There was a time, not too long ago, that serious financial planning for young professionals was something almost impossible to find. Experienced financial experts gave advice and created financial plans for people, sure — but they only served older people on the brink of retirement, who were already wealthy. I’ve always thought this was a…
Beyond Finances Podcast #18: How to Deal with YOUR Student Debt (Part 2)
In Part II of our series on student loans, we’re looking beyond the topic of general student loan forgiveness… and exploring what to do to better manage the burden of the student debt you have to carry. In Part I of this quick series on student debt, we talked about the potential for total student…
Timing the Market Doesn’t Work, So Here’s What to Do Instead
Over the last decade, we’ve enjoyed one of the longest bull markets we’ve ever seen. In the last few years, the stock market has set record after record, climbing higher and higher. And in those last few years, there have been people at every turn claiming that the next big crash is inevitable. Yet the…
Beyond Finances Podcast #17: Total Student Loan Forgiveness – Yay or Nay? (Part 1)
Total student loan forgiveness is a hot topic right now and everyone has an opinion about whether it’s good or bad. But what should you actually DO about it — and the loans you have right now? Student loans are a subject everyone’s chatting about right now because, for one, it’s always an emotional topic…
You Don’t Need Life Insurance Until You Have This
I’ll be honest with you: I’m not a big fan of life insurance. It’s a product you pay for with hopes that you never have to actually use it. It’s also a product that gets pushed hard by salespeople who often try to use guilt and fear to give into their pitch. That kind of…
Beyond Finances Podcast #16: Market & Money Misconceptions That Can Cost You
What you only think you know can definitely hurt you — and cause you to lose a lot of money in the market. The reality is most of us do not consistently make excellent financial choices on our own, in a vacuum. Part of the problem is that we’re plagued by misconceptions around money and…
Managing Lifestyle Creep: A Real-Life Example of Keeping Expenses Low (Even As Incomes Rise)
The term lifestyle creep describes what happens when you spend more money as you earn more money. You might also hear this referred to as “lifestyle inflation. It means the same thing: you inflate your lifestyle to match your income. There’s never much of a gap between what you earn and what you spend. If…
Beyond Finances Podcast #15: How to See the (Money) Forest for the Trees
Most people make short-term and limited decisions without considering how these choices impact things to the right when you’re only looking left. Here’s how to solve that problem. If we could compare life to walking through a forest, we could say that you pass a lot of trees along the way. And most people tend…
How to Rollover a 401k (and How to Determine If You Should or Not)
About half of Americans have access to a workplace retirement plan like a 401k. If you’re one of them and have also had more than one job in your career, chances are good that you don’t just have your current 401k… you have one (or more) from previous employers, too. You might have moved on…
Beyond Finances Podcast #14: Your Money Questions, Answered
You asked us about student loans, credit cards, IPOs, retirement savings, and budgeting. Here are our answers. A few podcast episodes ago, we asked for you to send us some of your money questions that you wanted our perspective on — now we’re answering! We cover the following questions in this first “ask me anything”…