#personal-finance

#personal-finance

Your $45K starting salary looked decent on paper until reality hit. The reality is that's the same $15/hour everyone was making in 2008. And it sucked then. Rent swallows half your paycheck before you even think about groceries. Student loans demand their monthly tribute like a financial overlord. And that emergency fund your parents keep mentioning? Please. This isn't an avocado toast issue. This is a laptop is required to function at work... even apply to work... issue.

But there's something about putting pen to paper that helps mentally solidify your intentions. And when it comes to growing financially, having a budget is critically important. That includes itemizing your assets, liabilities (e.g., expenses) and income. That income should include your present pay from working, but could also include potential future sources like Social Security benefirts, pensions, investments, and retirement accounts.

Emma Jackson didn't have much money growing up - but that didn't stop her from buying her first home at age 25 and saving enough to pay off the mortgage two years later. The British blogger told Business Insider that, growing up, she was aware her parents were in financial difficulty after they had bad mortgage advice that left them in debt. She and her brothers started contributing to the household once they could, which helped her focus on being "really savvy" with money.

After graduation, I scrambled to get my real estate license because I literally had no idea what else to do. I could pass the state exams, and broker tests... But I felt like a complete fraud trying to advise people on the biggest financial decision of their lives when the biggest financial decision of my new career was the exam filing fees.

Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it can make life a lot easier. That's the view of Simran Kaur, a financial educator and investor who hosts the "Friends That Invest" podcast. In an episode this week, Kaur spoke about money "myths," including the notion that money can't buy happiness. Having more money doesn't necessarily improve emotional well-being or happiness, she said, it just helps to solve inconveniences.

I retired at 34 in 2012, and my wife retired a few years later at 35 in 2015. We've been mainly living off our passive income and investments since. In 2023, I bought an expensive home I didn't need, becoming house-rich and cash-poor. Buying this house affected our desired lifestyle in San Francisco. As a family of four with two children, we had less liquid or passive income, which made me feel quite uneasy.

As for their overall budget breakdown, the family is paying $2,150 for their mortgage and utility bills, $180 for cell phones, $1,400 for both health and car insurance, spending an average of $800 per month on groceries, and approximately $200 per month on dining out. Now add to this $850 in car loans, $250 for gas every month, plus another $2,200 across 401(k), kids' college expenses, property taxes, and sports activities, and it's clear that this family is barely able to survive.

"What I've always found valuable about a checkbook register is that it helps you keep a close eye on your money and know exactly what's in your account, not just what your bank shows online," says Julie Beckham, financial education officer at Rockland Trust. "Your balance on a website or app may not include pending transactions, automatic payments, or checks that haven't cleared, which can make it easy to spend money you don't actually have."

For this Redditor, they are looking at a scenario where they have a 2.75% mortgage with approximately $500,000 left on the balance. This is equivalent to a $3,400 monthly payment on a house that is currently worth around $850,000. Having bought the house seven years ago for $715,000, this isn't a ton of growth, given what other areas of the country have done. This fact aside, the family has no other debt and has around $1 million sitting in retirement and non-retirement accounts.

Unemployed at the start of the pandemic, Ms. Pennick returned to Chicago and lived with her mother. She landed a job and saved diligently for a down payment, always planning to return to New York. This city is the place where I can be my authentic self, she said. Plus, my friends and church home are here. I am of the New York or nowhere' ilk.

Just because you make a six-figure annual income doesn't mean you should blow it. Indeed, we've heard countless stories about high-earning folks who still manage to live paycheck to paycheck. Lifestyle creep, big splurges (perhaps to deal with being burnt out at the office), and a lack of budgeting are all factors to blame for high-earning individuals who can't quite seem to get ahead financially.

I don't know if it's something I should bring up with them or not At 30, my friends are all in different places with our finances. Some are buying houses, getting married, having kids, moving up in their careers. Others are living paycheque to paycheque or haven't moved out of the family home yet. I fall somewhere in between, and make a decent enough living.

Young professionals working in a range of industries may feel like they've "made it" when the cross over into the six-figure threshold. Making $100,000 per year has been a goal many have set out to attain, and it can take some time in certain industries to hit this target. But with approximately one-fifth of the U.S. population earning this much money, and the number of six-figure earners living paycheck to paycheck surging, this sum isn't what it once was.

A lot of people say that's too much and a lot of people say it's not enough,

Welcome toMoney Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We're asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period - and we're tracking every last dollar.Today: a psychiatric nurse practitioner who makes $166,000 per year and who spends some of her money this week on a post-surgery Uber. Editor's Note and Content Flag: This is a follow-up diary.

"You're a little bit early in your process. Not in your age-but in your process. You're in the middle of transitional things that need to happen before you start investing."

'It was the first thing I would think about when I woke up. You keep looking for clothes in the same way someone might keep drinking because they haven't quite reached the point of escapism they were hoping to reach.'

"I feel trapped working, but I can't stop working," Lydia says, sitting up to cuddle her basset hound, Brigette. Her husband, Bill, gives her a kiss but lets her be.

Dave Ramsey criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, stating there is 'nothing' impactful in it for homeowners, urging individuals to take their financial matters into their own hands.

The generational transfer of nearly $124 trillion in assets over 25 years will profoundly impact families, advisers, businesses, and every segment of the financial industry.

Switching to a 2% flat-rate, unlimited cash back credit card can offer substantial savings compared to the typical 1.5% cash back card, depending on spending.

It may not be the best time to make your pitch, but you, too, are suffering. You can always ask for a gas allowance.

Your caregiver, who understands the challenges you face navigating a world that is often not accommodating, thinks that you don't have the right to be peeved about this?