Are you afraid to fix your finances?

It’s understandable if you are! Confronting a bad spending habit or debt problem can feel overwhelming and uncomfortable.

But leaving financial issues unresolved is never a good idea. Little annoyances become serious threats if you don’t take initiative to nip them in the bud!

Fortunately, there are dozens of simple financial decisions that you can make today. Here are some of the most important ones!

Save anything you can, no matter how small
If you stash away a single dollar, you’re already ahead of the game. Half of all Americans had zero dollars (you read that correctly) saved before the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020.¹

Anything that you’ve put away where you can’t spend it is a good thing, even if it’s a dollar. Putting money away regularly is even better. You might literally have only $1 to start. That’s fine! It’s the thought (i.e., habit) that counts, and you’ll already be closer to financial stability than many people in the country.

Don’t gamble
Americans might not be great at saving, but we sure do love playing the lottery! We spend, on average, $1,000 per year on precious tickets and scratch-offs.² Yikes! You’ll probably get struck by lightning or crushed by falling airplane debris before you win a powerball.³

If you don’t play the lottery now, don’t start. If you do play (which should fall in your budget under “fun fund”), write out how much you’ve spent on tickets vs. how much you’ve won. That’s a ratio to always keep in mind!

Eat at home
Regularly eating out can devour your income. We spend about $232 monthly at our favorite restaurants, or about $2,784 annually.⁴ There’s nothing wrong with occasionally enjoying a meal out at your favorite spot. But it becomes a problem when you’re eating out multiple times a week and using fast food as a substitute for cooking for yourself while your budget goals suffer.

So instead of hitting up a drive-thru tonight, go to your local grocery store and buy some fresh ingredients. It doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy. Ground beef and pasta or chicken curry with rice are both great (and tasty) ways to start. Check out some online recipes and try some new dishes!

Just trying these three simple things can put you ahead of the curve. They might seem small, but you’ll take a huge step forward to financial independence. Choose one of these actions and try it out today!

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There’s a good chance that you’re facing a financial obstacle right now.

Maybe you’re trying to pay down some credit card debt, facing a meager retirement fund, or just struggling day-to-day to make ends meet.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless in those situations, so much so that you might think learning a little more about how to manage your money wouldn’t make much difference right now.

But adopting a few key financial tips is often the best and simplest step towards taking control of your paycheck and finding some peace of mind. Here are some reasons why financial literacy is an essential skill for everyone to master, and a few tips to help you get started!

It helps you overcome fear
Let’s face it; money can seem scary. Mounting loans, debt, interest, investing—it can all be confusing and overwhelming. It may feel easier to ignore your finances and live paycheck to paycheck, never owning up to not-so-great decisions. But financial literacy gets right to the root of that fear by making things clear and simple. It empowers you to identify your mistakes and shows options to fix them.

Facing a problem is much easier once you understand it and know how to beat it. That’s why learning about money is so important if you want to start healing your financial woes.

It lets you take control of your finances
Financial literacy does more than just help you address problems or overcome obstacles. It gives you the power to stop being a victim and take control. You can start investing in your future with confidence instead of reacting to emergencies or going into deeper debt. That means building wealth and living life on your terms instead of someone else’s. In other words…

It helps you realize your dreams
Managing money isn’t about immediately seeing a bigger number in your bank account. It’s about having the resources and freedom to do the things you care about. Maybe that means taking your significant other on a dream vacation, giving more to a cause you care about, or providing your kids with a debt-free education.

Where to start
Acknowledging that you need to learn more can be the hardest step. That’s why meeting with a financial advisor is something you may consider. Calculate how much you spend versus how much you make and write down some financial goals. Then find a time to discuss your next steps. You may also want to sign up for a personal finance class that will cover things like budgeting and saving.

Financial literacy is one of the most important skills you can develop. Improving your financial education takes some time but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Give me a call. I’d love to sit down and help you learn more about ways you can take control of your future!

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Part of gaining financial literacy is becoming familiar with the lingo.

Like all subjects, finance has its own terms, acronyms, abbreviations, and slang.

If you’re just beginning to dip your toe into the pool of personal financial planning, here’s a handy guide to some terms that are likely to come up when learning about finance and investments.

ROI: ROI stands for Return on Investment. It’s an acronym usually used when referring to the performance of a stock. ROI can also refer to the performance of other investments, including real estate and currencies. In short, the term describes how much bang you get for your investment buck.

Compound Interest: Compound interest refers to the instance of interest collecting on interest. The best way to understand compound interest is with an example. Let’s say you invest $1,000 in a high interest bearing account. Over the course of one year, your savings collects $100.00 in interest. The next year you’ll earn interest on $1,100.00, and so forth.

Money Market Account: You may hear about money market accounts if you’re shopping for a savings account. A money market account is like a savings account, but it may earn higher interest rates – making it a better choice for some.

There are money market accounts that come with checks or a debit card, so your funds are easily accessible. If you’re planning on opening a money market account to hold your savings or emergency fund, pay attention to any minimum balance requirements and fees.

Liquidity: Liquidity refers to how easy it is for an asset to convert to cash. You can think of it as an investment’s ability to “liquidate” into cash. For example, real estate investments may offer great returns over time, but they aren’t considered liquid assets because they are not easily turned into cash.

A stock or bond, on the other hand, has high liquidity because you can sell a stock and have access to its cash value quickly.

Roth IRA: A Roth IRA is a retirement savings account. IRA stands for “Individual Retirement Account”. A Roth IRA allows you to make contributions or deposits to fund your retirement. The contributions are made with taxed income, but when you take deposits from the account in retirement, the income is not taxed.

A few characteristics of a Roth IRA:

• Your contribution is always accessible, tax and penalty-free at any time
• It can help keep you in a lower taxable income bracket during retirement
• You can contribute to a Roth IRA at any time if you have a job

Bear Market: A Bear Market is a term used to refer to the stock market while there are certain characteristics present. Those characteristics include falling stock prices and low investor confidence.

The term is said to originate from the way a bear attacks – swiping its arm downward on its prey. The downward motion illustrates falling stock prices as investors lose confidence, become pessimistic about the market, and they may begin to sell their stocks to try to prevent further losses.

Bull Market: A Bull Market is a period in which stock prices are increasing and investor confidence is high. A Bull Market mostly refers to stocks, but it can also be used to describe real estate, currencies, and other types of markets.

This term may come from the action of how a bull attacks, by swiping its horns upward.

Finance lingo is for everyone
No matter where you are on the personal finance spectrum – just beginning to create a budget with your first job or preparing to retire – there are special terms to describe financial phenomena, tools, and features. Learning some of the lingo is a great first step toward taking charge of your financial life!

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Numbers never lie, and when it comes to statistics on financial literacy, the results are staggering.

Recent studies indicate that 76% of Millennials don’t have a basic understanding of financial literacy. Combine that with having little in savings and mountains of debt, and you have the ingredients for a potential financial crisis.

It’s not only Millennials that lack a sound financial education. The majority of American adults are unable to pass a basic financial literacy test. But what is financial literacy? How do you know if you’re financially literate? It’s much more than simply knowing the contents of your bank account, setting a budget, and checking in a couple times a month. Here’s a simple definition: “To be financially literate is to have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to make responsible financial decisions that suit our own financial situations.”

Making responsible financial decisions based on knowledge and research are the foundation of understanding your finances and how to manage them. When it comes to financial literacy, you can’t afford not to be knowledgeable.

So whether you’re a master of your money or your money masters you, anyone can benefit from becoming more financially literate. Here are a few ways you can do just that.

Consider How You Think About Money
Everyone has ideas about financial management. Though we may not realize it, we often learn and absorb financial habits and mentalities about money before we’re even aware of what money is. Our ideas about money are shaped by how we grow up, where we grow up, and how our parents or guardians manage their finances. Regardless of whether you grew up rich, poor, or somewhere in between, checking in with yourself about how you think about money is the first step to becoming financially literate.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Am I saving anything for the future?
• Is all debt bad?
• Do I use credit cards to pay for most, if not all, of my purchases?

Pay Some Attention to Your Spending Habits
This part of the process can be painful if you’re not used to tracking where your money goes. There can be a certain level of shame associated with spending habits, especially if you’ve collected some debt. But it’s important to understand that money is an intensely personal subject, and that if you’re working to improve your financial literacy, there is no reason to feel ashamed!

Taking a long, hard look at your spending habits is a vital step toward controlling your finances. Becoming aware of how you spend, how much you spend, and what you spend your money on will help you understand your weaknesses, your strengths, and what you need to change. Categorizing your budget into things you need, things you want, and things you have to save up for is a great place to start.

Commit to a Lifestyle of Learning
Becoming financially literate doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t feel overwhelmed if you’re just starting to make some changes. There isn’t one book, one website, or one seminar you can attend that will give you all the keys to financial literacy. Instead, think of it as a lifestyle change. Similar to transforming unhealthy eating habits into healthy ones, becoming financially literate happens over time. As you learn more, tweak parts of your financial routine that aren’t working for you, and gain more experience managing your money, you’ll improve your financial literacy. Commit to learning how to handle your finances, and continuously look for ways you can educate yourself and grow. It’s a lifelong process!

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Kids aren’t getting the financial education they need in school. Only 20 states require high school students to take an economics course.

Chances are the majority of your child’s financial education will happen at home. And at the beginning of a new year is a great time to pepper in some new financial knowledge and put it into practice.

One simple project you can do with your kids involves laying the groundwork for them to save for their retirement. That skill is going to be more valuable than you might think – sooner rather than later. The earlier they begin saving for retirement, the better. For instance, if they begin setting aside a bit of their paycheck each month in their 20s rather than in their 30s, the less of it they will have to sacrifice each month to reach their retirement goals as they get older – and the more time their money has to grow. In this hypothetical scenario, check out what happens with Susan and Tom.

• Susan started saving when she was 25. Over the next 10 years, Sarah put away $3,000 a year for a total of $30,000 in an account with an 8% rate of return. She stopped contributing but let it keep growing for the following 20 years.
• Tom started saving 10 years later at age 35. He also put away $3,000 a year into an account with an 8% rate of return, but he contributed for 20 years (for a total of $60,000).

Even though Tom put away twice as much as Sarah, he wasn’t able to enjoy the same account growth:

• Sarah would achieve account growth to $218,769.
• Tom’s account growth would only be to $148,269 at the same rate of return.

Why did Sarah end up with more in the long run? Even though she set aside less than Tom did, Sarah’s money had more time to compound than Tom’s, which, as you can see, really added up over the additional time. (Keep in mind: All figures are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect an actual investment in any product. Additionally, they do not reflect the performance risks, taxes, expenses, or charges associated with any actual investment, which would lower performance. This illustration is not an indication or guarantee of future performance. Contributions are made at the end of the period. Total accumulation figures are rounded to the nearest dollar.)

Sarah’s 10-year head start made a huge difference for her… But try using that illustration to explain the importance of early retirement saving to your 8-year-old, and you might get a blank stare or a full-on fidget fest.

Luckily for everybody involved, there’s a simple exercise you can do with your kids to give them a head’s up about what it might be like to set aside some of their paycheck when the time comes.

How to work on it with your kids: For the really young ones, each time they receive money (earned, received as a gift, etc.), help them save part of it. It really is that simple. No complicated formulas or examples. After all, the basis of saving for retirement is saving money. If your kids are a little older and ready for the next step, help them save with an ultimate goal in mind like 1 big toy or activity at the end of the month rather than 2-3 throughout the month.

Working on exercises like this with your kids has the potential to make a huge difference for them when they start preparing for retirement. It may seem small, but you’re laying the groundwork for solid financial literacy, one saved dollar at a time.

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