Taxes confuse almost everyone. I cannot tell you how often someone tries arguing with me about something tax related when they are entirely wrong. And to be fair, the tax code is long and confusing. To make matters even worse, for some reason, taxes are not actively taught to people. This is exactly why most people do not understand: There’s…
A couple weeks ago my friend Rachael Camp had a great post that shared the ways she viewed if she was wealthy. Some of her examples were: And the post ended by saying “looking at wealth as a lifestyle you can afford (instead of a number) is a game changer.” This is one of my favorite posts I have read…
Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) are one of the most powerful savings tools out there and not enough people are using theirs! In fact, Deloitte did a study on this and found 37% reported a participation rate of less than 25% by their eligible employees. And nearly 32% report a participation rate between 25 and 50%. Why are people not using…
“Personal finance is more personal, than it is finance.” This quote might be cringey but it could not be more true. I see so many people argue on social media that personal finance is black and white. They argue that is right and there is wrong for everyone. This could not be further from the truth. Let me walk you…
There is a lot of confusion around what a financial planner does. Some think they just manage investments (some do). Some think they just sell insurances (some do). And some think they help on everything that has to do with money, like me (some do). The best financial planners don’t just do one thing. They help you manage your entire…
With the limited supply of houses available, more and more people are considering buying land and building a home. I have had about 5 clients this year alone bring up wanting to do this which is more than all other years combined. Building can be a great route for the right person and situation, but it comes with different challenges.…
Welcome back! We are continuing on with this series about home buying. Over the past two weeks, we talked about: Both of these posts blew up and I got a ton of questions about what ARM’s are, if you should buy down points, etc. So we will talk about all of that in today’s post. For the past 5 years,…
Time and time again, millennials buy a house and are surprised by both the upfront costs and the ongoing costs of owning a home. Last week, I talked about what you can expect to pay when you buy a home, which you can check out here. Now this weeks post will be entirely focused on the costs of owning a…
A common misconception first time home buyers have is that the downpayment is the only upfront expense they need to plan for. However, this could not be further from the truth. There’s a whole array of other costs other than the downpayment that you need to plan for. Let’s take a look at each upfront expense you will have when…
We often associate wealth with financial expertise, but this could not be further from the truth. High net worth people are not immune to making mistakes. In fact, they make just as many mistakes, if not more than everyone else. And the worst part about it is that these mistakes they make can be even more costly due to higher…