Manage Your Financial Life

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To create a realistic plan or establish spending guidelines, you must start with an analysis of how you actually spend your money now. Explore the blog articles below for helpful advice during this stage of life.

Creating an ICE – In Case of Emergency – File & Plan

Essential Home Office

An In Case of Emergency, or ICE, File and Plan includes vital contact, financial, and legal information. These tools are invaluable during a crisis—just like a roadmap of your financial life. This is especially true when someone must act on your behalf. Pulling together your ICE File and ICE Plan takes some effort. As with all emergency preparation, this groundwork is most effective if it is in place before an emergency happens. Moreover, you need to discuss the File and Plan with your key person(s) – executor, power of attorney, or someone you trust implicitly to help handle your financial affairs. These safeguards are not useful unless someone knows that they exist and how to access them. You may think that your financial profile is simple. Walking through this exercise ensures that your bases are covered. Moreover, with time, your life—and your financial life—will evolve and become more complex. Life…

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Evaluating Risk: How to Underwrite Yourself

Analyze Finances

Underwriting is what banks or insurance companies do when they evaluate risks associated with lending money or providing an insurance policy. To underwrite yourself, you need to take a close and honest look at your finances, ask yourself some questions, consider uncertainties and exposures, and evaluate your risk profile on many fronts. Analyze Your Sources of Income The first consideration is your income. Ask yourself these questions: Is your salary steady or variable? Do you rely on commissions or bonuses? Do you work in a cyclical industry? If your compensation is variable, you should not carry a lot of debt. Likewise, you should make sure to have an ample cash reserve. Evaluate Your Debt When you are thinking of buying a big item, consider if you can actually afford the item, not just whether or not you can afford the payment. Commit to paying off your credit card balances every…

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In Case of Emergency Plan

Get Organized

My In Case of Emergency (ICE) Plan will be very helpful if someone needs to step in and help you manage your financial affairs in the event of an emergency. At the same time, going through the exercise of preparing an ICE Plan also helps you be more organized and engaged in managing your financial life on an day-to-day basis. Attached is an example of an ICE Plan. Click on the link below. ICE Plan Example

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Financial Advice For Women In Various Stages of Life

Family Office Approach

It was an honor to be part of the Evanston Literary Festival. I discussed managing your finances through life transitions. I was the first of three female authors featured that day as part of Piven Theatre’s Women’s Voices Project, a year-long initiative in tandem with Piven’s 45th anniversary. They noted that the financial advice found in my book as a “comprehensive resource invaluable–and you find yourself coming back to it again and again.”  Read the full review below. Nancy Doyle: Manage Your Financial Life Is it time to take control of your financial life? Nancy Doyle offers an objective and straightforward perspective based on a wealth of professional and personal experience. In Manage Your Financial Life: A Thoughtful, Organized Approach for Women, she shares a practical and easy-to-understand system for getting organized, analyzing your financial profile, educating yourself about investing, and putting your money to work. Whether you’re going through a transition–parenthood, home…

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Life Events That Could Bankrupt You. Are You Prepared?

Family Office Approach

Cameron Huddleston published a piece entitled “7 Emergencies That Could Bankrupt You — And How to Plan” on www.gobankingrates.com. I’m quoted. Most Americans are financially unprepared for an emergency. Whatever the type, emergencies can have a profound impact on your finances. There are steps you can take to prepare for the unexpected—whatever that may be. Check out the full post below.

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Manage Your Financial Life Book Interview on WGN Radio

Get Organized

Steve Bertrand of the Wintrust Business Lunch on WGN’s 720 featured me to discuss my book. It’s practical advice for anyone but I’m really focused on women. Check out the transcript from my segment below. Steve Bertrand: This is the Wintrust Business Lunch on 720 WGN. Nancy Doyle is in the studio. She has a book called Manage Your Financial Life: A Thoughtful Organized Approach. Now the last two words Nancy are “For Women”. And welcome. Nancy Doyle: Thank you, glad to be here. Steve Bertrand: I’m here to argue with you though, that it doesn’t have to be just for women because I think this is the sort of stuff that we all of us should be paying attention to. Nancy Doyle: That’s true. The book really applies to both men and women. But for many reasons, I’ve decided to write it for women. Steve Bertrand: Because they’re smart…

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Financial Tip: Prioritize Building an Emergency Fund

Save and Invest

I was recently quoted in a blog published by US News on the importance of establishing an Emergency Fund. Investing your money starts with establishing your savings goals. Revisiting your savings goals is a great resolution for 2017. Prioritize your savings goals based on the different time horizons — near-term, long-term, and intermediate-term.  Establishing an emergency fund should be a top near-term goal.

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Financial Tip: How to Effectively Plan in Case of Emergency

Get Organized

Readers Digest quoted me on how to effectively plan in case of emergency. Emergency situations are challenging enough. Being organized in terms of your financial affairs can help to alleviate some of the stress. I recommend that everyone create an ICE – in case of emergency – file and plan. An ICE file contains important documents that are easily accessible to you or to someone acting on your behalf. An ICE plan includes key contacts and financial account information. Check out the full article below.

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Read the Wall Street Journal

Educate Yourself

A woman in my community received an MBA from the same school that I attended. She graduated with distinction thirty years before me, one of only six women in her class. (My business school class was 25% women.) She has had a successful career and has made a point of advising younger women to read the front page of the Wall Street Journal every day. It is important to keep up with national and world events, but also to be informed about the most important business and financial news of the day.

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