How Kids Change You - and Your Financial Plan
Beyond Finances
How kids change you can be delightfully surprising. But they'll change your financial plan, too, in ways that might be challenging if you don't know how to adjust. In what is probably news to no one, things change when you have kids. You know your responsibilities will shift. Your schedule will probably get upended. The smaller your children are, the less personal freedom you may have. How you experience all this, however, is unknowable. The process itself alters who you are now, and how you perceive and react to your life with kids in ways that you could not have even imagined when you...
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Money Tips from a Boston Financial Planner: Your Questions, Answered
Beyond Finances
You asked - now we answer your specific financial questions and try to provide clarity on some money situations that lots of folks tend to find themselves in. We share our insights on: What to do with your money once you pay off debt, max out your retirement accounts, and aren't sure what to prioritize next How to think through a decision like investing in rental real estate properties What counts (and what DOESN'T) when talking about savings rates Where to put your cash if you want it to grow Which financial planning benchmarks you can use to determine if you're on track, ahead of the curve,...
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Protecting Family Wealth: How to Safeguard Your Assets and Your Stuff
Beyond Finances
In the last episode of our 3-part series on strategic planning for your finances is all about protecting family wealth. If you're working hard to build assets, you need to protect that growing net worth - and part of that is making sure you and your family will be financially stable no matter what curveballs you may face along the way. Instead of just running through "insurance 101" or defining parts of an estate plan, we're pulling back the curtain and showing you what a financial planner has for his personal finances and why he has it. We'll discuss the types of insurance policies we...
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Strategic Planning, Part II: Investment Management
Beyond Finances
Welcome back to our series on strategic planning for your personal finances. Today's episode is part II, and we're covering all things investment management. We'll talk through what you need to do to put together a sound investment strategy for yourself, and the to-dos any investment manager should take (whether that's you as a DIYer, or an advisor who you hire to manage your assets for you). This episode covers: Assessing risk tolerance and risk capacity (and the difference between the two) Understanding your investment time horizon Allocating your assets correctly (which does NOT just...
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Using a Strategic Planning Process for Your Finances (Pt I)
Beyond Finances
You've heard the term "financial plan" or "financial planning" a million times. But what does it actually look like to go through that process? Today we're sharing how we construct strategic plans for personal finances. We'll take you to the inner workings of the framework and systems we use at Beyond Your Hammock to help people use their money as a tool to get more of what they want in life - now and into the future. This is part one of our series that will explain the 5 stages of the financial planning process: Setting goals, clarifying priorities, and stating values Building out iteration...
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How to Better Manage Bonus Money and Other Lump Sum Payments
Beyond Finances
Do you earn bonuses, commissions, grants of equity comp, or other types of variable income? Then you better know not just how to manage it, but also how to optimize these lump sum cash inflows to help you achieve your goals and grow your wealth. In this episode, we'll explain how to do it. Join us as we discuss: What counts as "variable income," or what lump sums of money you may receive over time The number-one thing to do if you receive a lump sum of cash, from any source Two main methods to manage cash flow for solid but unpredictable income streams The mistakes to avoid when you receive...
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Should the SECURE 2.0 Act Change Your Financial Plan?
Beyond Finances
New rules and regulations pushed forward by the SECURE 2.0 Act might impact how your manage your money right now, and into the future. Here's what you need to know. The SECURE 2.0 Act is a 1.7 trillion dollar spending bill passed by Congress in 2022. This legislation's scope went far beyond "let's adjust how retirement plans work," but the details within the bill did change many rules relating to retirement plans Therefore, it changed the strategies you need to consider for managing yours as part of your overall financial plan. This conversation proves the point we make all the time: you...
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Managing Money Together: How to Handle Finances in Your Relationship
Beyond Finances
Money and marriage is a serious topic, if only because getting it wrong can lead to devastating results: 48% of people report fighting about money; 60% of those fights tend to be about spending. 41% of Gen Xers and 29% of baby boomers surveyed by TD Ameritrade report that money was a direct cause of a divorce, and some research shows that disagremeents about money are a leading predictor of future divorce. So today, we're not just talking about money. We might be saving your marriage, too! We'll share the best strategies for managing money as a couple. We'll not just provide some big-picture...
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How Much You Need to Save in 2023
Beyond Finances
In this episode, we're sharing our 4-step framework to help you hone in on a savings rate that's right for you. If you ask 10 different people how much you need to save per year to set yourself up for a secure financial future, you will probably get at least 15 different answers. It's confusing! And even if you go with the most common answer to "how much do I need to save," which may be 10 to 15 percent of your gross income each year, that might still not get you to the right answer FOR YOU. (Spoiler alert: 10 to 15 percent probably isn't going to be enough.) So how DO you figure out this...
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The Best Short-Term Investments: What to Know (and What to Avoid)
Beyond Finances
It's your money, and you need it now! In this episode, we discuss the best short-term investments when you want to earn a return from your cash - without exposing it to a risk of loss. We cover: How current events may drive people to make bad investment decisions Why you have to start the short-term investment convo with an understanding of risk and reward What to look for when considering a short-term investment (and what you should expect) Red flags to avoid when presented with investment opportunities Specific investment vehicles to consider for your cash when you want some kind of return,...
info_outline45: You earn good income, have enough money to pay pills and contribute to savings, and feel like you made it. Do you REALLY need to keep up with a budget once you're financially secure?
Uh, yeah. Because budgeting isn't a bad word. It's a mindfulness exercise for your finances.
Although it might feel like budgeting is basic personal finance 101, or that it's only something you do when money is tight and you need to carefully manage every last penny, a budget is always a useful tool for your cash flow.
In fact, the more money you earn and need to manage, the important it is to pay close attention. A budget can help you do just that as you spend more time handling your increasingly complex financial life.
Without a budget, you may miss opportunities to optimize and maximize the dollars you have. It also leaves you without critical data that you need to make fully informed spending and saving decisions.
In this episode, we explore why budgeting is not a basic financial function -- and why the more successful you become and the more money you earn, the bigger the role a great budget can play in your continued prosperity.
We also share how we personally budget, the money meetings we have each quarter, some of the complexities of our own cash flow, and we provide a few tips on employing the same bucketing strategy that we use to ensure we save and invest appropriately so we can spend freely and without guilt.