financial wellness


10 Things You Should Know About Inherited Money

If you’ve inherited money, start by knowing it takes a while for the money to land. The executrix needs time — months and months — to get things retitled. Then it takes time for the IRS or the state to release a lien or expedite an audit. Do NOT expect the money all at once. While the estate is being settled, there may be income kicked off by the assets that have not yet been distributed. […]


Amazon Prime Trucks

Tricks to limit spending on Amazon

Do you want to know how much you’ve spent on Amazon last year? Ha! Don’t you wish. Amazon recently removed the ability to download your order history. So I don’t have a quick trick to give you. Instead, I have a few ideas for how to get the most benefit and the least harm out of Amazon. Limit Spending on Amazon There are things you can do, things to be really careful of (even avoid), […]


Urgent Student Loan Changes in a Nutshell

Student loan deferrals are happening, in many cases automatically! Here’s the details, but the tldr; is that loans are at 0% and you may stop paying through September 30. Each individual lender is treating this somewhat differently about whether they’ve stopped automatic payments. It’s a very good idea to stop your automatic payment when you’re being offered a 0% loan. Some people – those who are eligible for loan forgiveness – will just be paying principle for […]


Security

Why check your credit rating?

I’m having rebellious thoughts about credit rating agencies. Always one to play earnestly by the rules, I have always checked my credit report once in a while to see if any bad data had crept in. Perhaps someone was claiming to be me and running up debt someplace, right? Gotta keep on that. But over the past few years I’ve watched Identity Theft blossom from a one-off done by drug-addicted grandkids to something that is as common […]


Financial Literacy for Young Adults, with book reviews!

A client asked me if I had any financial literacy suggestions for teenagers. It kicked off a reading festival! Here are my notes. Years ago I read Suze Orman’s Young Fabulous and Broke and I was underwhelmed. She seems to think that everyone is as clueless as she was and needs to have a come-to-Jesus moment and she’ll tell you how. Most people I know just want to know some facts and they’ll integrate them into their […]

Insurance for Workers

How long do you keep that document?

How long do you need to keep that document?

“How long should I keep paperwork around for?” I get this question a lot, but it’s not a quick answer. Hopefully this will help to help clarify it. Regarding income tax returns: The IRS has 3 years from the time you file to audit a return or the due date, whichever is later, so absolutely keep all the backup materials to your tax return for at least three years, four including the tax return currently […]


Tips about Savings

Have some emergency money in the house, enough to pay for necessary groceries and medication if the banking system went down and you had to pay cash. You can also think of it as “refugee money.” If you needed to evacuate NOW, how much cash would you want for travel costs to far away family? Gas, hotels, meals on the road? Have that much in small bills and rolled coins.  (We like rolls of dollar […]

Insurance for Workers

Security

Some tips on data security, specifically touching on LastPass and ShareFile.

As you get your finances organized you’re going to wish you had a secure place to keep all your online passwords to websites. There are several on the market, but I personally use a Chrome Extension on my web-browser to an app called “LastPass”. It’s free if you just use it on desktops, and a small subscription cost if you want to use it across mobile devices. https://lastpass.com/ Once you have a strong master password […]


Uses and Abuses, Tips and Tricks About Debt

Last April, I watched as my eldest son drove out of my driveway in his loaded-down Subaru with a brand-new Thule box on it, headed for Utah with all his possessions loaded in his modern-day Conestoga wagon. As many of you know, a month later he fell off a cliff and received a terrible spinal cord injury. (Happy update: it was a terrible adventure, but thanks to a whole host of blessings, he is nearly […]

Tricks About Debt

Charity

Charity

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving this year is designated locally as “Giving Tuesday.” A company called Razoo has figured out how to gamify giving. I don’t want to stop anyone from playing if they’re so inclined. Far be it from me to tell you social media has no redeeming qualities. But there are a lot of different ways to think about charitable giving. First, it’s good for you. There’s a fairly new field of study called […]


Book Review: Pay It Down

Jean Chatzky’s take on debt.   This was a quick read from the library: Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10/day by Jean Chatzky.   The  book is abbreviated and condensed into this series of articles on Money.cnn. First off, this book is nearly entirely about budgeting.  Figure out what you’re already spending, and then take a look.  The topic was just as dreary as it could be in this relentless little book.  It would not let you […]


Spotlight on budgeting

People are calling up to ask for help. “We’re making a lot of money but can’t make ends meet. Help!” I tell them to grab as many statements as they can from every bill they’ve got and every account they’ve got and bring the whole pile to me. Here’s what I know about people’s expenses: the overwhelming majority have expenses that nearly exactly match their income, except, perhaps, they spend about $50/month more than they […]


Five characteristics of financial wellness

I work closely with the finances of hundreds (and over the years, thousands) of people.  I learned early on that income doesn’t correlate to happiness once you get past starvation level.  But in recent years I’ve really been noticing that feeling rich is almost entirely unrelated to income levels.    For the past year or so I’ve been trying to nail down what being “wealthy” actually means. I think a better term for “wealthy” is […]