Manage Your Financial Life

Nancy Doyle

10 Posts Back Home
Nancy Doyle, CFA, is an author, speaker, and advocate for financial literacy. She has thirty years of experience in wealth management, investments, corporate finance, and consulting. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and received an MBA from University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Financial Caregiver: Understanding Your Role

Good to Know

As our population ages and our financial lives become increasingly complex, financial caregivers are more common. Defining and understanding what the role entails is important. Have you been asked to serve as a financial caregiver? Are you considering asking someone to serve as a financial caregiver for you or a loved one? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov) offers four free guides explaining what it means to serve as a trustee, power of attorney, guardian of property, and a government fiduciary (for Social Security and VA benefits.) A common trait of these types of financial caregivers is that they involve a fiduciary duty. These four guides explain fiduciary duty and offer helpful suggestions on how best to serve in these roles. Guides for Different Types of Financial Caregivers

Keep Reading

Innovation: Convenience and Risk

Analyze Finances

Thanks to innovation, the way we manage our financial lives has changed.  Advances in financial technology, or Fintech, save time and allow us to be more connected, more informed consumers. But the innovations have also introduced new risks and exposures. With time, your financial accounts will grow, and so will the potential losses from identity theft and fraud. Review your credit report regularly. You can download your free report and search for errors or indications of fraud at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you will not be in the market for a new loan soon, it is possible to freeze or lock your credit profile to reduce the chance of identity theft. In that case, you need to contact each of the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Here is a link to learn more. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs If you receive a suspicious email, text, or voicemail that appears to come from your credit…

Keep Reading

Benefits of Dollar Cost Averaging

Save and Invest

When markets are turbulent, many ask if it is time to stop saving and investing.  The practice of saving and investing consistently has numerous benefits. The amount you save is not as important as getting into the habit of putting money aside on a regular basis. Automatic savings plans, which you can use to build an emergency reserve or save for a down payment, graduate school, or retirement, are a relatively painless way to save. You can set up an automatic transfer from your bank on the day you get paid, a practice known as “paying yourself first.” Investing a fixed-dollar amount at set intervals is called dollar-cost averaging. An advantage of these automatic plans is that you invest the same dollar amount every time. When markets are weak, or asset values have fallen, the same dollar amount will allow you to buy more shares of a mutual fund or a stock than when markets…

Keep Reading

Financial Credentials Matter: Which Are Most Important

Educate Yourself

In recent years, the number of financial credentials has risen dramatically. It is important to note that the quality and usefulness vary. If you are choosing to work with a financial professional, you should understand what these credentials mean. The prestige of certifications and designations and their usefulness to clients varies considerably. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, has a designation lookup feature on its website, https://www.finra.org/investors/professional-designations. The tool is very helpful, especially because you can compare different designations side by side. FINRA does not endorse or recommend any of these designations. The list of designations on the FINRA website is extensive.  Currently, there are more than 200 listed. How do you determine which are the most meaningful? Look up what is required to achieve and maintain the various designations. If you need help with retirement planning, what are the prerequisites for becoming a Certified Retirement Financial Advisor (CRFA),…

Keep Reading

Take Advantage of Retirement Plan Matches

Save and Invest

When it comes to planning and saving for retirement, you must be consistent and save and invest every year. You also must be disciplined. Once you invest the money for retirement you cannot touch it. Because of the power of compounding investment returns, contributing to your retirement every year and allowing it to grow are the keys to building your nest egg. It is easier to put money away when you are young than when you have a mortgage or a family to take care of. Many of those that are just starting out in the work force, however, face substantial headwinds: hefty student loan payments and high—and in some cases sky-high—housing costs. Even with a tight budget, saving for the future must be a priority. Start saving for retirement through your employer as soon as possible and take advantage of corporate matches. Corporate matches are free money that help…

Keep Reading

Time is Your Friend – The Power of Compounding

Educate Yourself

Especially when you are just starting out, time is your friend. It is important to save and invest every year and leave your money to grow. Consistency and discipline are key to your long-term financial well-being. Market returns and the power of compounding allow you to build your nest egg nicely over time. I have heard people refer to it as “The magic of compounding.” Personally, I don’t like the term “magic.” Magic implies something mystical beyond our comprehension. Rather than “magic,” compounding is just math – incredibly powerful math – but it is just math. Compounding means that there is growth on the growth. For example, an investment of $100 that appreciates 7 percent will be worth $107 at the end of the first year. If the investment grows 7% percent again in the second year, the return would be 7 percent on $107 or $7.49. 7% growth on…

Keep Reading

Safe Ways to Keep Track of Your Passwords

Essential Home Office

As we conduct more of our financial lives online, the number of passwords we have—and need to keep track of—has exploded. As with other areas of your financial life, your passwords need to be secure. If you write them on paper, keep the list out of sight and away from your computer. Think about using a passphrase that will be easy for you to remember. The longer a password or passphrase you use, the harder it is to crack. Consider using a password management service, which stores your passwords securely online. You enter all your passwords into the service’s website. When you log in to a site, you enter a master password rather than entering your log-in and password for each website you visit. The sites will flag any of your passwords that are not secure and suggest you revise them. If you have a partner, a password management service…

Keep Reading

Tackling Your Credit Card Debts

Analyze Finances

There are different approaches to tackling your credit card debts. The best approach for you depends on your individual situation. Start by listing the outstanding balance for each debt, along with the minimum payment due and available credit line. For each outstanding debt, you must pay the minimum balance due every month. To achieve your goal of digging out of debt, you must find additional cash every month – by cutting back on day-to-day expenses or finding ways to earn extra income – and apply that cash toward your debts. The main difference between these approaches is the order in which you tackle your various debts. Start with the Smallest Debt Balance Some recommend that you focus first on the smallest outstanding balance (Debt A). After paying the minimum balance due on each of your debts, apply any extra money to Debt A until it’s paid off. Once that debt…

Keep Reading

Market Turmoil and Diversification

Educate Yourself

The saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies to investments, because concentration increases risk. Whether you invest your money yourself or work with a professional, never put all your assets in the same basket—the same kind of stock, bond, mutual fund, or other investment. In addition to avoiding concentration, diversification is key to improving investment results. Various asset classes, or types of investments, tend to perform differently under certain market conditions. Some perform better, and some perform worse, depending on what is going on with the economy and financial markets. The best investment strategy is to have a diverse portfolio that includes a mixture of stocks, bonds, and international investments. Diversification across asset classes helps reduce risk; correlation illustrates this benefit. Correlation measures how things, such as investment returns, move in relation to each other. Some asset class returns are more correlated than others. Say you invest in a…

Keep Reading

Time for a Financial Spring Cleaning

Get Organized

Spring is the perfect time to clear out our home offices. I like to call it a financial spring cleaning. Just like when you go through your closet or food pantry to determine what to keep, what to donate, and what to toss, you need to do the same with your financial life. Perhaps even more important than what you keep is what you can shred, recycle, or delete. Keeping unnecessary documents and statements makes it harder to locate important information in a hurry. Most of us waste a lot of time trying to find things on our computer and amidst our papers. Getting rid of unnecessary documents frees up precious space in your file drawer and on your hard drive. Keep both a recycle bin and a shredding bin near your desk or wherever you pay bills or go through mail. Shred or delete monthly statements once you receive…

Keep Reading
Navigate