In the fall of 2017, my doctor changed my life by demanding I quit lying to myself. And over the last year, I’ve learned to be honest when I look in the mirror, better understand my priorities and hopefully discovered a valuable lesson about our financial lives. I went to see my doctor for heartburn […]
The ability to save money is one of the many skills one must learn in order to become financially successful, and one of the most difficult. Moody’s Analytics analyzed different demographics and determined that savings rates increase as we age. Sadly, according to their data, only one age group saves between ten and fifteen percent […]
It’s the holiday shopping season, when many Region residents often find themselves reaching for the plastic at malls and shopping centers. Northwest Indiana residents are carrying between $2,100 and $2,900 in credit card debt on average, a new study by the personal finance startup SmartAsset found. Residents in Lake County carry $2,468 in credit card […]
Whether you are 26 or 56, if you clicked on this article it probably means you are at some stage of retirement planning. As you read the title, you might have thought: “Hmm. I’m pretty sure I’ve thought through everything for my retirement plan. Let me think through my list: How much money should I be […]
Retirement may seem like a faraway goal, especially if you still have a few decades left before you can even think about leaving your job. That can make it challenging to save, because it’s tough to tell whether you’re on the right track. It’s particularly difficult because everyone has a different goal, so you can’t […]
The doom and gloom around retirement seems endless: workers aren’t saving enough, their employers aren’t providing generous enough benefits and stand ready to can them even when those workers will need to work longer, and Social Security will run dry and lead to terrifying benefit cuts. Oh, and we all individually have nothing to look […]
Americans expect to have a quarter of a million dollars saved by retirement, according to a 2018 survey from Provision Living. In an ideal world, though, the 2,000 survey respondents said they would want decidedly more: an average of about $610,000. Unfortunately, that may not be enough: Depending on where you live, you could blow […]
Since the end of September, the stock market has been undergoing some of the worst corrective action in a very long time. We saw some sharp dips back in February and March but the recovery was quick and the pain of the pullback did not linger. The current correction has been much more grueling, not […]
Have goals and a plan Jim had been working diligently for many years. He’d even worked his way to a six-figure income. But when he went over his personal net worth statement with his financial coach, there wasn’t much to write home about. How could that be? When they dug into the details, though, it […]
Millennials generally aren’t known for being strong savers. Often, they’re critiqued for blowing their minimal earnings on things like gadgets, overpriced socks, and gourmet brunch. But it looks like a large group of younger adults are about to make a very smart decision this holiday season. An estimated 35% of millennials say they plan to […]
Though Americans don’t get many vacation days to begin with, at least compared to workers in other nations, we’re collectively pretty bad about using them up. In fact, more than half of U.S. employees left unused vacation days on the table in 2017, thereby foregoing billions in lost benefits. And while some folks avoid taking […]
Have you ever stood at an ice cream counter and felt torn between the prospect of vanilla versus chocolate, all the while holding up the line while you contemplate your choices? Some of us are naturally better at making decisions than others, but while relatively inconsequential choices, like the outfit we’ll wear or the restaurant […]
