Navigating investments, retirement, taxes, or estate planning on your own can be overwhelming, which is why many people choose to hire a financial advisor. An experienced financial advisor can be an ally in maximizing your current assets and reaching future goals.
But before you entrust your personal finances to one, it’s important to do your homework. If you’re in the process of considering a financial advisor, start by asking the following questions.
I’ve written about how to avoid falling for a phishing scam, but it turns out I need to pay closer attention to my own advice. I’m placing partial blame on being half awake and not yet caffeinated, but a few weeks ago I opened and almost responded to what I later discovered to be an email phishing scam.
Here’s the embarrassing, yet eye-opening story and what I’ve taken away from it.
When you’re on a budget or paying off debt, there are certain sacrifices you likely have to make. For me personally this means going out to eat less and being mindful of my spending when I’m with others.
When you’re with your friends it’s easy to spend more, because you want to be agreeable and go with the flow, or maybe even be generous — even if you can’t afford it.
I noticed the way I spend money changed. Not only am I spending less, but I feel pressured to not spend even for necessities. In short, I think I changed myself from frugal to cheap.
A few weeks ago, I asked everyone whether I should celebrate on my big career accomplishment and splurge. I ended up not spending a dime. In a way, this is good since I didn’t waste my money on something I might regret later, but some might say that I have almost gone mad with saving money.
The argument is that I should reward myself for making such a big accomplishment with SOMETHING… ANYTHING. I agree with this somewhat, but when I think of all the things that I want, I just couldn’t get myself to purchasing any of it even though I can comfortably afford the bill.
When I shop, I don’t look at the features or how it might be useful for me. The most important deciding factor of purchasing something has become the hit it will have on my bottom line.
“I want to retire early” I think to myself.
“But if I end up retiring early and do nothing at home every single day, would I be happy?” I know I will just drive myself crazy if my day was too relaxing (maybe that is a problem in and of itself).
I feel sad about this sometimes. Isn’t the idea of saving money so we have some to spend?
During the weekends, all I can think of is how much activity A is and how much activity B will cost. This is totally unhealthy but how do I get out of this? How did I get into this?
This seems to be a problem many people face, or have to deal with: How do we balance the current and future since they both compete for the same pile of wealth? Do you have a systematic approach to this or do you just go by feel?
Before you read the following piece, please answer this first – do you think women or men spend more money? Does the thirst to buy have anything to do with our sex orientation? What to do you think?
I used to wonder why some stores are successful without any decoration, while others spend a huge part of their budget on advertisements and image. Now I know. The former tailors to men, while the other tailors for women because women enjoy the shopping experience, while men just buy. Get in, get out.
[ continue reading… ]
Every job comes with a degree of stress. And, what may be stressful to one person may not be stressful to another.
Only you can really determine whether or not you find your current job stressful. However, there are some considerations to take into account as you evaluate your job and whether or not it is worth the stress.
CareerCast.com recently released a jobs report that included the most stressful jobs. In order to rate these jobs, CareerCast.com looked at 11 stress factors. These factors include:
[ continue reading… ]
Free signup to get a free ebook on How to Save Money on Everything! Constantly expanding, it will be the biggest money saving ebook available, and it's FREE! →
(I hate spam and promise that your information will never be shared.)
