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Financial Resolutions for 2020

By on January 1, 2020

Let me start out by wishing you a Happy New Year!  There’s no better time to think about your financial resolutions for the coming year than January.  This gives you the full twelve months to pursue these objectives.

401(k) Plan.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, fully funding your 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plan is my top financial recommendation for the new year.  And why wouldn’t it be?  It’s a tax-deferred investment which decreases your income and therefore decreases the taxes that you owe.  Also, many employers match your contribution, so not investing up to their maximum match just leaves money on the table.  In 2020, the contribution limit increases from $19,000 to $19,500 per person.  Additionally, the catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and over who participate in these plans is increased from $6,000 to $6,500.

IRA Plans.  The limit on annual contributions to an IRA remains unchanged at $6,000. The catch-up contribution limit for individuals aged 50 and over remains at $1,000.  For many of us, this is another good way to reduce our taxes and increase our retirement savings.

Unused Services.  What better way to increase your income than to not spend money on things you really don’t use.  Start out the new year by inventorying the services you’ve signed up for – especially those that are on automatic payments.  You can learn more about this by reading A Hidden Expense: Subscription Services.

Planning for the Loss of Your Spouse.  Since we don’t know when our spouse might die or become incapacitated, I strongly recommend that people prepare for this now rather than later.  Check out Financial Preparation for the Loss of a Spouse to get some ideas on this.

Reduce Credit Card Debt.  You may know that credit card debt carries one of the highest interest rates of any type of loan.  So, a great resolution is to really try to eliminate your credit card debt this year.  A previous article, Another Reason to Eliminate Credit Card Debt, will give you some ideas on this.

Save for College.  Sure, the kids are still little, but college is expensive and it’s so helpful to start saving as early as you can.  You can get some ideas on this by reading Saving for College.

Review Insurance.  It’s a great idea to review your insurance coverage to be sure you’re properly protected.  Is your total life insurance adequate?  Does your home owners insurance cover the current (appreciated) value?  Should you look into some type of long term care protection?

Portfolio Diversification.  It’s important to check your portfolio diversification at least annually.  It is likely that some sectors grew more last year than others and your target investment profile may be off.  This can increase your investment risk as you’ll be too susceptible to market changes.

Rainy Day & Emergency Funds.  These are the very liquid investments you need to cover future surprise expenses.  While you don’t know exactly what they will be, you are pretty certain that they will occur.  Check out this article for some tips on setting up this important investment.

Review Your Budget.  Hopefully you’re using some form of budgeting to manage your expenses.  January is a terrific time to see how you deviated from last year’s budget and to adjust your goals for the coming year.

I hope that this list of financial resolutions has given you some ideas for your 2020 goals.  If you’d like some additional help with any financial questions that you may have, please visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 so that we can discuss your situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Financial Preparation for the Loss of a Spouse

By on December 1, 2019

You can lose your spouse in a number of unpredictable ways.  Certainly death is a certainty at some point, but incapacitation and divorce are other examples of the loss of a spouse.  The effect of such a loss on you is magnified if your spouse handled many of your financial matters on his or her own.

It’s really advisable to begin preparing for this loss now.  Even if you’re young, such losses can occur at any time in life.  I typically recommend that spouses have a monthly meeting to review finances.  Hopefully that ensures that both spouses have a reasonable idea of their affairs if something were to happen.   You can prepare for such meetings by thinking about the things that your spouse takes care of and that you’d have a hard time picking up if he or she suddenly died.  You might also read a previous article on this topic to help you generate some ideas.  Some common things to talk about are listed below.  As you begin sharing information, it’s important to somehow capture it in a printed or electronic format.  Be sure that both of you know where this information is kept and that you also alert your executor in the event you both die at the same time.

Professional Help.  First, if you have professionals who know your situation, go to them to get all the help they can provide.  Not only can they fill in some of your knowledge gaps, but they can also partially protect you from making poor decisions while your judgment is clouded with grief.  Such professionals can include your financial advisor, your tax professional, your estate attorney and your spouse’s executor (although for many couples, this may be you).

Assets.  Not only is this generally useful information, but you’ll need immediate access to cash to pay bills and meet other financial requirements.  This part of the conversation includes such things as where the assets are, what the ownership arrangements are (joint tenants in common, individual ownership, etc.) and access information (such as passwords for online accounts).

Bills.  It’s good to have an understanding of routine bills and how they’re paid.  This may include bills that are automatically paid out of a checking account or by a credit card.  If these things are not jointly owned, they may stop working.  Also, credit card information needs to be updated from time to time to account for things such a new expiration date.

Life Insurance.  You should file for benefits so that they’ll be paid out in a timely manner.

Social Security.  Contact Social Security promptly so that they can make the necessary benefits adjustment.  It will help to know your spouse’s Social Security number when doing this.

Health Insurance.  Contact your provider promptly to eliminate payments that are no longer required for your spouse.  If you’re on Medicare, contact them and also contact your supplemental insurance provider if you have an Advantage or similar enhanced insurance plan.

Safe Deposit Box.  Often, many important documents are kept here and it’s a good place to check early on.  If you don’t both have access to your safe deposit boxes, you should correct that to avoid having them sealed during probate.  This might be a good place to keep the original copies of your wills and powers of attorney.  Also your home deed/mortgage, car titles and other important documents could be centralized and protected in your safe deposit box.

Wills and Medical and Financial Powers of Attorney.  For many couples, the surviving spouse has the powers of attorney and becomes the executor at the time of death.  These documents should be in a known location that can be accessed by both spouses.  Some couples use the safe deposit box for this and others prefer to keep such documents in a safe location at home.  Some do both.

If it’s hard to find the time to get started on this, just imagine your situation if you lost your spouse tomorrow.  What are some of the things you’d have trouble handling on your own?  If you’d like some help thinking about this very important topic, we’d be happy to help you think this through. Please visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 so that we can discuss this important topic in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Commission-Free Investments

By on November 1, 2019

You may know that Guidepost Financial Planning uses TD Ameritrade as its broker.  They execute your trades, hold your securities and provide insurance on your investments.  They’ve always been a low-cost brokerage house, but a couple of weeks ago they eliminated base commissions for online exchange-listed U.S. stock, ETF (domestic and Canadian), and option trades—moving from $6.95 to $0.00. (Option trades will now have only a $0.65 per contract fee with no exercise or assignment fees.)  This is actually an industry trend.  Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers led the way on this with TD Ameritrade following suit one week later.  Fidelity and E*TRADE are expected to eliminate commissions too.

How much will this mean to you?  Well, it depends on your portfolio and the frequency of your trades, but you can get a feel for the total dollars involved when you learn that TD Ameritrade previously derived about 15% of its revenue from commissions — and dollars that don’t go into their pockets stay in yours!

Zero-commission ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) make a lot of sense.  Examples include Vanguard ETFs and SPDR ETFs. For many investors, ETFs are an important part of their portfolio.  They’re basically baskets of assets (like mutual funds) that are traded exactly like stocks (unlike mutual funds).  No commission is certainly a good thing for investors, but don’t forget that ETFs have various other fees (similar to mutual funds, but generally lower).  These fees vary, so it’s important to understand them when picking a specific ETF.

These non-commission expenses still need to be scrutinized to maximize the return on your investments.  If you’d like some help thinking about the best way to benefit from the new commission-free structure, we’d be happy to help you think this through. Please visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 so that we can discuss this important topic in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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2019 End-of-Year Financial Planning

By on October 1, 2019

Is it really time to think about the end of the year?  Well, there are only three months left and there’s the question of whether you really want to try to jam financial planning in with Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So, maybe it’s a good time to think about end-of-year financial planning.  Here are a few of the more common things you might want to consider.

401(k) Plan.  If you participate in a 401(k) plan, it’s a good idea to see if you’re on track to maximize your savings.  If your employer has matching funds, that should be your minimum goal for the year.  Contribute enough to rake in every free dollar that your employer is willing to give you.  If your budget allows, it’s a great idea to contribute the maximum amount allowed by law to your plan.  In 2019 that’s $19,000.

Capital Gains.  If you have realized capital gains this year, the associated taxation can be reduced by up to $3,000 by selling some of your losses.  (There’s also a carry-forward provision that lets you deduct up to a $9,000 loss at $3,000 annually over three years.)

RMDs.  Have you taken your Required Minimum Distributions for the year?  If you’re 70½ or older, you must make these withdrawals by the end of the year or face a 50% tax on the amount you failed to withdraw.  If you’re younger, but have an inherited IRA (also called a stretch IRA), you’re also subject to these rules.

Charitable Donations.  If you itemize your deductions, charitable contributions are a wonderful way to reduce your tax bill.  If you’re subject to an RMD, we suggest that you directly transfer money from your IRAs to get the deduction and to avoid capital gains on the transfer!

HSAs.  If you have a Health Savings Account, try and fund it to the allowed maximum.  This is $3,500 for an individual and $7,000 for a family.  If you’re 75 or older, an individual can add an additional $1,000 and a family can add $2,000.  HSAs can carry over from year to year, so fully funding them each year makes sense.  It may be that your employer contributes to your HAS fund, so be sure to check on that.  Finally, if your health insurance does not qualify for an HSA, be sure to consider an FSA (Flexible Savings Account).

529 Plan.  If you’re using a 529 plan to save for a family member’s college expenses, don’t forget to make your desired contribution in order to benefit from in-state tax deductions.  (For grandkids, don’t forget that you can gift up to $15,000 per year tax free.)

IRA.  If you’re still working, try to contribute as much as possible to an IRA.  2019 contribution limits are $6,000 if you’re under 50 and $7,000 if you’re 50 or older.  Generally it’s advisable to make a contribution to a traditional IRA if your income level allows your contribution to be made using pre-tax dollars.  If you’re earning too much for that, you can still contribute to a traditional IRA using after-tax dollars and then convert it to a Roth IRA for future tax-free distributions.

You can see that there are quite a few things to consider before the end of the year.  Some of them involve IRS rules that must be strictly followed.  If you’d like some help applying these ideas to your personal situation, we’d be happy to help you think this through. Please visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 so that we can discuss this important topic in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Reducing Your Monthly Mortgage Payment

By on September 1, 2019

Who wouldn’t want to reduce their monthly mortgage cost?  This article reviews two ways that you may be able to accomplish this:  getting a lower rate and eliminating your PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance).

You may have read that the Treasury yields have been dropping.  The 10-year rate began 2019 at 2.66% and had dropped to 1.52% in late August.  This might matter to you because mortgage rates are tied to this bond rate.  So, as the 10-year Treasury rate drops, so do mortgage rates.  The average 30-year fixed mortgage began the year at about 4.7%.  In late August, it was around 3.85%.  This reminds us that it’s a good time to check the cost of our current mortgage.  You might be able to decrease your monthly loan payment and save significantly over the life of the loan.  The details of how to evaluate refinancing were covered in a previous article (Should I Refinance My Home?) and I encourage you to reread it as the fundamentals remain the same.

You may not be quite as familiar with Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).  It’s an insurance policy that helps to protect your mortgage provider if you default on your loan.  These institutions have figured out that if they have to seize your property and if you home equity value isn’t at least 78% of the loan amount, they might lose money.  Their solution is to protect themselves with insurance.  PMI payments add between 0.55% and 2.25% to your monthly mortgage payment.  And guess who pays for this insurance – correct, it’s you.

If homes have appreciated in recent years where you live, the appreciation will have increased your home equity and that may put you closer to the magic 78% threshold.  Let’s take an example to clarify this.  Suppose you bought a home for $380,000 in Fort Collins back in 2014 with a down payment of $20,000.  So your loan amount was $360,000.  360,000/380,000 is about 95% — not yet below the magic 78% threshold.  If your loan was taken out at a 5% rate, your loan balance is now about $326,000.  That loan results in a loan-to-value (LTV) of about 86% (326,000/380,000).  Still not down to 78%…  Fear not, your home has appreciated during this 5-year period.  The average annual appreciation rate from 2014-2018 in Fort Collins was 9.54%.  So appreciation increased your home’s value to almost $600,000.  LTV is now 326,000/600,000 or about 54%.  Bingo, you no longer need PMI!  All you’ll need to do is get a current appraisal when you refinance.

Hopefully you can see that it’s worth evaluating a new loan for your home.  A lower rate and the elimination of PMI payments can significantly reduce your monthly housing costs.  There are quite a few important details in evaluating your personal situation and we’d be happy to help you think this through. Please visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 so that we can discuss this important topic in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Monthly Payments Add Up

By on August 1, 2019

It can be so tempting to finance a new purchase.  Rather than pay out a decent amount of cash at the time of purchase, it can feel better to pay over time.  Retailers offer such plans because they know we’re susceptible to their allure.

The issue with financing is it’s just too easy to inadvertently commit to a number of monthly payments that collectively make it difficult to meet your other financial requirements and goals.  Such payments often become somewhat invisible when they’re scheduled as auto-payments.  (Indeed, some advisors refer to this as the automatic-payment trap.)  Additionally, there’s normally either an interest charge or you may forego a lower price in order to get an attractive interest rate.

Generally, I recommend paying cash for purchases.  This forces each of us to delay purchasing things we really can’t afford at the moment.  Examples of what we should pay cash for include furniture, electronics, RVs, a second home, a remodeling project, appliances and so forth.  Naturally there are a few things that we must have and that are just too expensive to purchase outright.  A new home is a classic example of this.  A car is often another example. (In the case of a car, keep the loan period to four years or less.  Also, you may get a better price on the vehicle if you decline their financing – at least until the price of the car is agreed upon.)  Finally, you might be asking, but how about unplanned emergencies such as a medical problem, a broken appliance or some needed car repairs?  Such expenses are unpredictable in terms of timing, but they’re very predictable in terms of their likelihood of happening at some point in time.  A recent article helps you prepare for such expenses without the need to finance them.

If you have questions about how to avoid the automatic-payment trap, or have other financial questions, we’d be pleased to discuss your particular situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.  Just visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 to learn more.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Rainy Day & Emergency Funds

By on July 1, 2019

Could your car need repairs?  Might your water heater go out?  Is it possible you might lose your job during a corporate reorganization?  Sure they can.  Wouldn’t you like to reduce your stress and avoid going into debt by being ready for the unexpected?  Fortunately, there are two financial planning tools to help you deal with life’s surprises.

The first is a rainy day fund.  It’s used for those lower-cost items that are likely to occur, but whose timing is uncertain.  Car repairs and appliance replacements are examples of this.  Medical co-pays, roof repairs and other such expense fall into this category too.  The amount you should have in such a fund depends on your lifestyle, expense history and other personal characteristics.  Experts often say you should have at least $1,000-$2,000 in this fund.

The second is an emergency fund.  It’s used for those higher-cost items that may or may not occur.  Job loss is the classic example of this.  An unexpected surgery would be another example.  Experts often recommend having 3-6 months of monthly expenses put aside.  (If you don’t track your expenses, a good approximation is 3-6 months of your take-home pay.)

Recognizing the importance of these two funds is one thing, but saving for them can be a different matter.  Funding these objectives is like saving for anything else.  The main thing is to get started.  Then think about how long you want to wait to reach your savings objectives and how much you can free up from your current cash flow.  These funds are important enough that they should not be funded if there’s anything left over at the end of the month.  Rather, they should be treated as a normal monthly expense.  If you have an actual budget, add a line item for each fund so they’re in your plan.

You should invest these funds into something that’s very liquid since you’ll probably need the money quickly once the unexpected occurs.  Higher-interest savings accounts (such as online savings) are good choices here.  CDs are not a good choice due to the early-withdrawal penalties.  You should have separate accounts for each of these two funds and not co-mingle them with each other or with other savings.  It’s best to have a monthly contribution for each account taken from your paycheck automatically.  In addition to your regular deposits, unplanned sources of money should be directed towards these goals.  A raise, an inheritance and a tax refund are examples of such windfall income.

If you’d like some help figuring out how much to put in each fund and how to do it, or have other financial questions, we’d be pleased to discuss your particular situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.  Just visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 to learn more.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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A Hidden Expense: Subscription Services

By on June 1, 2019

Are there any of us who don’t subscribe to a number of subscription services, probably not.  Just think about it.  Do you have a cell phone plan, do you subscribe to Netflix or Amazon Prime.  Many of us do.  And the companies love you for doing so.  Companies call this annuity-based or recurring revenue.  It just means you are paying them regularly (often monthly) without any sales effort on their part.  Not a bad deal – for them.

A recent Waterstone Management Group study found that its respondents spent $237/month on average for subscriptions.  They also found that 84% of those surveyed underestimated their monthly subscription costs.  The first observation is that we spend serious money on subscriptions — $2,844 per year on average.  (That’s about $37,000 over ten years assuming a 5% interest rate.)  Secondly, most of us do not monitor this expense category and so it’s quite possible that we are paying for things we no longer need or are paying too much for services that we do want.

Now certain monthly expenses may be exactly what you want – cell phones, Wi-Fi, TV and movie services, music streaming and so forth.  But even in these cases, do you monitor the charges from time to time?  Comcast is famous for increasing your charges without notice once your discounted agreement expires.  New cell phone plans are frequently coming on the market and they might save you money.

Other plans might be more discretionary and should be examined from time to time (at least annually) to be sure they’re still worth it.  This might include digital magazines, free-shipping services (part of Amazon Prime), dating services, travel site subscriptions and so forth.

Here’s an approach to controlling these expenses that often proves useful.  First, be thoughtful in signing up for new services.  Anytime you’re asked for credit card information for a free subscription, you can bet it will be extended after the free period and often you won’t be notified that you’re now paying.  Also, some companies make it very difficult to cancel subscriptions once they’re initiated.

Second, examine your subscription expenses from time to time (at least annually).  There are tools to help you do this such as AskTrim.com, ClarityMoney.com and Truebill.com.  One thing to watch if you go this route is that many tools get access to your credit card and/or banking account in order to get the data to analyze things.  Perhaps you don’t want to give them such access and would rather review your own statements.  During your review, ask yourself questions like do I still get value out of each service; has the cost of the service increased without my knowledge; are there cheaper ways to get a similar service now?

Keeping tabs on your expenses is an important part of managing your finances.  If you’d like some help reviewing your subscription or other expenses, or have other financial questions, we’d be pleased to discuss your particular situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.  Just visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 to learn more.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Dealing with Debt

By on May 1, 2019

Did you know that 77% of Americans carry some amount of debt?  Now part of that is to be expected.  For most of us, we simply can’t purchase a home without borrowing.  However, a 2018 Northwestern Mutual study showed that, exclusive of mortgages, average household debt is $38,000.  Credit card debt makes up the largest part of that followed by student loans and then car loans.

Debt can be a real financial drain.  The Northwestern Mutual study found that 20% of those with debt had to contribute 50-100% of their income towards debt repayment!  Okay, so how do folks dig out once they find themselves with significant debt?

Well, the first thing to do is to stop making things worse.  You must stop adding to debt in order to have a chance at eliminating the debt you already have.  In addition, you want to avoid the large penalty charges by making the minimum monthly payment on all of your debts.  This seems so obvious, but in practice many of us continue to rack up more and more debt.

After you’ve stopped the bleeding, there are two proven techniques for retiring your existing debt.  In approach one, you simply enter all of your debts into a spreadsheet.  Have the spreadsheet calculate total monthly interest payments (loan balance times the interest rate).  Then you retire the loans as fast as circumstance s permit from highest interest payment to lowest.  Note that as each debt is retired, the minimum payment that you’d been making for that debt can be added to your monthly debt-reduction amount.  For example, suppose you find a way to apply $500/month to debt reduction.  And suppose the minimum monthly payment for the debt you just retired was $55/month.  Once it’s paid off, you now have $555/month available to retire the remaining debts.  As you continue paying off debts, the amount available for debt reduction continues to increase.  This result has been called the Snowball Effect.

In the second approach, you make a list of all you debts as you did in the first approach.    This time you order them from smallest amount owed to largest.  Then you pay them off in that order, adding the retired debt payments to the new loan.  The Snowball Effect still applies.

Which approach is best for you?  That depends on your personal circumstances and psychology.  Approach one minimizes your overall interest expenses, but approach two gives you some early wins that motivate a lot of us to keep at it.  A rule of thumb that I like is to use approach two for the smaller debts that can be retired in 6-12 months.  For the bigger debts, approach one is often the way to go.

If you’d like some help figuring out how best to retire your debts, or have any other financial questions, we’d be pleased to discuss your particular situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.  Just visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 to learn more.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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Talking Money with Your Partner

By on April 1, 2019

Whether you’re married, living together or in some other type of committed relationship, it’s important to have good communications about relationship issues.  This might include how to parent the kids, life goals, finances and so on.  In many surveys, money is included in the list of topics that can be difficult for couples.  For example, marriage.com lists money as the number two reason for divorce.

Okay, so it’s important, how should we approach it?  Well, the answer to that is as varied as we are, but there are some approaches that are often successful.

For starters, try a financial date.  Yep, set aside some time when the two of you are alone and relaxed.  If one of you isn’t a morning person, then don’t try it then.  If you’ve set a date and one of you had a terrible day, reschedule your date.  You might want to talk over brunch or just get together at home.  And don’t expect to align your financial thinking in just one session.  I recommend that couples have a meeting about finances at least monthly.  (More frequently if circumstances require it – such as an upcoming large expenditure.)

The keys to having this conversation are the same principles used for any effective communications.  Approach things seeking to understand your partner’s feelings about money and don’t criticize them or attempt to change them.  Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, describes this as seek first to understand and then to be understood.  You’ve probably heard another principle from the 7 Habits — seek a win-win solution.  That is, employ understanding and compromise to search for financial goals that are shared.  (You may not know that Stephen actually said seek a win-win or no-deal solution.  Basically, he means don’t barge ahead with a plan that isn’t agreeable to both people.)

There are lots of ways to start these conversations, but often it involves talking about the future you want together.  The financial aspect of obtaining this future comes after agreeing on what your shared future looks like.  If your spouse is having trouble getting started on this, you can easily kick things off.  Simply ask them if they could change one thing in how you handle money, what would it be?  In addition, it’s often useful and fun to associate some kind of reward with getting started.  Maybe go out for a nice meal, see a movie that’s been on your list or do something else that’s a treat for both of you.

It’s not uncommon to identify some money matters that are tricky to work through.  For example, one of you may want to spend more on enjoying life now and the other may feel better by saving more money for the future.  There are two key guides to working through this.  First, spend some time understanding why your partner feels the way they do.  Was it because of how their family of origin handled money or maybe something else?  Second, keep in mind that even when people start out with opposing positions, there is normally considerable middle ground to explore.

After these high-empathy, goal-alignment conversations, you can get down to the nitty gritty.  What’s a basic budget look like?  Can you set up automatic deposits to move towards significant financial goals such as buying your first home?

If, after your best efforts, you’re still struggling a bit with this (or any other) aspect of your financial life, we’d be pleased to discuss your particular situation in a no-charge, no-obligation initial meeting.  Just visit our website or give us a call at 970.419.8212 to learn more.

This article is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide tax or investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products.  Please consult your tax or investment advisor for specific advice.

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