financial planning

Whether you're a seasoned investor or new to the game, you'll want to make a conscious effort to avoid these three common investment mistakes:

These are the obstacles we all face in trying to achieve our financial goals:

Personal finance, like just about everything else, is mainly common sense. Advice like “don’t spend more than you make; start investing while you’re young; don’t loan money to friends with the expectation of getting it back,” have been around for generations, and most likely will survive the next few generations as well. Even money mistakes that are corrected early enough will have little impact on your wealth going forward.  What you do want to avoid are money mistakes that can be hard to recover from.

While owning a home is the quintessential American dream, not everyone is able to purchase a home when they desire. If you’re fresh out of school with a boat load of student debt, it’s probably best to wait until you’ve been working for at least a year before you start looking to buy. You’ll also want to make sure that your credit score is where it should be, since the higher your score, the lower your interest rate will be. It’s also important to pull a copy of your credit report prior to contacting any mortgage companies; examining it in minute detail to ensure that everything is correct. If you do find an error, dispute it with the credit bureau immediately and keep the documentation.

Wise moves to make before things are finalized.

Before your divorce goes through, it would be wise to check up on financial matters. It would be better to assess the state of your financial life before the split rather than after.

In a recent survey by JumpStart Coalition for Financial Literacy, only 26 percent of those between the ages of 13-21 said that they had been taught how to manage money. Yet, when they turn 18, kids are signing contracts for student loans, opening credit card accounts, and in many instances, living away from home with little financial guidance available.

Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked financial questions.  

Is your garage overflowing with bank statements and paid bills from ten years ago?  Are you unsure about what documents need to be retained and what can be tossed? Speaking of tossing, what documents can be tossed in the trash, and which should be shredded?  Are you wanting to finally get control of your documents?

Fall is a good time to assess where you stand and where you could be.

You need not wait for 2019 to plan improvements to your finances. You can begin now. The last few months of 2018 give you a prime time to examine critical areas of your budget, your credit, and your investments.