Back in the olden days, there was a Public Service Announcement on television at 10PM asking “Do you know where your children are?” Today, I have asimilar question. Do you know where your money is? If your answer is “I’m not exactly sure” or “All over the place”, then your financial life might be too complicated! “H and W” are a husband and wife I worked with years ago. H and W had a lot of accounts in a lot of places. How many accounts in how many places? Let’s take a look at a chart I created for them: They had 16 different accounts at 8 different custodians. A custodian is the institution that holds and protects your …
Saving
Six Years Later – Micro Investing with Acorns
Six years ago, I wrote about my lifelong passion (some would say obsession) for spare change. This dates back to counting the spare change and “egg money” in my grandmother’s chipped gravy boat in the 70’s. Today, this is the spare change stash in my office: But here in the 21st century, I don’t have too many cash transactions, and therefore not a lot of physical spare change. Enter the micro investing app Acorns* which invests your digital spare change. Six years ago, I signed up for Acorns and linked my checking account. The checking account is my “funding source”. Then I linked my credit card. You can link more than one card including debit cards. For …
What’s In Your IRA?
If you are a certain age, like me, you may recall a series of clever credit card commercials from Capital One asking “What’s in your wallet?” Here’s one from 2000 featuring a band of plundering Vikings. Today’squestion is similar – but instead of your wallet my question is “What’s in your IRA?” This topic was prompted by a recent WSJ Article “The 401(k) Rollover Mistake That Costs Retirement Savers Billions” Workers miss out on billions in investment gains by pulling retirement savings out of the stock market after switching jobs—often without meaning to. From the article: Workers miss out on billions in investment gains by pulling retirement savings out of the …
Five Years Later – Micro Investing with Acorns
Five years ago, I wrote about my lifelong passion (some would say obsession) for spare change. This dates back to counting the spare change and “egg money” in my grandmother’s chipped gravy boat in the 70’s. Today, this is the spare change stash in my office: But here in the 21st century, I don’t have too many cash transactions, and therefore not a lot of physical spare change. Enter the micro investing app Acorns* which invests your digital spare change. Five years ago, I signed up for Acorns and linked my checking account. The checking account is my “funding source”. Then I linked my credit card. You can link more than one card including debit …
Capture Those Dollars!
Recently, in a meeting with clients, we realized their car loan would be paid off in two months. I rang the and said “That’s terrific and now I recommend you…” and they finished my sentence shouting in unison, “capture those dollars!” I guess they’ve heard me say that before….probably many times! It’s my standard response to increased cash flow. Why am I so fixated on capturing dollars? Because unless you win the lottery or inherit a big pile of money* you must spend less than you earn in order to build wealth. *Note: I don’t recommend playing the lottery and inheritances don’t always materialize…. Capturing …
