As a mother of two daughters who love all things Disney, we were excited to see the new Cinderella movie. The girls loved it, and I appreciated the opportunity to have the “Prince Charming” discussion with them. Like most fairy tales of good and evil, the lead female or princess is always a damsel in distress who needs to be saved. Only after Prince Charming rescues her, is she able
View Blog...
Editor’s Note: Tanya from Eat Laugh Purr is getting Financially Real with us and sharing how gender expectations influenced her money beliefs. I consider myself to be a modern woman as do most woman today, whatever their age may be. We’ve been taught to think for ourselves, be independent and value our worth. To be #bossy like Beyonce and conquer all. We are also very much a product of gender
View Blog...
Let’s get REAL. Money is emotional. The decisions you make right now around money are driven in part by emotional needs, whether you realize it or not. I see it every day with my clients as I teach them to let their goals guide their decisions, rather than let their emotions fuel their need to compete, keep up or feel good about themselves. However, my greatest lessons around emotions and
View Blog...
When my father started his money lessons with me when I was a teenager, he wanted to help me become emotionally competent when handling my money. In other words, he wanted me to be aware of how my emotions affected my money decisions. His lessons started my journey towards financial literacy, but the prize is not financial freedom as many of you would assume. The true reward is finding your
View Blog...
The Heavy Purse underwent a makeover this weekend to coincide with a new focus. I love it and hope you do too! As I mentioned back in January, I’ve made the decision to broaden my scope beyond raising financially confident kids to help you become Financially Real. Don’t worry — I’m still going to provide plenty of tips on children and money! But I’m also going to help you get
View Blog...
While conventional wisdom suggests that an overly large tax refund isn’t ideal since you’ve been giving the government an interest-free loan, many people still eagerly anticipate getting a big refund every year. Thanks, in large part, to their dreams about how they are going to spend it, because in their mind, it’s free money.
View Blog...
Over the last few weeks, I have hopefully helped you gain a better understanding of taxes, why you should care about them (beyond your annual tax filing!) and how you can lower your taxable income. During this time, I’ve received lots of questions about taxes, and I am going to dedicate this week to answering the most popular questions. Start at the Beginning Before I do, I want to highlight
View Blog...
My good friend, Shannon, from Financially Blonde invited us to celebrate our favorite female bloggers as part of Women’s History Month. It’s an honor to recognize such a smart, savvy and fun group of bloggers who inspire me and I consider to be friends, even though we’ve never met face-to-face.
View Blog...
One of the tax questions I get most often is about retirement plans. Our expectations to what retirement will look like varies from person-to-person, but overall most expect to lead an active life for 20-30 years in retirement, which requires a significant amount of savings. During my 23 years in practice, I have seen fewer pension plans every year. Employers have moved from defined benefit plans (pensions) to defined contribution
View Blog...
SHANNON RYAN, CFP®