How To Simplify Your Finances

Keep it simple, Sam or Sally! How do you KISS your complicated financial life good-bye? When I was younger and working as an accountant, I used to dream about being a sophisticated financial person. I wanted to have a complicated tax return, because I felt that meant I had a great life. Be careful what you wish for because later in life I had a complicated financial life and began to think about what could do to change it.

Simple may not be sexy and may not turn heads, but it can give you something more valuable: peace of mind. It can put you head and shoulders ahead of your peers. In this week’s episode, we share ways that you can simplify your finances.

Here’s What You’ll Find Out in this Episode:

• The three rules you should live by to keep your financial life simple
• The difference between simple and minimalism
• Why every dollar you have should have a purpose
• How investing can be simple
• The importance of making sure your asset allocation accurately reflects who you are
• Why you should create a consistent and systemic savings plan
• How to understand your investment choices
• How estate planning can be simple
• Does your plan reflect your end of life decisions on where your money will actually go?
• What’s important when planning your estate
• Why your beneficiary designations and keeping them updated is crucial
• What the different options available to create a will are
• The benefits of having term life insurance
• How debt can be simple
• The percentage of your income that should be used for debt
• The difference between credit card debt vs credit card usage
• Why you should keep student loan debt below your first-year salary
• What the 20/3/8 principle is and how to utilize it when buying a vehicle
• How emergency funds are simple
• Why cash is king when it comes to emergency reserves
• Why you should not use Home Equity Lines of Credit as your emergency fund
• How much you should have saved as a retiree vs someone who is not

Resources Mentioned in this Episode & Related Episodes

• Top Investing Lessons from Warren Buffett in 2018: Letter to Shareholders
• Active Management Can’t Crack Inefficient Markets
• New-car shoppers: Brace yourselves for higher costs
• Billionaire to graduating college students: My family is going to eliminate your student loans
• As the Dow tanks, here is Warren Buffett on the biggest puzzle for investors: Intrinsic value of a stock
• Warren Buffett: “When It’s Raining Gold, Reach For a Bucket”
• Warren Buffett Just Invested 1.2 Billion in These 3 Bank Stocks
• Best high-yield savings accounts in May 2019

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