Category: Saving and Spending

Save Up for Big Expenses Ahead of Time. It Forces You to Prioritize Your Goals.

Block Woman surveys 3 piles of coins next to 3 objects: a building; a car; a dog.

This last March, I took my family on a trip to Europe (London and Paris), a trip that I’d first envisioned in January 2020. Enter pandemic, recovery from pandemic, negotiation of elementary- and middle-school schedules, my own hangups, and I finally did it, four years later.

Did Your Child Earn Money Last Year? You Can Open a Roth IRA for Them.

A large dark pink triangle Block Woman is positioned near a smaller light pink triangle Block Child

This is the story of how I filed my 14-year-old daughter’s taxes, and then opened, funded, and invested a Roth IRA for her, for tax year 2023. Piecing this process together for the first time was a bit frustrating (even for a financial planner!) so I hope you can follow along with a bit more ease.

children investing retirement savings Roth IRA tax optimization

How Much Should You Put in Your Child’s 529 College Account? What If It’s Too Much?

Your child is two years old. You want to save for their college. The answer to “Where should I save?” is easy enough. The bigger, harder question is: “How much should I save?”

529 529 beneficiary college savings

Should You Move Your Cash to a Different Bank to Get a Higher Interest Rate?

Block Women examining 2 pennies through a magnifying glass

With interest rates now being not-zero, it is very tempting to move our cash all around in order to actually, Finally Lord! get some interest on our cash.

bank account interest rate saving

Meg’s Musings: Consumption Edition

Block Women is to the left of the image with a black background cutout overlayed a brown wood wall.

Several years ago I took my two young daughters and my mother (code name: Grandma) to Disneyland. Those three really wanted to go, and they had a wonderful time.

consumption creativity musings spending

What Do You Spend Money On? Lessons from Our Clients About Spending that Brings True Joy.

A purple Block Woman jumps for joy with a golden starburst around her head

When we met with our clients this spring, we asked them:

Tell us about something you spent money on in the last year that made you happy. What did you get out of that purchase?

joyful spending money mindset

What Is a Backdoor Roth IRA (Contribution)? Should I Do it? How Do I Do It?

Flow FP's Block Woman is hit by some tax code changes.

If I had to wager, backdoor Roth IRA contributions are in the top 3 of #personalfinance Slack channel topics.

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Meg’s Musings: Your Spending Doesn’t Affect Just You.

Ramit Sethi’s work on the psychology of money, especially around spending, is wonderful and desperately needed. To put it simply: He encourages people to spend more money on the things they love.

environmental impact musings spending

Is your take-home pay too tiny to live on? That’s okay! We can make it work.

But, Meg, what will I live on?

A delightful and Highly Suspicious client asked me this recently when I was talking with her about not only maxing out her participation in her company’s (Airbnb’s) ESPP but also maxing out her after-tax contributions to her 401(k).

401(k) cash flow cash flow planning espp HSA RSUs

Meg’s Musings: Thriving in the Time of Covid

We are all emerging from the first “stage” of quarantine. We are also all starting to realize that, contrary to what I assumed back in March, this is all going to take a lot longer than just a few months to fix.

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Meg’s Musings: (Reducing) Spending Edition

I offer up these thoughts on spending in the spirit of: If it helps, I am happy. If this is not the right time for you to think about such things, please ignore them! The internet is wonderful (and terrible) in that nothing ever disappears. Come back later if you want.

financial rules-of-thumb musings reduce spending rule of thumb saving savings strategy spending spending review

It’s 20 (40) years until I retire! How do I save and invest for the between-now-and-then? (Video)

We’re pretty good at saving for the long term (retirement). We have our 401(k)s and IRAs. We’re pretty good at saving for now. We have cash in our bank accounts. But what do we do for the *decades* between now and retirement? How do we save and invest for that?

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