Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff
• Drew

Special Guest: Blake Edwards

Today’s topic is all about premarital financial planning. Our special guest, Blake Edwards, is recently engaged and came to the table with questions that span from combining bank accounts to when to buy a house.

Discussion topics:

• How to handle two inconsistent incomes?
• How much cash and where should it be held?
• Do you share debt or keep it separate?  

Take Away: Open communication before and during marriage is key. Discuss the past and the future. 

Resources:

Greenway’s Spending Plan

Greenway’s Goal Setting Workbook

Bankrate

MagnifyMoney

MaxMyInterest

Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff
• Drew

Today’s topic is all about cash:

• What’s the right amount to hold?
• Where should it be held?
• What should I do if I have too much?
• What should I do if I don’t have enough?
• What’s the difference between saving and investing?
• How come so few people know this stuff?

Take Away:

Hold about 3-6 months of living expenses in a high yield savings account as an emergency fund, any

References:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/most-americans-dont-have-the-savings-to-cover-a-1000-emergency.html

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-january-2019/

Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff

Today’s topic is retirement: When did the idea of retirement start? What should retirement look like? How do we plan for it?

• The concept of retirement hasn’t existed for very long, really only since the late 19th century
• More and more research is forcing us to question this made up 20th century phenomenon and whether it’s necessarily good or healthy for us. But our entire industry is built around creating a stable retirement. Why is that the goal? Should it be? If not, what should be?
• New Retirementality
• Happiness Equation “And those four S's of social, structure, stimulation and story bring us great joy and deep happiness.”

Discussion Topics:

• What images make up what you think of as the right way to retire?
• Is there anyone in your life who has retired well?
• What do we hear from (most of) our clients when we discuss retirement as a goal?
• Why is there a generational gap?
• How do people plan for something other than retirement?

Take Away:

Planning for “Financial Independence” rather than “Retirement” may actually be better for your health AND your wallet.

Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff

Today’s topic is health insurance and HSAs: What are some ideas to combat the ever rising cost?

• Last year, employers spent an average of $15,159 in premiums to cover a family of four, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. In all, that’s an increase of 51% from a decade ago.
  • The average family of four paid a total of $7,726 in 2018, according to the foundation. That’s an increase of 67% from 10 years ago. Of that amount, families paid $4,706 in premium contributions for coverage at work, plus $3,020 in cost-sharing — that is, deductibles, coinsurance and copayments. (Bear in mind, employers still shoulder a large share of premiums. Employees also have the advantage of paying premiums on a pretax basis, as opposed to buying coverage elsewhere with after-tax dollars.)
  • In contrast, on the private market, a family of four with an annual household income of $80,000 would pay $7,888 per year in premiums for a silver plan purchased through the health insurance marketplace — provided they are eligible for a premium tax credit of $9,961 per year, according to Kaiser. 
    Without the credit, the plan would cost close to $18,000 per year.
  • “Insurance companies get a lot of heat for raising deductibles and premiums,” said Cynthia Cox, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “But if you look at what’s driving health-care costs year to year, it’s the price of health care: the cost of doctor’s visit, the cost of a hospital stay,” she added. “That’s really what’s making those premiums and deductibles go up each year.”

Discussion topics:

• A medical bill that we have each received that was shockingly high.
• Policy wise: What’s the solution?
• HSA: Is it the magic bullet to combat rising health costs?
• As Advisors, how do we estimate future health care costs with so much uncertainty?

Take away:

Take advantage of an HSA if you are able to. They’re a great hedge against unexpected health care costs.

Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff

Today’s topic is credit cards. Should you use them? How should they be used? Do they lead to excessive spending and impulse buys?

• As of February, Americans have over $4 trillion in consumer debt
• The average American has a credit card balance of $4,293, according to the latest Experian data.
• At the same time, credit card interest rates have never been higher. The average card interest rate is currently 17.41 percent, according to CreditCards.com’s latest report. That’s up from 16.15 percent one year earlier and 15.22 percent two years ago.
• Studies have suggested that people spend 12-18% more when they use credit cards instead of cash
• McDonald’s reported that the average ticket is $7 when people use credit cards, $4.50 for cash.

Discussion topics:

• There is nothing inherently wrong with credit cards, but they may lead to impulse buying, which can often lead to discontentment. 
• This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are unhappy with your purchase, but usually that purchase takes money away from an area that would have added more value to your life. Little things can quickly add up to big money.
• Internet buying makes impulse buying/over spending that much easier. One click versus the hassle of getting to a store.
• One tip to help with this is to not store your credit card data on any sites; sometimes having to enter it is too much of a burden.

Take Away:

Choose your credit cards wisely and pay them off each month. If used in this way then they can be a great tool for free money, assuming you can control your spending.

Resources:

Greenway’s Spending Plan

Greenway’s Goal Setting Workbook

Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff

Today’s topic is spending on experience vs. things: What’s generally a better use of our money?

• A study conducted by the Harris Group that found out that 72 percent of millennials prefer to spend more money on experiences than on material things.
• Your money and your brain by Jason Zweig - our predictions of what makes us happy are so unreliable. 
  “Take that SUV. When you first drive it off the dealer’s lot, it glistens like a gigantic jewel and feels just as fast and safe and soft and roomy as you had dreamed...In a couple of weeks, that last trace of new car smell is gone….the contrast between your vision of what ownership would be and the reality of what it has turned out to be will become more glaring.”
• Compare that to memories made via experiences. As time goes on, experiences that don’t turn out as we had hoped can still become great memories (assuming everyone survived). You usually can't say the same about a thing that you purchased that didn’t turn out well.

Take Away:

Spending money on experiences over things generally produces more joy in the long run. Planning and saving for those same experiences can also increase the pleasure by minimizing guilt and adding anticipation.