Empowered Planning Blog

Tired of the same heart shaped chocolates on Valentine’s Day? Ready to spice up your relationship? Enter finances. While finances are a leading cause of fights among couples, proactively discussing financial goals can bring couples closer together. Understanding your partner on a deeper level, like their financial values, can open a door to an intimacy that has long lasting impact.

We all have been there. You fall deeply in love. You can stare into each other’s eyes for hours. You can finish each other’s sentences AND sandwiches. But what happens when you float down from the love cloud? Financial transparency and compatibility are accompanied by fidelity. So in addition to the sweet nothings you whisper to your lover this V-Day, spice it up by talking finances.

Here are 3 healthy tips for talking money with your partner.

#1- Set the stage. Randomly asking your partner financial questions can put them on the defensive. We all have money values that are unique to our...

3 Financial Considerations Before You Make The Leap

Whether you’re starting your own business, changing careers or , you may be presented with a bump in pay or the tough choice of taking a step back in salary. Before you take a leap of faith I want to give you 3 financial considerations because hindsight can be 20/20. Don’t worry, I got your back!

Monthly Cash Flow

The first thing to consider is the pay increase or pay cut you’ll be taking. I often hear people say they'll save more money when they're making more money. But more often than not when you start making more money, you find ways to spend it- I'm totally guilty of this! Here are some examples, you move into a nicer place or get the new car you’ve been waiting for so, the list goes on! Any time you have a change in income, it’s a great practice to pause and look at your monthly spending and set guidelines on what you’ll do with this extra income. Click here to find out more...

Financial Wellness 2021: 3 Steps To Saving More This Year

Let’s face it. With technology connecting us to anyone anywhere at any time, it can be challenging to carve out time for ourselves. This behavior can heavily impact how we save for our future financial goals like retirement. Getting a head start on retirement savings in January will increase your financial confidence and you’ll get all the feels because you’re doing something meaningful for yourself! Check out these easy 3 steps to get going:

 Step 1: Review Your Lifestyle Guide aka Spending Plan

If you haven’t established a spending plan yet, check out my Lifestyle Guide. Having clarity on how much you’re spending and where you’re spending will open up your eyes and wallet. Determine how much you can set aside each month towards your retirement account. A golden rule is to save 15% of your pre-tax income towards retirement. Explore what you’re currently doing and make a note of...

I am a huge advocate for making finances part of your overall lifestyle. It’s common for money and investing conversations to be uncomfortable and often accompanied by anxiety. In fact, in a recent survey from Capital One CreditWise, 73% of Americans rank their finances as their number 1 stressor in life!  Let’s buck this trend and start this year off from a place of financial empowerment!

So where do you start? Drumroll please…yup it’s examining your spending. I know I know. Budgeting, boo right? When most people hear the word budgeting, they think boring, restrictive and no thank you. When you know what you spend and where you are spending, you can go after what you truly want from life! What’s sexier than that?!

Going through each month blindly, you can feel out of control or at the mercy of money. Having transparency on where your money is going, you can be intentional about how you spend money and take back control.  A popular and easy...

The global pandemic that hit in 2020 threw me into a whirlwind of emotion and I challenged myself to take a hard look at my relationships, overall lifestyle habits and my financial situation. I quickly found that I wasn’t alone in how I was re-examining my life, my value system and my overall approach to the future. The K-shaped recovery our economy is experiencing has some people high-fiving a fruitful 2020 and others scrambling to find new employment and even a new career altogether. Whatever your situation is, I want to share 5 easy ways to find financial wellness in 2021.

 #1- Raise your financial awareness

You can simply raise your financial awareness by reflecting on how your financial situation panned out in 2020.  You can dive deep into financial situation if that works for you or take a simpler approach, regardless of what you decide, it’s a great time to look at last year through a financial lens. We look to the past not to judge ourselves but to see...

Have you ever dealt with a crazy relative? They complain you haven’t dropped by in a while so you stop by one day after work.  As soon as this crazy relative opens the door she is ranting and raving about how inconvenient this is and your timing is inconsiderate! You’re left feeling like, huh?! That same huh feeling tends to commonly apply to credit scores. There’s a lot of myths out there surrounding what makes up your credit score.  When you don’t know what’s working, it’s easy to be confused about what you should do more of and what you should stay away from. We’ve all heard it in passing, “You should close any credit card you don’t use” or “You should keep all your old credit cards open”. So what’s the right answer?

While there are many considerations when determining your credit score, a major factor is called credit utilization. Let me break this down for you. The credit bureaus are looking...

This is not a glamorous topic, but it is timely.  Covid Season has brought a lot of things front and center and as we gear up for re-entering this new normal, I want to highlight the importance of planning for some worst-case scenarios. Personal finances doesn’t only include you, it includes family or loved ones that would be impacted financially by your passing. This is emotional to consider but you should prepare for the unexpected.  I have included three must have when planning for your family in the event of an untimely death or health event. Use it as a checklist with your family!

1- Beneficiaries

All of your accounts should have beneficiaries named. A beneficiary is someone you declare on a legal document who will be entitled to the money in your accounts / assets upon your passing. You will have to fill out different forms online or by handwritten form, it depends where your accounts are being held.

Check that these are up to date. If you’re already one...

I am a big believe in having systems in place so you can begin to operate your financial life on auto-pilot and make it as simple as possible. But what happens when your income varies each month? Maybe you have a salary but a large portion of your income is bonus type pay or you are self-employed and do a lot of project work so you get paid in chunks throughout the year. The typical Empowered Planning Golden Rules can be difficult to put into practice and can be met with resistance if you are winging it every month.  Fluctuations in income can encourage you to use credit cards to float yourself to the next month and can result in unwanted debt.

The solution for this is to create your own consistency. You can do this by depositing the money you earn into one bank account and then set up bi-weekly transfers into a checking account.

You want to have money readily available as your bills come in each month.

Here’s 3 simple steps to win at this game by creating your...

If you don’t already know me, I am a wife, mother of two little ones, and also the mom of a high maintenance but world’s best dog.  As a mom there’s so many things that happen that I can’t control and I’m always learning how to go with the flow because it doesn’t come naturally to me.

2020 has been a year of uncertainty and change. Covid-19 has changed the way we live and work, the Black Lives Matter movement has increased awareness from every community to do more and has hit pretty hard emotionally. Whatever plans you had for the year have been altered or you’ve been forced to pivot. You’re doing it but you don’t necessarily feel in total control. Many of us are doing things to contribute but change doesn’t happen overnight so there’s still a feeling of not being in control and it can create unnecessary anxiety. I want to share 5 things you can do to take control of your financial life to alleviate some of that...