What you need to know to learn how to maximize benefits and get the open enrollment help needed to have a health benefit plan that will work for your needs
Read MoreThe Hell Yeah Holiday Gift Guide: Alternative Gifts and Sustainable Giving Ideas /
The holiday season is an opportunity to slow down, to appreciate the year we’ve just had, and to spend time with family, chosen family, and friends. As you start to plan your holiday dinners or create new traditions, you may feel stressed or overwhelmed about staying true to your budget during this time of the year.
One gift-giving tradition that doesn’t need to continue throughout this holiday season is overspending on gifts that your friends and family probably don’t need. Giving someone a gift should come from a place of generosity, not lack. Giving gifts shouldn’t reinforce scarcity, so there's no reason to break the bank or dip too deep into your savings to express your affection and appreciation for your loved ones. Thankfully, there are sustainable and alternative gifting options that may be more energetically aligned with the spirit of giving.
We created an alternative gift guide to help put things into perspective, spark creativity, provide you with more sustainable alternatives, and be a voice that encourages you to be mindful this season.
Let’s take a closer look at some gift-giving alternatives for the holiday season.
Read MoreHow to Have a Year-End Personal Money Review /
The end of a year is a time for reflection. As you plan your end-of-the-year celebrations and start to plan your new year resolutions, you may want to consider taking some time to take a closer look at your finances. A year-end personal money review can help you reflect on the choices you made over the previous year and help guide you to make better financial choices in the new year.
Let’s take a look at what a year-end personal money review is and how it can help you have a better relationship with money:
Read MoreMost Common Investing Struggles (and How to Avoid Them) /
Hey reader, just a little heads up that I am not an investment advisor, and the following article is not investment advice.
Before I took my first investment course in college, I had a lot of assumptions about investing. Many of them were wrong. I thought you had to know a lot about individual stocks and companies. I believed it was much more complicated than it turned out to be. And I expected it to be so much more exciting.
Investing is kind of like film and television. The result might be sexy and shiny and cool. But if you’ve ever been on set, you know that the process of filming is usually pretty dull compared to the result. There may be some excitement, but the great majority of the time gets spent waiting around - a lot like investing!
However, lately, investing seems to have changed -- from the Gamestop chaos to the Dodge coin drama, to the general market run-up over the last two years, investing feels exciting. Ask anyone who has seen their investment balances go up over the last couple of years.
Read MoreShould I Invest My Emergency Fund? /
This isn't investment advice because I am not an investment advisor; it's to be used for educational purposes only.
Should I invest my emergency fund? This is one of the most common questions I hear. Folks who do all the hard work of saving six months (or more!) of their expenses into an emergency fund are often offended at how little interest they earn to amass a small fortune.
I understand the feeling and the urge to invest your emergency fund money. The long-held wisdom has been that one should never invest their emergency fund. The reasoning behind this is that you're opting for liquidity (having your cash available when you need it) over any returns you'd get investing.
Read MoreThe Lazy Person's Guide to Building Wealth (Part 1): Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Index Funds /
The stock market can be intimidating for anyone just starting to invest. One of the most common fears new investors have is how to choose investments. Choosing a company to buy stock from opens the door to a myriad of frightening possibilities. What if that company isn’t disclosing their finances properly? What if I’m not doing enough due diligence before purchasing shares? Buying individual stocks also leaves you at risk of not diversifying your portfolio enough.
Read MoreHow Much Does It Cost Your Business to Earn Each Dollar? /
Do you know how much it costs your business to earn each dollar it makes? Unlike traditional employees, when you're a self-employed service provider, every dollar you earn has a cost beyond your time and energy. How much do you need to pay for employee payroll, taxes, operating costs like marketing and insurance, profit, and personal pay?
Even if you’re a one-person freelance practice, understanding how much it costs you to earn each dollar in your company is a valuable shift in perspective that can help you build a sustainable, efficient business.
Read MoreThe Sequence of Savings /
The sequence of events is consequential when we cook a meal, tell a story or travel to a destination. Instructions and directions are ordered, stories have sequential acts and arcs that depend on events. It’s the way things are, we accept this.
The same thing is true in the world of saving and investing. The chronology for both how you save (and invest) and where you save (and invest) matters.
Financial Paradoxes /
Paradoxes are fancy literary devices that can teach us lessons through the use of logical contradictions. Examining them allows us to practice our ability to hold opposing ideas in our minds at the same time.
Read MoreHere's What Tax Season Looks Like with Hell Yeah, Bookkeeping /
What makes tax season so stressful for most small business owners and freelancers? I think it can be chalked up to a few things. First, if you haven’t kept up with your bookkeeping, then you’re facing a year’s worth of accounting homework with a fast-approaching due date. If you don’t know how much you’ve made, you can’t know how much you’ll owe in taxes - you’re flying blind and that’s scary.
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