Wellness

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  Family

  Embracing the Financial Challenges of Entrepreneurship

  I’m a young entrepreneur. It sounds so cool, right? At one point or the other, I’ve heard a ton of people talk about how much they’d also love to be their own boss and how they dream of making it on their own like I am.

  Then I mention the non-steady pay, crazy hours (I’m writing this article at 9:10 pm on a weekday), and general uneasiness that you have financially for the first few years of being out on your own, and they instantly go back to loving their day job again.

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  Family

  Three Questions

  I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside numerous smart, interesting people from diverse backgrounds in my time at Haven Life. Mark Sayre’s take on life insurance in the LBGT community and Greg Johnson’s thoughts on planning for your own funeral, are among my favorite points of views we’ve shared on the blog.

  Working for a life insurance company forces you to consider mortality and take stock of life in a way that can be unexpected. It’s made me curious about how different people view big questions in life, such as aging and life decisions. Instead of wondering, I went ahead and asked some of our friends.

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  Family

  Thinking of Going to Grad School? You Might Need Life Insurance

  Whether you’ve recently graduated or have been in the workforce for years, at some point, you may be thinking of going to grad school.

  Grad school can be a great next step to boost your career or try your hand at something else. The only problem? Grad school can cost a pretty penny. I should know — I took out an additional $58,000 in student loans for my master’s degree, which helped me fulfill my dream of going to NYU.

  If you’re thinking of going to grad school, you’re probably aware that you may have to take on student loans to make your dreams a reality. When you’re young and single, those student loans usually aren’t a consideration for anyone but yourself (unless you needed a co-signer to get them.) But, if you’re married and taking out student loans, you’re potentially taking on a debt burden that would impact your spouse and children.

  If you’re single with a loan co-signer or married with children and taking on debt, did you know that you might need life insurance?

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  Family

  Think You Want to Work For Yourself? Here’s What You Should Consider.

  There can be huge perks to being a full-time independent contractor: You set your own schedule. You decide what work you do and don’t want to do. You often make more money – and in some cases can really blow off the ceiling of your potential earnings.

  However, before joining the land of the 1099 employees (1099 = the tax form you’ll be getting instead of a W2), make sure you’ve thought through the following five changes that will be coming your way, so you don’t get caught off guard or under prepared.

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  Family

  Could You Find $400 For An Emergency?

  In a recent article published by The Atlantic, The Secret Shame of the Middle-Class Americans, an alarming statistic emerged from a Federal Reserve Board survey conducted in 2013. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said they could not come up with $400 to pay for an emergency. In order to do so, they’d need to borrow money or sell items they own.

  Why aren’t we saving enough money to cover even the smallest emergencies?

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  Family

  Disassembling The Financial Puzzle After My Separation

  Recently, my husband and I decided to separate after fourteen years together, eight of them as a married couple. Matt and I met at 18 years old and immediately fell for each other in our freshman year of college. We never looked back because we knew we’d make great life partners. And, we have been great life partners for the half of our lives we’ve been together.

  But, we’ve started down different paths, which has made us both question and yearn for our identity as individuals. This decision has been bittersweet for us both, but I’m trying to be as optimistic as possible about the future.

  Just our life together took many years to create and build, there are now lots of puzzle pieces that need to come apart. The obvious ones are things like finding a new place for Matt to live, figuring out a schedule to each spend time with our three-year-old, and separating our joint bank accounts.

  Now that some of the dust has settled, we’re starting to think about additional, long-term details that need sorting out as we move forward with our lives as individuals.

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  Family

  Money Decisions to Make Once You Tie the Knot

  There are a million and one decisions to make once you decide to get married. And, with wedding season upon us, I’m getting a lot of questions from clients on how to financially prepare for a future together.

  When you get married, you want to start your shared life together on the right financial foot. (As an aside, that’s not by maxing out your budget or depleting savings on a wedding.) Most people are so involved with wedding planning that they put off having necessary money conversations that always arise after you tie the knot. If I’m honest, even as a financial planner, I still had some money fears after saying “I Do.”

  Based on my years working as a financial planner (AKA a marriage financial therapist) and personal experience, there are six major money decisions you must make in order to set you and your spouse up for financial success.

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  Family

  Achieving the Dream of Financial Independence

  In April 2014, my husband and I made the radical decision to save enough money to quit our conventional 9-to-5 existence and move to a homestead in the woods of Vermont.

  This dream stems from our shared love of hiking and the outdoors. We’re happiest when we’re in nature and want the ability to do that every day. The plan is to accomplish this dream by fall 2017.

  Up until that watershed decision, we’d followed a fairly standard path: we went to college, secured jobs, got married, traveled, bought a home, and adopted a dog. We were living ‘the American Dream.’

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  Wellness | Life Hacks

  Our Team Shares Their Favorite Apps

  We live in a technology driven world. Our computers, phones, tablets and apps make our lives a lot easier and more organized… at least when we’re using these tools effectively.

  Our team has a few apps that we can’t imagine our day-to-day lives without.

  Have you tried any of these?

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  Family

  Let’s Start Openly Talking About Money

  Americans aren’t known for shying away from hot button conversations. From the constant political spin on 24-hour news stations to our obsession with celebrities and reality television, we pour ourselves into current events, ongoing controversies, and people’s lives. And, we have strong opinions on them.

  We seek endless advice and validation on raising children, arguments we have with friends, and which new restaurant we should try. But our openness knows boundaries because, for some reason, most conversations grind to a screeching halt when someone gets close to approaching the topic of money.

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