.‘Is It a Bad Idea to Borrow $1K From My Friend?’
.‘Is It a Bad Idea to Borrow $1K From My Friend?’
By Charlotte Cowles
I got laid off a few months ago and I’m still looking for a new job. I’ve been getting by with random work (babysitting mostly), but I’ve finally hit a point where I don’t think I’ll make rent this month.
I can’t ask my parents for help (they’re not in great financial shape either), and at this point, I think my best bet is to borrow money from a friend.
Her family seems well off, so I don’t think I’d be putting her in a tough spot. I also know she lent another friend money a little while ago. I just have no idea how to ask her, and I don’t want it to hurt our friendship.
If she gave me a loan, ideally around $1,000, I could have some breathing room to search for a good job. How do I go about this? Or is there another, better option that I don’t know about?
.Why America’s Families Are Struggling Financially
.Why America’s Families Are Struggling Financially
The finances of Americans may not be as good as they look from the outside.
Despite optimistic metrics like a nine-year-long bullish, if volatile, stock market, higher than expected job and wage growth, and consumer confidence levels nearing record highs, millions of Americans continue to struggle, a study released last week from financial consultancy nonprofit the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) found.
Only 28% of Americans are considered “financially healthy,” according to a CFSI survey of more than 5,000 Americans. “Financial health enables family stability, education, and upward mobility, not just for individuals today but across future generations,” the CFSI says. “Many are dealing with an unhealthy amount of debt, irregular income, and sporadic savings habits.”
."Financial Advisors and What They Do" Posted by MRiles at TNT
.TNT:
MRiles: Essential Questions for a Financial Advisor
By Wendy Connett Updated Jun 25, 2019
Choosing the right financial advisor is, in essence, taking the time to invest in what should be a long-term professional relationship that keeps your financial health and future on the right track. The search should go well beyond referrals from colleagues, friends and family and an emphasis on investment performance.
In fact, investors should dedicate as much effort as they would to finding a medical professional with whom they trust their physical well-being. The right financial advisor will provide the professional help needed to reach long and short-term financial goals.
The following are questions that should be asked when choosing a qualified financial advisor. If they can’t or avoid answering them keep looking.
For advisors, being able to answer these questions may be the difference between whether or not a potential client decides to choose you over a competitor.
.How to Use the Compounding Technique to Reach Success
How to Use the Compounding Technique to Reach Success
By Sim Campbell
Imagine this: a wealthy man gives you two choices. He will gifts you a million dollars in liquid cash right now…or a penny doubled every day for 30 days. Which one would you choose?
“I’d take the million…gimme, gimme, gimme!”
I can see you salivating right now. But…not so fast.
Wouldn’t you rather consider the penny?
“C’mon. It’s just a penny.”
Ah… that’s where you’re wrong.
.15 Personal Finance Rules to Live By
.15 Personal Finance Rules to Live By
The following is a guest post from Marc at VitalDollar.com.
Have you ever wondered what separates those who are successful financially with those who are not? Have you felt like your income should allow you to live a much more comfortable life than what you are experiencing?
Personal finance doesn’t have to be complicated. There are a few basic rules that you should follow, and if you do that, everything else falls into place.
This article covers some of the most basic and most powerful financial rules that should impact your everyday life.
1. Spend Less Than You Earn
Arguably, the most important financial rule is to spend less than you earn. Regardless of how much money you make, it’s impossible to get ahead if you’re spending it all. Even worse, you could be going backward and accumulating debt if you’re spending more than you earn.
.8 Common Causes of Debt — And How to Avoid them
.8 Common Causes of Debt — And How to Avoid them
By Tim Lemke
Debt plagues millions of Americans every day. It is such a common problem that many of us don't even think twice about what we owe, or how we landed in such a predicament.
The simplest explanation is that debt happens when you spend more than you earn. But it's not actually that simple when real life steps in. Unexpected events, bad planning, and even a decision to pursue an education can leave you facing big debt that may take years to pay off.
By understanding some of the main causes of debt, we can make better financial decisions in avoiding it. Let's take a look at some of the worst offenders.
1. Medical expenses
Medical costs have long been one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States. Even those with health insurance are not immune to medical debt. An illness, injury, or health condition can cause bills to quickly accumulate.
.9 Essential Personal Finance Skills to Teach Your Kid
.9 Essential Personal Finance Skills to Teach Your Kid Before They Move Out
By Tim Lemke
Your child is on the verge of moving out and living on their own. Are they prepared?
Arming them with the right personal finance knowledge will give them a strong foundation to go and achieve many of their life goals. If their understanding of personal finance is lacking, they could begin their independent life on the wrong foot (and they may even come back home).
Consider these ways that you can help your child build a base of financial knowledge before they move out.
1. Show Them How To Budget
Perhaps the most important personal finance skill is consistently spending less than you earn. There are a million different ways to budget, and whatever works for you may not work for your child.
.The Flywheel Of Wealth
.The Flywheel Of Wealth
(and the importance of patience)
By Rob Berger September 3 2019
His name is Dave. A retired Naval officer, he’s written two novels and about to publish his third. His books (thrillers in the style of Dan Brown and John Grisham) have been well received and even won awards, yet he’s still a relative unknown in the competitive world of fiction.
Her name is Michal. She’s a residential and commercial painting contractor in central Ohio. She’s a natural artist, a trait she inherited from her father and passed on to her daughter. She’s truly gifted, yet has struggled to grow her young business.
His name is Rob. He wants to achieve financial freedom at a young age. Yet, fresh out of college, he has mountains of debt. He makes a good salary, but most of it goes to paying school loans and everyday expenses. He manages to save and invest $100 a month, but feels like he’s making little progress.
These are all true stories.
.A Basic Skill We Should Have Learned as Kids
.A Basic Skill We Should Have Learned as Kids
By David Cain of Raptitude
The phrase “Don’t get emotional” implies that we normally aren’t.
Most of our news headlines can be interpreted as emotional responses gone overboard, becoming crime, scandal, corruption, greed, and bad policy.
The fact that these reactions are newsworthy seems to reinforce the idea that emotions are sporadic and exceptional, little whirlwinds that appear around significant events, making the odd day or week wonderful or awful.
But if you pay attention to your emotions as you read these headlines, it becomes obvious that even in our most mundane moments — reading the paper on a Monday morning — we are always feeling some way or another. Even a casual glance at a newspaper will begin to stir up familiar feelings like fear, amazement, disgust, admiration or annoyance. We’re never really in “neutral.”
We’re living through emotional reactions all day long, even to events as tiny as hearing a text message arrive, or noticing a fly in the room. Our emotions aren’t always overwhelming us, but they are always affecting us, coloring our perceptions and opinions about ourselves and our world.
This is the “fish in water” effect at work — because we are immersed in our emotions’ effects every moment of our lives, we tend to talk about them only when they’re exceptionally strong.
Even when it’s not obvious, though, emotions are the force behind almost everything we do. They’re the only reason our experiences matter at all. If every event triggered the same emotion, it wouldn’t matter to us whether we got out of bed or not, whether we were sick or healthy, or whether we thrived or starved.
All of our values and morals, all of the meaning we perceive in life, stem from our knowledge that there are some very different ways a person can feel.
.Seven Reasons Making 6 Figures Alone Won’t Make You Wealthy
.Seven Reasons Making 6 Figures Alone Won’t Make You Wealthy
By Michael Budget, Finance
Why Making 6 Figures Won’t Make You Wealthy
Earning a six-figure salary can make building wealth easier, but it’s not a magic solution for your financial woes. Earning a high income is only one part of the equation. If you want to be financially secure, you need to make your money work for you.
A big paycheck can make it easy to gloss over financial mistakes since you can still cover your bills. However, if you want to build wealth rather than an inflated lifestyle, you need to focus on reaching your full financial potential.
Most of the mistakes that six-figure earners make are easy to fix. Here’s how to use that high income to your advantage and build your net worth.
7 Six-Figure Money Mistakes
.Don’t Let Early Retirement Box You Into Stupid Corners
.Don’t Let Early Retirement Box You Into Stupid Corners
By Steve Adcock
How many of you good people have [formally or informally] entered contests to see how little money you can spend during a period of time? Like those “No Spend” months?
If you read enough personal finance material, those money challenges are common. But, I haven’t entered a single one of them.
Not because they’re useless. Not because they are harmful.
It’s because I don’t need to enter a contest to see how much I can scrimp to get by in a certain area of my life.
That’s not the point of early retirement. Or financial independence.
These competitions have a way of “encouraging an assumption” that we need to do certain things or believe in specific philosophies in order to achieve our financial goals.