Personal Finance

Money Insights to Help You Achieve Your Goals

You can follow me on YouTube or check out my articles on this site. (note as of 10/23/24 I am in the middle of a website update and I won’t be creating new finance content for a bit.)

Finding Good Financial Advice

Your finances are important. But I am sure you know that. So, I won’t waste your time telling you all the great things your money will help you do. Instead, let’s chat about why it is important to get your information about money from reputable sources.

With the creation of the internet, it has made learning about money so much easier. When I first started, I had to go to the library to look up information on stocks I wanted to buy. Then we added social media. Making it even easier.  But…..

That also made it easier for the scammers, and those that really don’t know what they are talking about to show up and appear as experts. And the last thing you want to do is make bad money decisions or even give it away because of something you found online.

So how do you tell take advantage of all the amazing benefits of the internet and still protect your money?

Here are my tips on avoiding internet finance scammers:

• Have multiple teachers. This is for two reasons. First, personal finance is a BIG subject. One person simply can’t teach you everything. I can help you with stocks, but you don’t want me to do a deep dive into bonds. It’s simply not my area – and one where I personally use index funds for investing. Second, the more teachers you have the more ideas you are exposed to. Thus, it leads you to begin to figure out for yourself who is faking it.
• Watch out for anyone giving you specific “hot” tips. What might be a great investment for someone else, might be horrible for you. Do your own research on what is right for you.
• What is the person’s experience. This is very important. They don’t necessarily need to be formally trained in finance, but they do need to have some history if they don’t. Our markets haven’t had a longer-term downturn since 2008. Our Covid blip was short, too short to qualify for experience. So, think about that. Someone who started investing in 2010, has over a decade of experience, but has not faced a prolonged market downturn. (Side note, the market and the economy are two different things. We have had an economic downturn since 2008 but the market has not had a downturn longer than a couple months before skyrocketing back up.)
• If ever in doubt hire a professional financial advisor to help you out. It is better to spend money to get advice than to take bad free advice and lose everything. Not that there isn’t bad paid advice, so ask for referrals from people you trust.

Why Me?

So, what is my background? After all I just said be careful who you listen to.

Experience

I bought my first stock in 6th grade and never looked back. My undergrad is in finance, and I have my MBA. I have to “lie” about my experience on most risk forms from financial companies, because they have built in calculations on how much experience you are “supposed” to have. Most 6^th graders aren’t picking out stocks.

I consider a fun afternoon listening to Warren Buffet or listening to the Fed Chairman talk. Followed by some light financial statement readning.

Wanna come hang out with me? 😂

Education Only

I only teach, share experience and help you unwind destructive financial behaviors. You cannot hire me to give you specific financial advice. So, what I teach is authentically based on helping you learn. And make good decisions for yourself.

Lots of Research

I don’t share what I don’t understand. I take the time to make sure I completely understand it. If I don’t feel like I can adequately answer your questions or give you good solid advice – I send you to someone who can. Example: I studied and experimented with options for five years before starting to talk about how to use them.

Speaking of Education & Research…

Personal Finance Books I Love

Beginners Books for Money Management

The Richest Man in Babylon – I believe this book should be required reading in school. It is easy to read with many great lessons in it. Read it yourself if you haven’t and if you have kids, have them read it.

Your Money Your Life by Vicki Robin – I just found this book a couple years ago and it perfectly summed up what my money beliefs have been for a long time. It was very motivating and has fantastic tips. This might be the number one book I recommend after The Richest Man in Babylon. And this book is the reason I won’t write a broad personal finance book. My text would say – “What she said!” 

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley – while this is an older book, and the data might not be exact anymore. I do think this is highly motivating. And teaches you what your mindset needs to be. One of the biggest parts of money management is your own emotions and behaviors. This book can help you learn successful tools for this.

Investing Books

The Most Important Thing– I love this book. While reading it I was constantly saying “yes, yes, yes”. The second version that has the Illuminated in the title has additional side comments from others. While this is nice, it does also make the book harder to read. So, I would say you could go with either version and be good.  (He does have a newsletter he writes, and it is fantastic if you want ongoing education. You can sign up on his website to be emailed.)

Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – this is an advance book but if you are up to tackle it, it is good for learning how to understand why the markets can catch you off guard.

Every Woman Should Know Her Options by Laurie Itkin – I have taken undergraduate and graduate courses in options trading.  It wasn’t until I read this book and worked one-on-one with Laurie that it all clicked! If you are interested in learning about options start with her. And guys – you can read this book too!

Overcome Money Blocks Resources

Wanna know what the most common hurdle that you need to overcome in managing your money? 

Limiting beliefs. 

And unfortunately, it can be one of the hardest things to figure out. Our limiting beliefs tend to hide and build themselves into layers. Here are some resources to help you figure them out!

Articles

How to Identify Limiting Beliefs

Better Understand & Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind

Tools

One of the fastest ways to get past limiting beliefs is to use EFT Tapping. I love it for figuring out both the exact issue. And eliminating the belief all at once! My routine is to journal on what the issue is and then tap to help me release that problem.

New to tapping? I have an article on how to learn tapping right here.

I also recommend Brad Yates’s Money Tapping Classes. He is a fantastic teacher and makes everything easy. I have taken this course and found it very helpful in understanding money blocks. You can check out his program here.

My Personal Finance Articles

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