Month: April 2017

What Millennials Need to Learn from the ESPN Layoffs

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Well, this is a bummer.

The big news this week is that ESPN, once considered the fastest growing and most stable news organization in sports, is laying off numerous reporters and on-air personalities.

Layoffs are a cruel reality of the world we live in.  Unfortunately, reports of companies cutting jobs pop up in the news far more frequently than they should.  And there’s something about how public ESPN’s move was that makes it hit home all the more.

But there are a few important lessons in this story for all of us, particularly for millennials who are relatively new to the workforce.

There’s No Such Thing As 100% Job Security

No matter how quickly your company is growing, no matter how good your last performance review was- in today’s day and age, job security flat out isn’t something that we can count on.

Sure, there are a limited number of exceptions.  Tenure can help if you work in higher education.  Unions can, too.  But for the most part, it’s a mistake to treat a job as completely stable.

Some best practices to help deal with this unfortunate reality:

  • Talk to that recruiter who just hit you up on LinkedIn. Even if you aren’t looking for a new job right now, it never hurts to have the conversation and build a relationship with someone who has the capability to make hiring decisions. If you’re ever out of a job on short notice, you’ll be happy to have these connections!
  • Update your resume. If you’re anything like me, your resume hasn’t been updated since your last job interview.  A best practice is to update your resume – and LinkedIn bio – once a year.  That way, it’s ready to go whenever you need it.
  • Network, Network, Network. There’s many ways to do this one, but you absolutely have to be networking in your industry.  Attend a conference that caters to professionals with your particular area of expertise.  Use a site like Meetup or Eventbrite to find local networking events in your city.  Building relationships is the name of the game.
  • Mind your finances. Of course, there are huge financial concerns with the risk of job loss too.  Which brings us to our next major point…
You Absolutely Must Have an Emergency Fund (In Cash)

As a financial planner, I help people meet a wide variety of financial goals.  From retirement, to paying down student loans, to buying a home– there are a ton of different ways to allocate your money to improve your financial future.

But none of those things happen until you have an emergency fund.

You read that right.  Of course, you need to meet you minimum financial obligations.  Pay the minimum on your student loans each month, don’t miss credit card payments, contribute to your 401(k) until the match point.  You know the drill.  But, before you start looking to invest any “extra” money, you need to work to build an emergency fund.

The golden rule is to (eventually) build up to the point where you could support yourself for six months, without holding a job, just from your emergency fund.  But I wouldn’t focus on that right away- that’s a pretty intimidating goal for most people to reach.

Instead, calculate your average spending for one month, and focus on accumulating that much money in your emergency fund.  Once you have that much, focus on doubling it.  And so on, until you get to six months.

In other words, being so far away from reaching your emergency fund savings goal isn’t an excuse to not try to reach it in the first place.  Start small, and focus on saving a month’s worth of expenses at a time.

And one more thing- I don’t care how low savings rates are, you need to keep your emergency fund in cash.  If you invest your emergency fund and you were to immediately lose your job just as the stock market crashes, it won’t do you much good.  Set a goal for your emergency fund, and keep it in cash.  Preferably, in a separate savings account from the rest of your savings, so you won’t be tempted to spend it.

What’s More Secure: A “Side Hustle”, or a Full Time Desk Job?

If you were to ask 100 people whether it’s safer to have a full time job with an employer, or to work for yourself, I’m guessing that over 95% would say that it’s safer to have a full time desk job.

That may well be true.  It takes a lot of work to build your own revenue streams from the ground up.

But if you start your own business as a “side hustle”, and slowly grow it over time to the point where it could become a full time endeavor for you, I’m not so sure that this type of model is less secure than working for a “real” company.

Let’s put it like this.  Pretend that you have experience designing websites and writing code.  Would it be more secure for you to A) work for a company that does web design and be paid a salary, or B) to work as a freelancer part time and (over time) build up to 50 web design clients, enough that you could quit your full time job?

In Scenario B, if a client were to “fire” you, you would lose a total of 1/50 of your income, or 2%.  In Scenario A, if your employer were to lay you off, you’d lose 100% of your income.

The point of this isn’t to try to convince you to quit your full time salaried jobs.  Rather, I’d encourage you to revisit the way you think about your income and job security.  Finding a side hustle that you are passionate about and can sell to other people is a great way to diversify your income streams.  Just as you wouldn’t invest all of your money into one stock, it’s a best practice to diversify your income sources as well.

Hopefully, This is Never Relevant to You

Obviously, I hope you’re never in a situation where you’ve been laid off for a job.  But just in case, following the steps I outlined above will leave you more prepared to handle this situation.

The Why, When, and How of Combining Your Finances With Your Spouse

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The Why, When, and How of Combining Finances With Your Spouse

“Now that we’re getting married, how should my partner and I manage our money together?”

It’s one of the most common questions I get from my engaged and newlywed clients. It can be hard enough for us to manage our own money. Adding a second person to the mix makes things all the more complicated.

First and foremost, there’s the challenge of how to manage your money together with your spouse. Which accounts to use, how to monitor your finances together- there are a lot of questions here. Enough that I created a FREE guide to walk you through my methodology for combining accounts.

But before we get into the how of managing your money together with your spouse, we need to take a step back.

Start with Why

Whenever I discuss combining money with your spouse, the very first question I typically ask is- why do you want to combine your accounts together?

Is it a matter of convenience? It’s certainly easier for you to keep track of your family finances if everything is in one place. Or is a philosophical matter? You’re one family, after all, and many people want to manage their finances as such.

Do you and your partner want financial autonomy in your day to day lives? Or, do you view your financial future as being completely intertwined with each other. Or maybe somewhere in between?

There’s no right or wrong answer here. But the approach you should take is largely dictated by your answers to these questions.

One Important Note

When you start to combine your money with your spouse, there could be legal complications if you ended up separating down the line.  It’s never a bad idea to speak with an attorney up front to decide how best to handle these risks.  But even if you decide not to completely combine accounts, you can certainly still use my framework for managing money in sync with each other

If you do decide to keep your accounts separate, you should add your spouse as a beneficiary to your accounts as soon as possible. This way, if something were to happen to you, your spouse will inherit the assets without legal complications.  Notably, this step is particularly relevant for retirement accounts like your 401(k) or IRA, where you actually can’t combine accounts with your partner at all!

Another thing to keep in mind:  there’s no rule that says you either need to combine all of your bank accounts or none of them.  There’s nothing wrong with combining some money in a joint checking or savings account, while keeping a portion of your income in separate places.  In fact, for couples who tend to fight about money, this is one of my favorite strategies!  I’ve seen couples have amazing success by depositing 80% of their paychecks into a joint account to use for family expenses, and keep the remaining money separate to save or spend as they choose.

That being said, my personal philosophy is that if you’re getting married, you should be “all in”. So, I don’t have a problem if couples want to completely integrate their accounts- as long as they want to for the right reasons, as discussed above.

The Next Question- When Should You Combine Finances

You shouldn’t actually combine your financial accounts with your partner until you’re married. Period.

Couples in our generation operate differently than our parents and grandparents. These days, it seems like the norm is to take big steps, like moving in together, before you are engaged. I know and I get it- I lived with my wife for over a year before we got married.

But just because some societal norms are changing, doesn’t mean that everything should change. Particularly when it comes to legal issues.

You might view yourself as “basically married” to your boyfriend or girlfriend, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But, your bank won’t view you as married until you’re actually legally married. Nor with the courts, if you were to break up. These situations become much more complicated if you have shared financial assets that you’re trying to split between two non-married people.

There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with jointly managing your finances with your boyfriend or girlfriend if you are living together. In fact, I usually encourage it. My guide on managing your finances with your partner will show you how. But managing your finances together doesn’t mean you have to actually combine your accounts. One more time for good measure: don’t do that until you actually get married.

Hopefully, it just means you’ll have separate accounts for a few more months or years. But in the worst case scenario, it can save you a ton of trouble by waiting.

How Do We Go About Merging our Finances?

You’ve talked about why you want to combine finances with your spouse. You are, in fact, spouses, so it’s an appropriate time to merge your money. Now, how do you do it?

I have a three-tiered framework for how to combine finances with your spouse. You’ll get a step by step walkthrough of this in my free guide. In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

1. Identify your shared financial goals with your spouse, and why these are so critical to keep in mind when you set up your joint financial accounts

2. Inventory each of your current financial accounts, and create an account map that shows you exactly where your money is today and how it’s being used.

3. Choose which accounts to use and confirm you have enough accounts in line with your goals.

There are a lot of steps to combine your money the correct way, and it’s critical that you take the time to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. Download this free guide on combining your finances today, and you and your spouse will have a roadmap to make sure you’re set up for success.