Money Milestones
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4 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Robinhood
At this point, it’s pretty safe to say that the stock trading app Robinhood has forever altered the brokerage industry. Not only has the service demystified Wall Street for millions of young investors but has also forced inspired other firms to lower their trade commissions and introduce beginner-friendly features. All the while, Robinhood has made…
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Planning Your Next Money Goal
At times, managing your money can be a bit overwhelming. Even if you feel like you’re generally on a positive path, it can be difficult to know what your next move should be. This is where setting specific financial goals can be extremely helpful — but what goal is right for you? To help you…
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Tips For Maxing Out Your IRA (And Why You Should Before April 15)
Last year, for the first time, my wife and I managed to max out our IRA — something we saw as a major money milestone for us. While I’d love to say that this move was motivated purely by wanting to be prepared for retirement (which of course we do), the truth is that the…
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Emergency Funds: Why You Need One and How You Can Build One
When we think about money milestones, they’re often exciting events such as buying a car or a home. However, one of the biggest money milestones that everyone should strive for might not be very exciting but it could be vital: having an emergency fund. In fact, one could argue that you aren’t really ready to…
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Should You Hire a Financial Advisor?
Over the past year or so, my big financial goal has been to start investing seriously. This journey has taken me from experimenting with stock trading apps to opening a “real” brokerage account and looking to maximize my retirement account options. While I’ve been satisfied with my progress so far, there’s certainly a long way…
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4 Tools I’m Loving as a Newbie Investor
Well, it took me nearly halfway into the year but I have finally met my 2019 goal: get started with investing. To be clear, this actually isn’t my only investment experience as I’ve had 401(k)s and IRAs in the past as well as purchased a few individuals company shares with Robinhood, but only recently have…
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Rewarding Credit Cards: 3 Cards We Use (and 2 We Have Our Eyes On)
Dave Ramsey hates credit cards. I say this as someone who’s never actually listened to a full episode of his show, but I’ve heard his position on plastic again and again from various articles either agreeing or disagreeing with him. Personally, while I understand why someone like him who speaks to millions of Americans at…
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#FinHealthMatters: The Biggest Financial Lessons I’ve Learned
Today, April 25th, is #FinHealthMatters Day. I was first introduced to this “holiday” last year when the Center For Financial Services Innovation brought it to my attention via a FinCon contest. Five-hundred, twenty-five thousand, six-hundred minutes later, I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot more about personal finance in just one year’s time. Moreover,…
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Pros and Cons of FinTech Brokerage Options
I’ll admit that, once upon a time, I too thought you needed to be pretty wealthy in order to start trading stocks and actively investing your money. Then came the FinTech revolution, bringing (among many other things) a slew of apps that looked to lower the barrier of entry for investing. Some of these startups…
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Two Big Ways to Master Your Money and Live the Life You Want
I suppose my work life has always been kind of strange. Sure, the whole movie theatre management job wasn’t that out there (although getting paid to screen movies is fairly unique), but I ended up leaving that job and becoming a paid extra in films and TV shows for several years after that. It was…
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Next Steps in Investing: Playing the Long Game and Choosing the Best Options
During this past year, I finally started investing. Well, let me rephrase that — I started investing aside from a 401(k) or IRA. After dabbling a bit with Acorns, I started investing directly in individual stocks using Robinhood (and recently earning free stocks via Bumped). However, as 2019 gets underway, I’ve been thinking about upping…
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Life Insurance: What to Consider When Looking for Coverage
On this site, we’ve discussed a number of what I’ve called “money milestones” that tend to be celebratory achievements. We’ve also covered the benefits of several different types of insurance ranging from the popular (namely health and auto insurances) to the underutilized (like renters insurance). Well, today I wanted to look at a milestone that…