STAY HEALTHY - AND WEALTHY - BY FOLLOWING THESE WEALTH PLANNING STRATEGIES AND TIPS FROM KERRIE BEENE.
College Costs: 8 Tips to Take Control
As the parent of an upcoming senior, I have a lot of questions regarding sending my daughter to college. While it is still about a year away, the planning has to start now or opportunities will be missed.
Going on campus tours, evaluating majors, filling out admission applications, and searching for scholarships is top priority. These are decisions that must be taken seriously and with caution, especially with the changing dynamics of the college environment because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The other elephant in the room is the massive student loan debt crisis we are facing in the United States. According to Forbes, there are around 45 million borrowers with a massive $1.6 trillion dollar student loan debt. U.S. Student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category - behind only mortgage debt - and higher than both credit cards and auto loans. Student loans are very easy to qualify for and the effect on the parents or students financial future is not always understood.
As parents or guardians, how are we supposed to navigate all of these fears and decisions? Knowing when and if a student loan should be taken or if one college vs. another is the right choice.
Vacation - Make it a Priority!
As a financial planner, we are always working to help our clients meet their goals and be able to live the life the life of their dreams. One question we always ask is, “if money were not a barrier, what would you do?’ Often, the answer is, I would love to travel more. Traveling does so much for our soul. It allows us to get out of our comfort zone, experience new things, relax, grow as a person, change our perception, and the list goes on and on. There is so much to see in our world that I get excited thinking about all of the places we should go and experiences to be had.
So, why are we not doing this as often as we want? What is holding us back from living the life we want and traveling to the places in our dreams?
3 Biggest Money Mistakes
For the past few weeks at Rooted Planning Group, we have been focusing on education. We have introduced Sammy the Rabbit as a great free resource to teach your kids about money. We have also been giving money tips to young people and recent graduates. However, one of the best ways to learn is by learning from mistakes. Often these are mistakes we make on our own but hopefully we can also learn from other’s mistakes. Below are the 3 biggest mistakes I have personally made with money.
High School Graduate Tips
Freedom, Freedom, Freedom… that is how we all feel when we graduate high school, go out into the world, and finally become real adults! But since most 18 year old graduates don’t have a fully developed brain for a few more years, we thought we could share a few tips to help increase knowledge. These are tips for anyone, but especially recent and upcoming graduates.
Become a Financial Smarty Pants
National Financial Literacy Month is recognized in the United States in April to highlight the importance of financial literacy and teach Americans healthy financial habits. Throughout the last few weeks at Rooted Planning Group, we have tried to learn as much as we can about the CARES Act and pass that knowledge along to all of our clients and readers. But today, we want to pivot and teach you how to increase the other areas of your financial literacy and make you an official Financial Smarty Pants. Below are some terms and components that we feel are important to have strong financial literacy knowledge.
Small Business - Emergency Planning
This month we are focusing on Women in Small Business and I had some fun stuff all laid out to talk about. However, I have chosen to pivot on my original topic given the current economic situation. Of course I will focus some on women, but our main goal at Rooted Planning Group is to help everyone. And during this time, we want to help prepare our fellow small business owners for either this possible downturn or a future downturn. Being financially prepared for these types of situations is one of the most important things we can do as business owners.
To begin, here are a few statistics on small businesses in the United States.
3 Actions to stop "Buffering"
In the last Strong Roots Blog Post and Podcast Episode we introduced the term “buffering.” Buffering is the activity we do when we feel emotional about something, when we are procrastinating or avoiding, when we are bored, or during any time we should be addressing another issue. We “buffer” out of habit. Some examples we mentioned in the last post were binge watching Netflix, eating, shopping, drinking, spending too much time on social media, etc.
So what can we do to stop “buffering?”
Wealth, Habits, and How Buffering is "Ruining" Your Best Life!
Habits. Resolutions. Goals. Being Better. Having the best year ever!
Words that inspire us to be amazing.
However, statistically the odds are not in our favor. Most people do not set a resolution, and those that do, normally do not keep them. If you are one of the few who do, Congratulations, keep on killing it! If you are one of the other 97%, I would like to introduce you to why we cannot keep those resolutions. This is because of “buffering.”
Wealth and Focus: 5 Ways to Be More Productive and Maintain Focus
5 Ways to Be More Productive and Maintain Focus
Plan Ahead
Prioritize
Time Block
Exercise
Say “No” Sometimes
Economics of Organic Vegetables by Kerrie Beene CFP®
When to splurge on organic fruits and vegetables and when to opt for the regular option is a hard decision. If money were not an issue, we could buy organic all the time. However, this can be a costly decision.
Food, Mood, and Finance
Once our spirits our down, our decision making is affected. We may spend money on something we normally wouldn’t have simply because we want to feel better in the moment.