At the Fiscal Femme we believe that financial mistakes or missteps are all part of the process of getting better with money. Why? We’re not born knowing ‘how to money’ 🤑 and very few of us learn money skills until well into adulthood.
At the same time, whether we’re budgeting, investing or making a plan to pay down debt, it’s much better to get started than to wait until we know everything. Enter #FinancialFailFridays.
One of the jargon phrases that often gets thrown around in the personal finance world is net worth. Sometimes it’s not mentioned explicitly but when someone says the word “millionaire” or “billionaire,” they are referring to someone’s net worth.
So how do we calculate our net worth? What does net worth mean? It’s actually a very simple equation - it’s a total of what we own minus a total of what we owe. I’ve put together a Net Worth Tracker to make it as easy as possible for you to calculate your net worth and keep track of it going forward. You can also create your own spreadsheet or just write it down - whatever is easiest for you.
When we are saving up to buy a home, it’s common to focus on the down payment. If we’ve managed to save 20% for the down payment then we’re all set, right? Not quite.
The down payment is typically the largest investment, but there are plenty of other costs that come along with it. And as we save for the purchase of a home, we’ll want to factor in all of those costs so that we're set up for success.
In January, I love to outline my financial goals for the year. Once I know what I want to accomplish for the year, I can then break my goals down by quarter, by month, and by week to help keep me on track.
Things always change and my goals have to adjust, but this initial mapping out of my goals serves as a guide for my goals for the rest of the year. It’s also really fun and exciting to dream about what I want.
We hear “stocks and bonds” over and over again when people talk about investing. But what exactly is a bond? How do bonds work? Do we want to be investing in them?
Understanding the basics of bonds and how they work is an important part of becoming a savvy investor so we can make the best decisions for our money.
Here’s the rundown on what a bond is, how they work, and everything else you need to know about bonds.
We know it’s important to invest in our retirement and we know it’s important to start early so that compound interest can work its magic. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to feel confident in the choices we are making about our 401-K or IRA.
Choosing investments, deciding how much to contribute and all the jargon in between can be enough to have us avoid doing anything at all. Luckily, just like with many things in our financial lives, it’s so much more important to get started than to do it perfectly and it can be a whole lot more simple than you might think. Here are five things everyone should know about their 401-K or IRA.
And we’re back with part #2 of the results from the Fiscal Femme Anonymous Money Survey. If you missed it, here’s part #1. This time we’re talking about your systems and accounts.
While many of you shared your favorite apps (I’ll give you a rundown below), a great deal of you were also looking for recommendations. Stay tuned!
Over the past nine years (the Fiscal Femme had it’s 9th birthday on March 2nd!), I’ve been creating resources to help you succeed in your financial life and reach your goals. And we provide many of them for free.
Here’s a roundup of my favorite free resources. Whether you are new to the Fiscal Femme or you just missed a few of these golden nuggets, I’ve compiled them for you here in one place.
We often make things harder than they need to be, especially when it comes to our finances. I’m guilty of this myself! I used to have a million bank accounts with a handful of bills coming out of each. I had a big blob of savings that was used for a variety of things. Very little was automated outside of my 401(k), and that even had some room for improvement.
To make our lives easier and less stressful, we can use automation to our advantage. Here are five ways you can automate your finances to reach your financial goals more quickly and easily.
The earlier we start, the easier it is to save up for financial freedom—aka retirement. Why? The eighth wonder of the world: compound interest. While retirement may seem far off when we are young, compound interest (or interest on interest) makes it worth our while to start contributing funds to our retirement early on. Any contributions, including small amounts, make a huge difference when given the chance to accumulate.
