Now is the time to take the necessary actions if you want to make 2020 a great year for your personal finances. In this episode, we share 6 major considerations you can use to help guide your year-end financial planning — along with a few suggestions for what to focus on in 2020 to make…
The Importance of SMART Goals (and What to Do Before Setting Them)
Setting goals might sound like the most tedious thing on your to-do list. It might not seem very exciting or fun. (What’s much more fun is achieving the goal and getting to use your money for what you wanted!) This can be especially true if you’re doing your goal planning the right way, and setting…
Beyond Finances Podcast #27: Renting vs Buying a House: Use This Framework to Figure Out the Right Answer
You’ve heard renting is throwing money away and a house is always a good investment. But is it true? The answer is it depends — and today, we’re giving you what you need to get to a solid recommendation on what’s best for your personal situation. The “renting vs buying a house” debate is one…
Get 30 to 40 Percent Of Income Saved with This 3-Step Process
We originally wrote this piece to compliment our Beyond Finances podcast episode on The 3-Part System We Use to Save 40 Percent (or More) of Our Income, and published it on Forbes. We’re republishing a slightly different version of it here, too, if you’d like to pair it with episode 25 of the show. Do…
Beyond Finances Podcast #26: Use Your HSA the Right Way — A Quick Guide on the Best HSA Strategy to Grow Wealth
There may be nothing as exciting as maxing out a health savings account and racking up all the tax-free dollars. Here’s what you need to do to best leverage your HSA to grow wealth. Our health savings accounts are among our favorite tools we use for growing wealth. Unfortunately, most people have no idea how…
6 Ways to Avoid Distraction While Working Toward Financial Goals
If you want to be financially successful, there may be no better skill to build than the ability to avoid distractions. Distractions are everywhere on the road to what you really want — and you won’t just need to learn to manage them once or twice. Financial goals take a long time to get to, which…
Beyond Finances Podcast #25: The 3-Part System We Use to Save 40 Percent (or More) of Our Income
Your savings rate is one of the most important metrics you can track as you manage and measure your progress toward financial success. Here’s how to increase yours. Do you know how much money you save right now? When we say “savings rate,” it means the percentage of your gross income that you put toward…
3 Self-Defeating Money Mindsets to Give Up Now
What do you think matters more to financial success: being really good with numbers and math, or being really good at managing your mindset? While having an understanding of things like compounding returns is helpful, I’d argue that your money mindsets are some of the most important factors in determining whether or not you’ll achieve…
Beyond Finances Podcast #24: Managing Competing Priorities and Financial Goals with Our 4-Step Process
We all know the dangers of lifestyle creep. But what about priority creep? Here’s how to manage multiple competing priorities and financial goals so you can achieve and enjoy what you really want. Most of us have much more than just one thing we want to do, have, enjoy, or accomplish. But we all have…
Life After Debt: When You Stop Paying Down Balances and Start Building Wealth
When you can gain control over your cash flow and aggressively pay down loans and balances, you know it’s only a matter of time before you pay everything off and reach debt freedom. That’s an exciting proposition if you’re already on this path and have spent some time chipping away at student loans, credit card…