Posts Tagged: Budgeting

When business gets personal: Your financial runway

Starting a business might be scary, but for those already invested in a venture that’s underperforming, knowing when to pull the plug is by far the more terrifying prospect. To be an entrepreneur, you require a certain amount of blind faith, drive and ambition. At some point in your business venture, and long before you have too much invested though,...

Your Standard of Living Bubble

No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter how much income you earn each year, if your debt is growing, even just a little bit, your lifestyle is not sustainable. Why? Because eventually, that debt will start eroding your lifestyle. Even before you get to that point, you will probably feel stress, or other unpleasant emotions....

Getting rich on small potatoes

Watch your pennies.  It’s not terribly difficult to do, and the pennies, the little things, are usually what add up to big savings over time. I was speaking with a client recently who was introduced to the concept of tracking his daily expenditures. This task of “watching the pennies,” really had him questioning things. “What’s the big deal?” he asked...

Tax refund madness

The urge is typical. You’ve completed your tax return, happily confirming your hope the government owes you a refund. Before you’ve even received your refund in that recognizable brown envelope, it’s likely you’ve already earmarked that money for goodies you want, but haven’t had the chunk of cash to pay for. In the back of your mind though, you know...

Two common budgeting hurdles (and how to clear them)

There are two, very common, hurdles people face when attempting to budget. Unfortunately, these hurdles often go unacknowledged, setting a lot of people up for failure, almost before they even get started. Quite simply, there are two hurdles or speed bumps people encounter with the process: The first challenge is the not-so-simple task of getting started. Unlike starting a diet (which...

Unexpected Expenses, Your Budget’s Worst Nightmare

Unexpected expenses are, hands down, usually the biggest budget breakers out there. (An unexpected expense is anything that you did not foresee or plan for in your budget.) A clinical look at all cash flow for three full months, including all income and expenses, is one of the first exercises we conduct when working with new clients. During this time,...

Emotion: Where Budgeting Misses the Point

A lot of people are under the impression that having a budget, or being able to create a budget, is all they need in order to get ahead of their finances. In reality, this is not the case for most of us. People fail with their finances because money is far more emotional than any budget might suggest. It’s one...

Adult Children and Money: Not Too Old to Learn New Tricks

It feels rewarding to help your children. When your adult children ask for help, they can, no doubt, be difficult to refuse. It might seem natural that you would or should help them reach certain financial goals, but when they approach you for money, you need to be careful. Obviously, every child and every situation is different: When your normally...

This Thing Called Normal

I was told recently about a successful lawyer who wanted to write a book called Broke on Any Budget. He selected this title because, he was broke as a law student; broke as a junior lawyer, and even after he made partner in his law firm, he was still broke. As our careers advance, so does our income. Sadly, we...