Last week we discussed how to understand your monthly budget, your cash flow, and how to automate your savings. We started out with what is usually considered to be the most boring part of managing your finances. It’s everyone’s least favorite thing to do. At the end of the day, budgeting is a short term exercise. In this week’s video,…
How To Maximize Your Company Benefits
November is approaching us and you know that means… It’s employee benefit election time (for most people). The average person skips through their benefits and picks everything in just a couple minutes, please don’t be one of those people! According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), benefits make up 32% of an employee’s total…
Managing Cash Flow and Setting Automation
When people hear budgeting, they think: – Boring – Restricting – A hassle Let’s do away with that paradigm and get you on the path to financial freedom. It’s time to set up your financial life so that you know exactly where you stand and what is available to you. In this post we’re going to go over how to…
Understanding Restricted Stock Units (RSUs): the Basics & Taxes
Equity compensation is becoming increasingly popular. It incentivizes employees to maximize performance because when the company does well, they do well. Today, we’re going to go through an example of equity compensation in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). In this week’s video, I’ll go over everything you need to know about RSUs. I use Eli Lilly as an…
14 Biggest Social Media Tax Myths (And Why They Are Wrong)
There is no shortcoming of bad tax advice on social media. It feels like everyday I see a new post, video, etc. with some fragmented piece of tax advice that is so far away from how it works in the real world. It makes it hard to know what is real and what is not. I have seen this in…
How Am I Taxed?
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…
I am Wealthy If I Can:
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 Overview
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” – An Example
“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…
What Real Life Financial Planning Looks Like?
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…