takes to get everyone on the same page.

“Over the years, we’ve found that financial education works best when schools and parents work together to help kids understand money matters. Even though financial education in both school and home have shown to be effective in preparing kids for ‘adulting’ responsibilities, it’s not perfect,” he said.

The disconnect might be a result of parents being reluctant to teach their kids about money, spending, and saving. In a lot of ways, kids grow up and start making and spending money before parents even get a chance to have that conversation. It should be ingrained with life lessons about money from a much earlier age.

“We know that many parents have some reluctance to discuss money matters with their kids and that, oftentimes, kids begin making, spending, and saving money before parents or educators have helped them understand how it works. An opportunity for parents and educators to have money conversations more consistently, sooner, and broaden the dialogue to include longer-term goals,” said Ritter.

The value of a dollar should be instilled in kids from the time they are able to handle chores by themselves. Rather than just buying them the toy they want, it can be made into a teachable moment that allows their child to get a better understanding of what it takes to earn the money, save, and buy what they want.

As they get older, incorporate broader realities that involve paying for their own car payments, insurance, and other necessities.

For now, financial experts hope to get a bill passed that requires financial education as a requirement in all 50 states.

Written by adminMay 23, 2018

Saving

Americans are fascinated by the British royal family. To us, they are superstars and we follow them and their lives as closely as any other famous person.

On November 27th, 2017, it was announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were engaged, and Americans couldn’t be happier. That meant another royal wedding was going to happen soon!

And now, that time has come! This weekend, the prince and his beautiful bride will tie the knot. Because this is a financial blog, we can’t help but ask the question: how much does a royal wedding cost?

The average American wedding can shoot upwards of $34,000! To us, that’s a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to the amount the royal family will shell out. Back in 2011, Prince William married Kate Middleton at an astounding cost of $34 million!

Let’s look at this year’s epic ceremony and breakdown what the royal family is expected to spend this time around.

1) Reception

This part of the celebration isn’t as expensive as it could be. Being the royal family has some perks, meaning they own a lot of gorgeous, historic castles and buildings. They also own fleets of cars, too. That means holding the reception at George’s Great Hall and using Queen Elizabeth’s fleet of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces for transportation won’t cost a dime.

Not every part of the reception will be free, though. According to sources, the cost of luxurious portable toilets will cost more than the average American wedding at $50,000! It’ll cost them $500,000 alone for the marquee. So, while they’re ‘saving money’ by not having to rent a place, the added costs are unfathomable!

2) Food and Catering

Could you imagine spending $70,000 on a wedding cake? That’s what the royal family just did, hiring the talents of famed pastry chef Clair Ptak from California. The catering for this event is estimated to hit nearly 700,000! That seems like a lot of money, but when you consider the bottles of Bollinger champagne, costing $115 EACH, then you start to see why it’s so expensive.

3) Entertainment

What’s a wedding with entertainment? And when you’re filthy rich as the royal family, you can virtually afford whoever you want. They’re expected to spend around $510,000 for various entertainment surprises. $129,000 of this is for the silver-plated trumpets, personalized for each guest.

They also expect to have choirs, photo booths, entertainment for the kids, a DJ, a band, and even a fireworks display worthy of royalty. For that much money spent on entertainment, let’s hope the band is good! (Rumors say Elton John is scheduled to perform)

4) Wedding Dress

We all know that the dress is one of the most important parts of the wedding. It’s also one of the most expensive. It can take a future bride several months to find the right dress for her. It’s unknown what the future princess paid for her dress, but estimates are up near the $500,000 mark.

5) Decorations and Favors

Another $700,000 was spent on the rest of the wedding, including the decorations, floral displays, invitations, seating, dance floor, security, party favors, lighting, photographers, and so on. I’m sure you can imagine a gorgeous Windsor Castle converted into a wedding palace fit for a fairytale.

The invitations alone were over $200,000 and printed in gold ink. Now that’s money!

Wedding Controversy

While the U.S. is anticipating this major event, a lot of U.K residents aren’t happy. A petition has been going around, stating that the royal wedding is nothing more than what should be a private event dressed up like a national occasion to justify spending tax dollars to cover the event.

While the royal family gets millions from the government, most of the wedding won’t be paid for by taxpayers. They will have to pay for the massive security to keep guests safe during a high-profile event, costing them $10 million.

The cost is also measured in economic output. During the 2011 royal wedding, there was a 1.6% drop in production, which amounted to $3.1 billion lost. We can expect the same to happen this time around, which makes a lot of people in the U.K. wonder why they still have a monarchy to this day.

Written by adminMay 23, 2018

Saving

Money can be a touchy subject with millennials. This is the generation that is getting hit the hardest with disabling student debt, low wages, and the recession, which hit right as they were graduating college.

It wasn’t an uncommon sight to see someone in the mid-20s and lower-30s, with a college degree, living at home with their parents. Those who are making it, are barely doing so. High rent prices and the cost of living constantly outpacing their ability to get raises has made life difficult for most of our younger generations.

When the website MarketWatch wrote a piece about how much money 35-year-olds should have saved up (about twice their salary to be safe), the fury was intense. There were many responses of varying degrees, from righteous indignation to jokes to cut the tension.

The message was clear. Millennials SHOULD be saving their money, but they simply can’t afford to. We recently wrote an article talking about how Americans still can’t afford their basic needs. This is a growing problem as debt keeps piling on and wages remain stagnant. Many families still have to make tough decisions and what they can afford and what has to wait.

If you can barely afford to feed yourself, you’re not going to have enough to save, especially if you’re paying insane interest rates on loans just to keep your head above water.

The sad reality is, we can’t talk about retirement enough. This is a subject no one should pass up just because it’s a difficult conversation. No matter what we’re dealing with right now, we need to keep it a part of our thinking and budget planning. In fact, it should be a priority.

There’s no one-size-fits all approach to saving for retirement. What you’re going to need and when you’re going to need it will vary per person, but if you haven’t even begun to address the issue in your 30s, you’re in danger to fall well short by retirement age.

Social Security is dwindling and no one knows how much longer it will last. Many experts aren’t even sure what the future of the program will look in the next 30 years. It’s not a program today’s millennials can take for granted or expect to still exist. They will have no choice but to invest their own dollars into their retirement plan.

That starts now.

There are two things people can do to ensure they’re in a good spot.

The first is to save as much as you can. Ideally, you should be putting away 15% of your monthly salary. If that’s impossible, trying to cut back as much as you can. Even 5% saved is better than nothing. As the economy improves and your situation is better under control, you can up the amount you save.

The second way to better prepare yourself for retirement is to take care of your debt. Don’t keep adding more to it just because you want that shiny new car. If you know things are tough and you can barely afford to save, paying a large debt that’s mostly interest isn’t a good idea.

As of this writing, the government has put in place several programs designed to help people pay back their student loans. Most people who qualify for these programs can have what they owe significantly reduced, as well as the time it takes to pay back these loans.

The sooner you pay down your loans, the more money you’re able to save. Nothing is more important than your future and the future of your family. Paying off debts and having extra money to put away is only the first step into gaining financial freedom.

1) Agree to Talk It Out

2) You’re Going to Have to Compromise

3) Don’t Stop Talking to Each Other

4) Decide to Share Responsibilities

5) Don’t Fully Combine Accounts

6) Don’t Forget the Will

Financial Troubles Can Be Sneaky

Avoiding the Doctor Like the Plague

Costs for the Middle Class Only Going Up

It’s Tougher for Women

Some Jobs Are Economy Proof

1) Unleash the Power of Apps

2) Get Aggressive About Personal Finance Education

3) Follow Up on All Your Options

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