Buying a house is an intensive (and stressful) process in the best of times. Throw in a crashing economy and global pandemic — and the fact we don’t do anything the “normal” way — and our recent experience got pretty interesting. Okay, to be fair, the pandemic didn’t dramatically change much about the process of…
Disability Insurance: Use This Process to Help Determine What You Need (and What You Don’t)
No one likes to think about what would happen in the event of an emergency, disaster, or loss — but the reality is that things don’t always go according to plan. The good news is we can prepare for this in practical terms by getting the proper insurance coverage, or knowing how to self-insure against…
Beyond Finances Podcast #38: 3 Unexpected Money Lessons… from Robert Frost?
It might sound crazy — but we can actually take a few financial lessons from one of the most famous pieces of American poetry. You’ve likely at least heard of Robert Frost’s famous poem, The Road Not Taken… and you might be just as likely to misinterpret it. In today’s episode, we take a look…
The Truth About Financial Advice Most Experts Won’t Tell You
If you go and seek out financial advice, you will find a lot of people ready to give you their opinion on the best thing to do with your money. And they might actually have great advice that is sound, reasonable, and wise. The problem, however, is that it may or may not apply to…
Beyond Finances Podcast #37: 5 Ways to Elevate and Optimize Your Finances
Let’s go beyond the basics to look at how you can optimize your savings, get strategic with debt, and level up how you invest to grow wealth. There’s no shortage of podcasts or blogs that cover simple pieces of advice and the same basic money moves to make: pay down debt, save up cash, invest…
Does Your Financial Plan Lack This Critical Piece?
It’s pretty easy to give basic financial advice or to create your financial plan outline from broad rules of thumb and generic suggestions that you can find online. Things get trickier, however, when you start getting more specific; when you start digging into details and wanting to know the answers to far more complex questions….
Beyond Finances Podcast #36: Following Warren Buffett’s Advice & Arguing for Optimism
It’s one thing to think the Oracle of Omaha’s advice is good. It’s another to follow it, and choose the path of market optimism. We’ve all heard Warren Buffett’s famous quote advising us to “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy only when others are fearful.” But do you actually act on that? If…
How to Manage Your Personal Finances Through Tough Times
Figuring out how to manage your personal finances is never easy. Most of us didn’t get a formal education in money, and even majoring in something like business or finance doesn’t help much when it comes to personal finance. If we learn anything, it usually comes from our parents — and that might not be…
Beyond Finances Podcast #35: Can You Have Too Much Cash? (Spoiler: Yes, and It’s Risky)
Here’s what you need to know to determine how much cash you actually need on hand — and what to do with extra funds if you have them. Most people think you can’t have too much cash on hand or in the bank. Cash is king, right? Cash is safe! The reality is holding too…
Spend Better: 5 Ways to Be Smarter About How You Use Your Money
The majority of personal finance advice can be boiled down to some simple rules. The biggest two? Spend less. Save more. This is good advice, and certainly part of the fundamentals to master if you want to be financially successful. But putting all of the focus on spending less and saving more means we’re telling…