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5 reasons hiring a financial adviser might be a mistake
This article is by GRS contributor William Cowie.
Millions rely on financial advisers to do their investing. On the surface, their reasoning seems valid: People feel intimidated by the whole investing thing. It seems like a jungle out there and, to boot, most people know someone who lost it all with bad investments. Others believe they just don’t have enough time to learn about investing or to maintain their investments on an ongoing basis.
The service economy mindset
But it’s not just that people find investing intimidating. We’re accustomed to letting other people perform services for us because we live in what is called “a service economy.”
How to save money each month
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.
Is this the year to focus on saving more? If you’ve been disappointed when you’ve checked out your savings account balance, let’s change that this year!
How much should I be saving?
Actually, advice on the topic of how much you should be saving differs based on who’s giving the advice. At a minimum, most people recommend saving 10 percent of your income. Dave Ramsey recommends saving 15 percent of your income as a good goal. Still others recommend 20 percent. However, no one will complain if you save as much as you possibly can.
For the purpose of this article, let’s focus on 10 percent. And let’s pretend that you’re average, with an average salary, even though you’re anything but average!
Planning the year ahead – 2016
This article is by editor Linda Vergon.
Once again, we ring in the New Year and experience the phenomenon of being connected to everyone else. We’re tied together by the calendar. Even though we lead separate lives and have distinctly different journeys from every other person, we can’t escape the fact that January 1 starts a new year for us all.
Our reaction to the New Year is not necessarily shared, though. For as many that celebrate it, there are countless others that ignore it. Some use the occasion as a point of renewal while others take time to measure progress. It’s a personal decision that should always be honored as a matter of choice.
Springboard to a prosperous 2016
This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.
Ah, New Year’s Eve — a time to wax nostalgic about the past year and think ahead to what you’d like to accomplish in the new year. Here at Get Rich Slowly, we’re proud of the content we brought you in 2015 — and we’re excited to go on exploring the topics of personal finance beyond savings accounts and certificates of deposit in 2016. We’d love to hear what you’d like us to explore in 2016 too; but before the New Year is upon us, let’s look back at some of the highlights from the past year, shall we?
How to handle financial disappointments
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.
Are you glad to see the sun set on 2015?
In the final days of the year, my kids are home on break. It’s fun to spend extra time with them, but many minutes of the day are filled with our older two children fighting with each other. And squished into the half-time show of their fighting games is some whining from a teething 17-month-old.
With the new year coming around again, I’m longing for our routine. And when 2016 actually begins, I’ll be ready for that fresh start.
As we coast to the end of 2015, it’s worth processing the past so we can proceed with the future.
Even if you had an amazing year, I’m sure you felt disappointment along the way. That’s just life. On the flip side, even if it was an awful year, something good must have happened too. But as you consider the year as a whole, are you filled with disappointment?
7 ways financial goals are like dieting
This article is by staff writer Richard Barrington.
Dieting is not a popular topic around the holiday season; but perhaps with caloric temptations everywhere you turn, this is the best time to be thinking about it. Similarly, the holidays are a time of year when people tend to let themselves go financially, so a reminder about financial discipline might also be timely. After all, working toward financial goals is like dieting.
How (and where) to donate unwanted Christmas presents
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.
If you give (or receive) a gift that misses the mark, returning the item is the natural thing to do. After all, return policies are pretty awesome these days.
However, if you decide to make a bigger impact with your gift — an item that you’ve probably survived without just fine for the last year anyway — why not donate it?
Keeping the spirit of Christmas alive
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.
By the time you read this, most likely all that’s left of your neatly wrapped presents are scraps of wrapping paper, crumpled bows, and empty boxes. Hopefully, the kids are playing with their new toys and you’ve been reading an ebook on your new Kindle Paperwhite.
I’ve described a warm and cheery scene, and I hope it feels that way to you — but what if it doesn’t?
Did your gift-giving let you down?
Perhaps this holiday season left you feeling dissatisfied. Nothing you can put your finger on, of course, but something doesn’t feel right. It was nice, but maybe not as nice as you were expecting.
What do you budget for pet travel or care over the holidays?
It used to be quite rare to find a pet in the cabin of a plane; but according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, about 2 million pets are transported by air every year in the U.S. Out of curiosity, I went to a couple websites to see how much it costs to travel with a pet:
- Southwest – $95 per pet carrier
- Delta – $125
- American – $125
- Jet Blue – $100 (non-refundable, but the fee also earns 300 points/segment)
So if your holiday plans include a trip to see family or a well-deserved vacation, you can take Fifi along for another $190 to $250. If you’re staying at a hotel, tack on another $10 to $85/night at a Holiday Inn.
Hypothetically speaking, a family flying with a pet next week could pay an extra $260 to $845 if they stay at a hotel for the week.
Honey progress report: 2015 wrap-up and 2016 goals
This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.
Now is the time of year to look back, celebrate your accomplishments, and set goals for the upcoming year. Sharing those goals publicly — whether in the comments, in the GRS forums, or to your friends and family — can make you feel more accountable. With that being said, here’s how this year stacked up in the Honey/Jake household!
Updated reckoning in chart form: 2012-present
Please note that I consolidated some separate accounts of the same type into one category just for simplicity’s sake.
Additionally, I’ve listed our original reckoning amounts from June 2012 to give an idea of the progress we’ve made.
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