Investing

What’s an ETF?

What’s an ETF?

One of the reasons investing can feel daunting is that it comes with a whole language of jargon. ETFs, mutual funds, expense ratios - the list goes on and on. It’s enough to make your eyes glaze over.

Unfortunately, if we’re going to invest and grow our money (yes, please!), we’re going to want to understand some of this jargon so we can invest confidently and competently. But the good news is that like with any language, we can get more comfortable with the vocabulary over time. Today we’re starting with “ETF”. Here’s everything you need to know (and then some).

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Set up your system for 2021 taxes

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Set up your system for 2021 taxes

When we’re preparing to file our taxes for this year, it’s the perfect time to create a system to make the process easier next year. Why? You might be thinking, “Ashley, why add to my torture? I could finally celebrate being done!?”

Taking the time to create systems while everything is fresh in our minds is far easier than trying to remember what was important and what we needed. Taking the time to set up a system for our 2021 taxes will save us lots of stress, time, and (perhaps) money.

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Improve Your Relationship with Money

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Improve Your Relationship with Money

It might sound funny, but you have a relationship with money just like you have a relationship with anything else. It’s how you interact with and relate to money.

Our relationship with money is created over time and can be influenced by many factors. We are guided by how our parents interacted with money. We’re also shaped by mentors, teachers, friends, our experiences, and society as a whole.

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How to (very legally!) Minimize Your Tax Bill

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How to (very legally!) Minimize Your Tax Bill

Filing our taxes can be an arduous process that we often try to get through as quickly as possible. But before we hit submit or give our accountants the final okay, we want to make sure we are minimizing our tax bill (or maximizing our tax return).

Why? First and foremost, that means we’ll have more money in our pockets to allocate towards our goals. And second, if we don’t, we’re paying more taxes than we need to.

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6 Steps to Create and Achieve Your Financial Goals

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6 Steps to Create and Achieve Your Financial Goals

One of the most important parts of your financial plan is your goals. In order to find clarity and reduce our guilt around our spending, we have to have clear goals. That means knowing how much we need for each goal, by when we will achieve it, as well as which goal comes first.

Is it more important to me to pay off ALL of my student loans before saving for my future home? Do I want to aggressively save for retirement (and retire early!) or take an extra vacation each year?

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Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

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Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

Throughout centuries of history - over and over again - the Black community has been stripped of wealth through policies, massacres, theft and destruction.

According to the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances, the median white household has a net worth of $117,000 - 10 times the median Black household net worth of $17,100.

It would take 228 years for Black families to amass as much wealth as white families if our current policies stay in place.

Preparing for a Mortgage

Preparing for a Mortgage

I had read countless articles about the mortgage process and worked with many clients as they purchased their first and second homes, but as with most things, going through the process yourself is a whole different story.

I had an idea of what to expect but there are many things I would have done differently to make our lives easier and the process less stressful. We learned a lot along the way, and I’m excited to share those lessons with you. Here’s what we wished we knew before embarking on the mortgage process.

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How to Prioritize Your Money Goals

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How to Prioritize Your Money Goals

One of the most common questions I hear is: “What should I do first with my money?” Should we pay off student loans before investing in a 401(k)? Should we pay off high interest credit card debt before building a rainy day fund? 

This is a really important question. If you got a tax refund or bonus check tomorrow, would you feel confident about knowing where to allocate your money? Most of us have multiple financial goals, but contributing to all of them at once isn’t practical.