3 Ways to Improve Your Financial Health in 30 Minutes

Last week I gave a presentation on 3 ways to improve your financial health. I love getting down to the nuts and bolts of personal finance! We (including financial planners) often make the topic more complicated than it needs to be. When you really gets down to it, you can address 80% of your financial management problems with three things: a budget, a savings plan, and a debt payoff plan.

In this article I’ll explain these 3 points, and for each I’ll give you a simple exercise you can implement this weekend--each one taking about 30 minutes.

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Be a Business Owner

This is the continuation of an article from two weeks ago titled 5 Reasons Why I Love Being a Business Owner. I promised at the end of that article to share some thoughts on the downsides of business ownership. So here we go.

A year or two before I started Hale Financial, I came across an article with what I thought was the greatest (and most terrifying) headline ever: “Forget Starting a Business, Kid. Just Go Work for a Company.” The author went on to explain all the horrible things he experienced when starting a company and why he’d never do it again.

How to Get the IRS to "Pitch in" Money to Your IRA

It doesn’t take a genius to know that the IRS has stacked the tax code with incentives for savers. Perhaps the biggest saver benefit being the tax-deductibility of retirement plan contributions, and allowing your retirement gains to be tax-deferred.

But there’s another little-known way the IRS is willing to pitch in. It’s called the Saver’s Credit. For those who qualify, this credit can result in a 10%, 20%, or even a 50% tax credit for your retirement plan contribution in 2018!

5 Reasons Why I Love Being a Business Owner

It’s been almost two years since I started Hale Financial Solutions. What an incredible journey I’ve had as a business owner! Owning a business certainly comes with its challenges, but there are some incredible benefits as well. You might liken it to Charles Dickens’ token phrase from A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

But I must admit, the good times feel really good when running your own company.

Should I Pay Off Debt or Save?

If there’s any question more common in the personal finance world, it’s this one: Should I pay off debt or save that money instead?

I love this question, because it’s addressing a financial topic that I wish were on the forefront of more minds. Paying off debt and saving are two great ways to utilize our money that we should all be thinking more about. Your situation isn’t as cheery if you’re having to decide between paying off debt, saving, purchasing a new sports car, or buying a bigger home you can’t afford.