Financial quotes are great for inspiring us to be better with money. Check out these four quotes from one of the best- Tony Robbins.
Who doesn’t love a good quote? Better yet, a good financial quote? One of my favorite ways to feel good about my finances is to listen and try to live by what the experts are saying. To kick off the holiday weekend, here are four of my favorite quotes from Tony Robbins, from his book ‘Money Master the Game’.
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There's a good chance millennials are under-prepared for retirement, especially those who are self-employed.
It’s easy to categorize retirement in the “I’ll figure that out later” column, especially for millennials who have a good thirty to forty years before reaching the traditional retirement age. In fact, it is a lot easier finding reasons to NOT save for retirement as a millennial, whether it’s having a mountain of student loan debt, saving for a down payment on a home, other life expenses like weddings and starting families, or simply that investing is a complicated and maybe intimidating subject area. Since most retirement saving that DOES happen is done through employer plans like 401k’s or 403b’s, millennials who are self-employed are probably even less likely to be saving for retirement.
Why is there such a significant gap in investing experience between black and white families, and how can we fix it?
2020 has been a transformational year for America so far, and it’s only June. COVID-19, going into our third month of lock-down, police brutality, unnecessary deaths, riots… There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty in the air. Being on a writing platform, it’s hard to ignore these things. I see a lot of white people apologizing and throwing their hands up. I see a lot of black people being honest about their daily fears, and reading them is heartbreaking. I see a lot of much-needed education and empathy. I also see frustration on both sides, and see an uncomfortable divide. When problems like this arise, it can be easy to feel like you can’t really do anything about it. I’m torn between trying to find the right words, and feeling like I should just keep my mouth shut.
I’ve settled on discussing an area today that my experience from working in the financial industry can help, at least I hope it can. The wealth gap between black people and white people in America. 
The most important ingredient in investing is, surprisingly, not money.
Money is certainly important, but when you look at how compounding interest works when you're investing, you'll quickly learn that time is everything.
Not timing, like when you try and decide the best time to buy or sell, but time, as in the amount of time we have. Time in the market is crucial when you’re invested, but this is also a lesson that applies to many things in life, sometimes painfully. The preciousness of time is lingering in my head today, ever since my boyfriend woke me up with the announcement “The treasure was found.” 
Investing in a SEP IRA or Solo 401k is a great way for entrepreneurs to save money for their futures while saving on taxes today
Being self-employed means you have a lot of stuff on your plate, including planning your investment strategy for retirement. While this might sound overwhelming and difficult, don’t let your fear of the unknown put off your future planning any longer- because it’s not nearly as painful as it sounds.
There are various ways to save for retirement on your own, i.e. outside of an account that’s set up by an employer (like 401k’s and 403b’s) and the two biggies for people who are self-employed are SEP IRA’s and Solo 401k’s. So, what are the differences, and what’s best for you? 
Wait... there's still time to save on your 2019 tax bill?!
As a former financial advisor, I can’t help but feel like I have a leg-up on the financial side of this entrepreneur game. Now, I’m by no means “rich”, but I do understand the way to get there, and have faith in the financial processes that a lot of people, unfortunately, never understand.
One of the worst things about working for yourself, especially when you are first starting out, is trying to understand the tax and investing side. It seems like these things are almost overly complicated on purpose, designed to leave you stressed and in the dark. Stressed enough to just hand it over to someone else to figure out for a few hundred (or thousand) dollars. Or worse… to ignore it. 
What's the difference between a Traditional IRA and Roth IRA? And how do you decide which one to use?
This question is one that doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, and it’s likely that you will be better off if you figure out how to use both of these accounts throughout your life.
Let’s start at the beginning, you might be asking, "What the firetruck is an IRA?" IRA stands for an Individual Retirement Account. Broken down further, the individual aspect means that an IRA will never, ever, be in more than one person’s name (with the exception of an inherited account, which will still have the deceased person in the title and the account owner would be listed like ‘Marsha Smith, Beneficiary of Marlene Smith’). There is no such thing as a joint IRA, which is why it’s a good idea to have retirement assets in both spouses names. If you are many years from retirement age, DON’T tune this out! The further you are from retirement, the easier it is to save, and accumulate wealth. Plus, having a fat retirement account is cool af. Need more convincing? How about a quick game of 'Would You Rather?...' 
Even if retirement is a few decades away for you, there's a chance you're feeling behind on your future savings!
Have you ever felt behind on your savings? Or a better question might be; have you ever felt on top of them?!
If you're feeling stretched in areas like building up savings and paying off debt, chances are you have felt behind on your retirement savings too. A few years ago, as a 20-something millennial that was aggressively paying off student loans, I didn't know that I also should have already started saving for retirement. I thought I knew about retirement, that it was a time in your life when you were older and could stop working. To me, retirement was an age. I now realize that this is a misconception, and that thinking this way is causing a big problem... 
The extension for 2019 taxes also impacts IRA contributions, which means you could be in an extended “sweet spot” for catching up on savings.
Saving for retirement is a hefty topic, one that many like to put off until it is arguably “too late”. As the saying goes ‘the best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today”. This saying applies to saving for retirement perfectly. When I was a financial advisor and working with retirees on a daily basis, one thing was said again and again... “I wish I had known more about investing when I was younger.” Why do so many people say that? Well, once you have had money invested for a while, you truly understand the magic of compounding interest. And what’s compounding interest’s best friend? Time. Time is the reason a saver who starts investing $500 a month from age 20 (and earns an average of 7%) could retire with over $1.2 million. But if they wait until age 30? The ending balance is less than $600k. You need two things to grow wealth, money and time. You only need to have a lot of one of those things.
So far, 2020 has been a wild year for retirement savers. If you aren’t saving yet, you might find this the perfect time to start... 
What you should consider before spending all of your stimulus check
The middle of April 2020 is certainly... not how it normally is. April 15th usually marks the dreaded “Tax Day”, but this year we are replacing our fear of taxes with a fear of contracting COVID-19. Taxes are taking a backseat until July, and there are some other new and monetarily stimulating things going on, like surprise checks and paused student loan payments. If you woke up to an extra one or two thousand bucks in your account this week, you might be wondering “what should I do with this?” and “are there strings attached?”. Before you swipe your card on that brand new flat-screen TV, let's take a look at the fine print, and consider some good places to put that stimulus moolah.
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Alicia DionHi, I'm Alicia- this blog is a way for me to share all of the helpful things I've learned from working in the finance industry, important money things that I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise, and things everyone should know about. Archives
May 2020
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