Category: Personal Finance

Breaking the Cycle: How to Avoid Rationalizing Your Way into Debt

Debt is a common problem that many people face. It can be difficult to avoid falling into debt, especially when you rationalize your spending habits. Rationalization is a common defense mechanism that we all use to justify our actions, even when they’re not in our best interest. This can be especially dangerous when it comes to spending money. It’s important to break the cycle of rationalizing your way into debt and take control of your financial situation. 

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Transform Your Relationship with Money: A Review of “Your Money or Your Life”

Money is a difficult topic for many people. It can be a source of stress, anxiety, and fear. We often feel like we don’t have enough of it or that we’re not using it in the right way. If you’re struggling with your relationship with money, “Your Money or Your Life” is a book you need to read. This book is a step-by-step guide to transforming your relationship with money. It offers practical advice, exercises, and tools to help you gain control over your finances and live a more fulfilling life. 

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Unlocking Financial Freedom: Embracing the Power of Passive Income

The idea of financial freedom is a dream for many people. The ability to live the life you want without worrying about money is something that most of us aspire to. One way to achieve financial freedom is by embracing the power of passive income. Passive income is money earned without actively working for it. It can come in many forms, such as rental income, dividends from stocks, and royalties from creative works. By building multiple sources of passive income, you can create a steady stream of money that requires little to no effort on your part. 

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Long Term Care: Planning for the Future

As we age, it’s important to start thinking about long-term care. Whether it’s for ourselves or for a loved one, planning ahead can help ensure that we receive the care and support we need later in life. Long-term care involves a range of services, from in-home care to assisted living facilities. But it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to planning for this stage of life. 

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The Basics – Active Versus Passive Investing

Stock_trends_-_Up_and_DownInvesting in the stock market can be broadly divided into two major categories, either Active or Passive investing. These approaches are polar opposite in approaches, and so have distinct advantages and disadvantages. Continue Reading

The Basics – What are Bonds?

Government Bonds LabelWhat are bonds? Bonds are essentially loans to a company or government, so that they can use this money to expand into new markets in the case of companies, or pay for public programs in terms of governments. Large organizations will often need to borrow significant sums of money, more than is usual to borrow from banks. Thus, bonds are used to raise money publicly, which allows for large numbers of investors to lend the money to the organization that issues the bond. Continue Reading

The Basics – What are Stocks?

stockWhat are Stocks? Stocks, which are also called shares or equity, are a share of the ownership of a company, representing claim on the company’s assets and its earnings. Thus, in holding the stock of a company you have a claim to everything that the company owns, typically a very small claim as an individual investor, entitling you to a share of earnings and potential voting rights belonging to the stock. However, this does not mean you have a say in how to run this publicly traded company day to day. Continue Reading

The Basics – What is an ETF?

StockQuoteGraph-20120521What is an ETF? There are number of ways to invest in stocks in the market, and one popular choice is through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This popularity is derived from being able to combine the features of mutual funds with those of trading stocks.
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The Basics – Mutual Fund Investing

 mutual_fundWhat is a mutual fund? For many of us one of the easiest ways to invest is through mutual funds in our employers 401k/403b retirement plan. These plans mostly allow your to invest in mutual funds, and so what are mutual funds? They are an investment vehicle that takes money from investors, which is you and I, and pools this money together to buy investments that are typically a mixture of stocks, bonds and cash. When you buy a mutual fund, you are buying shares of the fund that contains these investments. Nowadays there are plenty of different types of mutual funds to buy, which can differ in their strategy of investing

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Best Stocks Now

unnamedThere are several investing styles that may help you rapidly increase your net worth. In the beginning it is best to ramp up your savings but once you get into higher numbers being invested, say above $100,000, 10 or 20% gains tend to be significant amounts. One great approach is to use index funds across diversified sectors, as this minimizes fees and it tends to beat about 80% of active investing styles. Another approach is to focus on being in the right sectors at the right time, as some part of the stock marked is always making money, be it up or down. One of my favorite ways to take this sector approach is through Continue Reading