As part of our Women’s History Month series, Cinneah (the founder of Flynanced) and I co-hosted a series of incredible roundtable discussions with some of our favorite women in the personal finance space with the goal of fostering rich intersectional conversations around money.

Evelyn Barrios is a high school life science teacher and creator of Maestra on FIRE. When she is not teaching students about science she is educating others about FIRE through her own journey. Here’s what she had to share about strategizing for FI/RE.

For many, the stock market is a scary and intimidating place. And I get it. It was for me too. There are millions of articles and books, and even entire TV channels dedicated to talking about investing. There’s so much information out there and some of the jargon can be daunting and confusing (sometimes by design). No wonder we don’t feel like we know enough to get started!

True story. My first job offered both a Roth and a Traditional option for a retirement plan. I had no idea what that meant but remember hearing that diversity was good. So I put half of my money in each. I did the same thing with the investment options. 5% going to each of the 20 investment options. My retirement portfolio had a lot going on, to say the least.

We don’t learn about this stuff and then we’re faced with choices that will make a big difference in our financial future. It makes sense that one of the most common questions I get is “what’s the difference between a Roth and Traditional IRA?” I wish I’d known a lot sooner, but it’s better to learn late than to never learn.

We don’t learn about this stuff and then we’re faced with choices that will make a big difference in our financial future. It makes sense that one of the most common questions I get is “what’s the difference between a Roth and Traditional IRA?” I wish I’d known a lot sooner, but it’s better to learn late than to never learn.

If you know the importance of saving for retirement but want to spend as little time on it as possible, that’s not a bad thing, and this article is for you!

With this method, setting yourself up for successful retirement investing can take you as little as two hours per year. Here’s how you do it.

You may be invested in a 401(k) plan without really knowing what it is or what’s happening with your money. It’s a task many of us avoid because the whole process can be confusing and overwhelming. Even though it’s better to have started than to wait to understand it all, it’s ideal to have a handle on what exactly is happening with your hard-earned cash. Hello, financial adulting! Here’s everything you need to know about your 401(k).

A 401(k) is a company sponsored retirement plan. That means, you can’t open one up on your own. If your company doesn’t offer a 401(k) (or 403(b) if it’s a non-profit), you can open up and invest in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Or, if you are an entrepreneur, there are an array of options available to you.

Some of us build up a collection of 401(k)s from past employers. We might even get emails about them, and they seem like they’re doing fine. We’ve heard diversifying is good, so maybe having multiple accounts is serving us well? But we also hear we should roll over our old 401(k)s? What should we do?

When you leave a company where you had a 401(k), you have four options.

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).