2018 is all about taking a step by step approach every month to improve your finances, and bringing you closer to achieving financial independence. Your first, and most important step, is to develop a financial plan. Already have a financial plan? Then January is the perfect time to review it and make adjustments, if necessary. The 3 Ms of FI I coined the phrase “3Ms of FI” to help simplify the mindset necessary to achieve financial independence. The 3Ms are the foundation fo

You missed out on the gold rush (I’m assuming you weren’t around in the mid-1800s), and now you’re worried you might miss the Bitcoin rush too. There are many reasons people own Bitcoin. At the purest level, it is to have a decentralized form of currency that can’t be manipulated or politicized. This article isn’t about that. This article focuses on owning Bitcoin as a form of investment. Is it right for you and where do you begin? Join The FI Woman mailing list Bitcoin Retur

Happy new year! Be honest; have you already broken one or two new year’s resolutions, even though it’s only the second week of 2017? Or, like me, have you stopped making new year resolutions altogether? Regardless of where you fall, it’s time to look ahead to how you’re going to win 2017 financially. Here are 3 simple things to get you started Join The FI Woman mailing list Step One: Go deep and change your mindset about money: if you think having a nest egg or retiring comfo

Although a million dollars today doesn’t buy all that it used to, it is still worth targetting. Here are three things you must do to get the ball rolling: 1. Put your cash in the right place and start early There are two things you can do with your money; spend it or save it. As a would-be millionaire next door, it is a given that you live below your means, and you are not frivolous with your cash. So what exactly are you doing with the money you are not spending? Do you have

When it comes to financial success, a good financial plan and setting goals are essential. However, once you have a plan and goals, how do you determine which ones to tackle first? How do you prioritize? I suggest using the FI Woman™ Financial Priority Pyramid shown below. Budgeting A good budget is truly the foundation for financial success, and could set the tone for all the other financial decisions that you make. Knowing your cash influx (income), and how much cash you sp

The NFL off-season is ending and there is a lot of discussion around building new stadiums and moving teams to other cities. Have you ever wondered how these stadiums are funded? If your guess is, “out of the pockets of the billionaire owners”, sorry, guess again! Enter Municipal Bonds. What are Municipal (Muni) Bonds? You already know that a bond is a debt instrument issued by an entity (corporation or government) to the bondholder (Investor). A municipal bond is a type of b

Real property ownership (land, buildings, immovable property), and the collection of rents for income is as old as time. Owning land and real estate has long been a staple of wealth generation, and a symbol of wealth that was reserved for Kings and other royalty. Of course, it’s 2015 and real property ownership is no longer reserved for blue bloods, but it still remains a staple of wealth generation. A Bloomberg study found that most Americans, approximately 60 percent, have

I got a pedicure the other day, and after including a tip, the total came to $40. I probably get a pedicure once a month in the summer (almost never in the winter) and I rarely get manicures, but spas and nail shops are usually busy year round. That got me thinking. The average cost of a Mani-Pedi is $50, and the average frequency is twice a month. That is $100 a month on Mani-Pedis. Within a one mile radius of where I got my pedicure, there were four other nail shops. It is

It may surprise you to find that some of the common metrics used by creditors to evaluate your financial health are similar to the ones investors use to evaluate a company’s financial health. For this post I’ll talk about credit score vs. bond rating. Credit Score (Us) vs. Bond Rating (Company) You may not know your current credit score, but I am certain you know what a credit score is since it is used in almost every aspect of adult life; from renting a place, to buying a ca

The second quarter of 2015 is well underway. At the end of the first quarter (January 1 – March 31, 2015), the S&P 500 closed at 2067.89 (+0.5%), the NASDAQ closed at 4900.88 (+3.7%) and the Dow closed at 17776.12 (-0.3%). Not a very stellar first quarter! How did you fare in the first quarter? Do you know how your portfolio performed? Is your financial plan going as expected? Is there a need to adjust, or is it ok the way it is? Most of us are past the frenzy of the new year

My previous blog topics got right to the meat of the stock market, what it was doing, and what you should be doing based on what happened in the stock market the previous week. Not a bad approach, but I want to switch things up and focus less on the market and more on you and what you should be doing to take control of your financial future. For the readers who love the technical aspect of what is moving the market and how the market performed, not to fear, I will still have

What happened this week? For the week ending on Friday February 13, 2015 the Dow (DJIA – green/blue line) closed at 18,019.35 (+1.5%), the NASDAQ (orange line) closed at 4,893.84 (+3.25%), and the S&P 500 (red line) closed at 2,096.99 (+2.25%). Graph courtesy of Fidelity Investments. Feb 9, 2015 to Feb 13, 2015. The U.S. stock market ended the week on a positive note for the second week in a row and the S&P 500 and Dow reached new highs. The stock market was driven to new hig