Let's Talk Money

Oh, the dreaded student loan!  I made a video about some information you should know...

https://www.youtube.com/a-dT6I7Ad3s

I just came back from a vacation this past weekend.  We had soo much fun!  My boyfriend "won" a 3 day, 2 night vacation in Virginia that we decided to take advantage of.  Who wouldn't want a free vacation?!  Well, of course it came with a couple of strings attached.  Here is what I learned:

Enticing You to Arrive
My boyfriend put his information into a sweepstakes to win a 3 day, 2 night vacation at his local Pizza Hut. A few weeks later he recieves a phone call saying that he won! Of course, he was excited and so was I! They explained on the phone that not only did we get the vacation but we also get a $50 Longhorn Steakhouse gift card and 2 vouchers for 2 more 3 day, 2 night vacations. This sounded to good to be true but since we only had to put $75 down as a deposit that we would get back after we listened to a presentation on one of the days, we decided to give it a go. We booked a date and marked it on our calendar.

Targeted Demographics
While I was...

We had a ball (literally) for July 4th!  In my efforts to save money, I decided against the usual cookout for friends and family and spent the day relaxing.  My dad was in town so the boys spent time with their grandpa while I received some much needed down time.  Of course, I wasn't going to spend the whole day without my boys.  Later that night, we went to a baseball game (on the cheap).  This is how I made it happen...

The Tickets
The tickets were gifted to us from one of my grandpa's friends.  They had season tickets and couldn't make the July 4th game (#score)!  I snatched them up quickly (in hindsight, I'm glad I did because it was a sold out game).  It is not everyday you can attend a baseball game for free!  I didn't care where the seats were located!  Fortunately, when we got there, we realized the seats were stellar.  They were front row right behind home base.  It was great for the kids to see how the pitches...

It's heating up outside!  That means you will start seeing more and more yard sales popping up.  I decided to try my hand at yard sales for 3 weekends in the month of June.  I opened it up to family and friends to see what would happen.  I will preface this by saying that this was my first yard sale EVER.  I would always donate everything but being that I am not working, I wanted to see how much I could make.  Over the 3 weekends, I made about $400 just from my sales.  This is what I learned:

Tip 1 - Location, Location, Location
Make sure wherever you are having your yard sale is a high traffic street or area.  My street gets quite a bit of traffic so I figured it would be a good place to set up shop.  Analyze the traffic in your neighborhood.  I used my Ring Doorbell to see how many cars come through on a typical Saturday.  If you do not get a lot of traffic, find a friend whose street does and ask if you can bring...

I think I have been bitten by the Vlogging bug.  I am going to try to record a video a week!  I have fun talking about money and this allows you to see me in my element!  I get so many questions about investing.  To most people, it is uncharted territory so it may be hard to grasp some concepts.  I attempt to break down what you need to know in 7 minutes!  Please let me know what you think!

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I don't believe I finally made a video!  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I believe this was my 5th take!  I don't envy actors and actresses at all!  I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know what you think.  

Also, I left all of the bloopers intact.  LOL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ6lUZ-xMzk&feature=youtu.be

JUST LAUNCHED

I want to feature your questions on my blog, YouTube channel, and podcast.  Submit here and you could be featured!  Let's continue the money talk!

If I had $1 for every person that I talked to that was unhappy at their job I would be a millionaire (ok maybe a thousandaire) but nevertheless we go in day after day usually living paycheck to paycheck.  Recently, I quit my job.  It was abrupt and no, I didn't have another job to go to.  I just wanted a better quality of life for me and my boys.   

A Brief History
If you remember a few posts back (A New Appreciation for Life), I discussed how stressed I was and how my health was starting to suffer as a result. It took me having a practically near death experience to realize that I wasn't making a living, I was making a dying. I was killing myself slowly by giving companies my all and not leaving anything for myself let alone my kids. I was in bad shape. My family could even tell something was wrong. I was no longer my happy, laughing self but just a shell going through the motions. I decided enough was enough and made June 1st my last day. I had had enough...

If you haven’t read my posts Retirement 101 and Retirement 102, I highly recommend starting there first. It will give you a decent foundation on retirement accounts and all of the different options available. Now, I want to focus on the potential pitfalls you could encounter if you are not actively involved in managing your accounts.

1. Not Getting Your Full Company Match - As an HR professional, I saw first-hand how many people do not take full advantage of the company's match. If the company matches up to 6%, you put in at least 6%. If they match up to 3%, you put in at least 3%. If not, you are leaving free money on the table. That money every pay check adds up! Some may say, "but Tiffany, I have debts to pay before I can even think about retirement". Honestly, everyone's situation is a bit different BUT my late grandpa always told me to pay myself first then the bills and other responsibilities after. It doesn't matter how much I think I need the money...

You have options!  As we discussed in the Retirement 101 article, there are many different retirement accounts to choose from when you are planning for the future.  You also probably noticed that I said "available in traditional and roth".  Our next step is to define what those are.  Let's explore the similarities and differences.

Similarities
First, let's cover what's the same between a Roth and a Traditional retirement account.

1. Contribution Limits - Both types of accounts have the same contribution limit.  If you are younger than age 50, that amount is $18,500.  If you are older than age 50 before the end of the calendar year, you are eligible for "catch-up" contributions. This means you can put in up to $6,000 more for a grand total of $24,500 per year.  Keep in mind that your contribution limit is across all accounts so if you have more than one account active make sure that you are not putting in over those limits.  Otherwise,...