- The Finance Gourmet

Achieving Financial Independence Is About More Than Money

January 23, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Financial independence is a topic that has gained increasing attention in recent years. The ability to live life on your own terms, free from the constraints of financial stress and dependence on others, is something that many people strive for. Add that to an internet full of people living the financially independent dream, or at least pretending to, and the idea that being born rich isn’t the only path to financial independence and you have a sizable movement. But achieving financial independence is not just about having money, it’s about having the freedom to live life on your terms. How To Achieve Financial Independence Tl:dr – Live below your means. Invest the difference. Keep doing it until you are financially independent. The first step in achieving financial independence is to set clear financial goals. This means identifying what you want to achieve financially and creating a plan to get there. Setting financial goals is essential because it gives you something to work towards and helps you stay focused and motivated, not what everyone else is trying to accomplish. One key goal to consider when working towards financial independence is creating an emergency fund. An emergency fund is a savings account …

Did Americans Really Lose $900 Billion in The Recession

October 3, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Anyone who has been online for more than a day or two knows that the way to get clicks is to have a big, shouting, headline. One popular search engine optimization (SEO) plugin won’t give your title a passing score until it has “a positive or negative sentiment.” Ideally, it also contains a number and a “power word.” Is it any wonder then that financial news headlines scream things like, “Americans Have Lost $900 Billion Since…” or “America’s Richest Tech Billionaires Have Lost $315 Billion In the Past Year?” How Do You Actually Lose Money When the Stock Market Crashes? Let’s talk about investing and losing money. First, we are going to talk about net worth and how much equity you have in your home. It’s for a good reason, I promise. Your net worth is the value of all of your assets minus all of your liabilities. The key word there is all. If your car is worth $15,000 and you owe $8,000 that counts as $9,000 of your net worth. Even that ping pong table in the basement that is worth $50 counts towards your net worth. As you can imagine, this goes off the rails quickly. The …

You Can Do It Personal Finance

August 30, 2021 by Finance Gourmet

Can you really do it? Sure, but probably not the way you’re reading about in that personal finance tips article. Real Do It Yourself Personal Finance I’m going to be honest. As a professional financial advisor and Certified Financial Planner for several years, I never helped anyone quit their job to pursue their passion, or side business. I helped plenty of people retire, but who kept working at something smaller, easier, or better liked. I could have helped someone do that, but that isn’t actually why people come to financial planners, or at least that’s not why people who are willing to pay for professional advice come to financial planners. The trick to financial planning is that it is all about achieving long-term financial goals. Long-term. That’s the catch. A lot of people are not interested in long-term. They want to get rich quick, but there is a problem. After a few decades of various get rich quick schemes being pedaled around, most people in their prime working years no longer believe in get rich quick. For them, it’s about get successful quick by retiring early, or passive income, or quitting to start their own business. The thing is though, …

New Biden Covid Student Loan Help

February 16, 2021 by Finance Gourmet

A whole lot of Covid financial relief protections were scheduled to end in December. As expected, some of those money helping tweaks have been extended in 2021. For example, the Biden administration recently extended the mortgage foreclosure moratorium and forbearance protections. Student Loan Relief Flexibility On January 20, 2021, various student loan relief measures were extended through September 30, 2021. Student Loan Interest Rate Set to Zero Most federally owned student loans have had their interest rate set to zero percent during the pandemic. This continues through September 30, 2021. The zero percent interest rate is pared with student loan payment suspension. Technically called administrative forbearance, student loan payment suspension allows borrowers to skip student loan payments without late payment penalties, or any other negative effects. If you have lost your job, or are having other financial difficulties during the Covid pandemic, then this is a useful way to help save some money for use toward other things. Is Acorns safe? However, if you are not having financial difficulties, and are still getting your normal paycheck from your job, this is an excellent opportunity to improve your overall financial health. Although your loan administrator will automatically place your student loans …