Talk Money Episode #7: Mo Money, Mo Savings
This episode was especially important to me. It’s challenging to tell an engaging and entertaining story about “personal finance.” But, the foundation of a solid financial future is staying on top of your money. It’s not about having a lot of it. It’s about being organized.
Personal finance can be intimidating. A lot of us fear it. We find it difficult to be smart with our money. It doesn’t help that banks and financial services use jargon and make things sound so complex.
At the end of the day, it’s really quite simple. Practicing and staying disciplined is the hard part. And now with technology and automation, a lot of the work can be done for us.
In this episode of Talk Money, we tell a story about Nashville musician Ron Pope, who struggled with debt and terrible credit during his young adult life. It was his wife & manager, Blair Clark, that taught him if he wanted a family and to provide for them, he would need to have his “money shit together.”
Then, my dear friend Will Peng, founder of Northstar Money, explains why it’s so hard for us to be organized about our money, and how technology and automation are making it easier for us to be better about it. Better is good. Better is great!
PERSONAL FINANCE 101
Here's the key. Know your monthly cash flow. What’s coming in and what’s going out. What are your fixed costs (rent, utilities, groceries)? What can you adjust, or get rid of? Then, with what you have left over, you can :
Pay down your debt. Start with higher-interest loans, and then move to lower interest loans. You don’t have to just make a monthly payment. You can do it multiple times a month. It helps lower the daily principal outstanding which lowers the interest payment.
Put $ into your savings account (you can have multiple for different goals).
Put $ into your retirement account (anyone can open one). If you have a 401K with work, make sure you’re taking advantage of your employer match.
Put $ into an Emergency Fund. This is a savings account that meant for large out of pocket expenses (car breaks down), loss of job (3-6 months of your monthly income), or something catastrophic (2020 is already feeling that way).
To make it even easier. Here are my picks for the companies and services I use and/or plan to use.
For full automation, budgeting, savings, emergency fund, and financial advice:
For Savings:
For Retirement & Investing:
Wealthfront- You can open up an IRA account, 529 (for you kid’s college), or a general investment account.
This doesn’t have to be daunting. All you need to do is get started. Stop putting this off. The best thing about automation and these companies, is they do the hard work for you. I hope this has been helpful. Please respond with additional questions and topics you’d like to hear more about.
Please share this post with those you think would benefit!
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