By: Laura Walton AFC® It’s all what you get used to. Since 1973, our average house size has increased by 1000 square feet while the average household size has dropped from 3 to 2.5 persons. And how do our homes compare with those in other countries? Only Australia beats us – see the chart. The…
By: Laura Walton AFC® The line for charitable donations is often left blank when I create a budget with a client but that’s not to say they aren’t charitable. In 2015, a Gallup World Poll asked over 150,000 people which of the following three charitable acts they had undertaken in the past month: helped a stranger, or…
By: Laura Walton AFC® When I started driving, gas was 35 cents a gallon! Adjusted for inflation that’s $2.26 a gallon today. Who would have ever imagined today’s prices would be lower than that? Below are the average annual miles driven by age group according to the Department of Transportation: Age Male Female 16-19 8206…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We typically think of saving for retirement as a spending issue. A spending issue usually translates into cutting back on the very things we enjoy – travel, eating out, shopping, etc. That’s hard to get excited about. But what if we framed it differently? We know that if you save $2400…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Talk is cheap and, honestly, not nearly as motivating as hearing how someone makes good financial decisions in real life. Too many professional athletes end their careers broke despite huge salaries and bonuses. Here’s a different story… Steven Kutz’s article, “Why NFL player Ryan Broyles lives like he made $60,000 last…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We recommend reviewing your finances once a year. This year they may seem more naughty than nice but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lump of coal if, indeed, you have a financial plan and you are executing it. This year’s returns have been flat at best. A client emailed recently having…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Move over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retirement dollars are on sale TODAY! With shopping top of mind this time of year, we’re alert to bargains. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are on consumer goods and services, things we can use and gift today. But if you can forego the…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We would all agree that being grateful is reflective of a positive attitude towards life but I was surprised to learn that being grateful might also make us healthier… A story earlier this week on NPR’s Morning Edition featured the work of Paul Mills, a professor of family medicine and public health at…
By: Laura Walton AFC® It seems that young people, when shown what they will look like in their 60’s, are more willing to save for their futures…take a look at these photos. Dan Goldstein, a researcher at the London Business School, found that young people who saw 60-year old versions of themselves said they would save…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Designed for those who don’t have an employer retirement plan available and are discouraged by the costs and complexity of other options, the myRA offers “no costs or fees, no complicated investment options, no risk of losing money” and works a lot like a Roth IRA. Some facts: The account is…