How the Create & Cultivate Team Is Putting Financial Resolutions First in the New Year
This year didn’t turn out the way many of us had planned. The good news is: 2021 is the fresh start we’ve been looking for.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
This year didn’t turn out the way many of us had planned. It feels like our 2020 resolutions have been put on hold, while we wrestle with how to reconcile our personal, professional, and financial goals for the new year. The good news is: 2021 is the fresh start we’ve been looking for.
The promise of new beginnings not only lends a much-needed dose of optimism relative to the rhetoric of this past year, but it also helps propel us back into a goal-setting state of mind. A recent survey reveals an estimated 188.9 million adult Americans (74.02% of the population) are determined to learn something new, make a lifestyle change or set a personal goal in an effort to better themselves in 2021, a 15.17% increase from 2019. Furthermore, 33.69% of Americans plan to set a money-related goal. That being said, now is the perfect time to begin planning your financial resolutions for the year ahead, and we’ve partnered with Betterment to help you spend, save, and invest your money better.
2020 has challenged many of us to rethink our values and global impact, particularly when it comes to spending. The way we live, the career we choose, and the people we care about align with our personal values; shouldn’t our investments do the same?
The practice of aligning your investments with the values and social ideals that shape your worldview is known as impact investing, or socially responsible investing (SRI). Betterment defines SRI as “an approach to investing that reduces exposure to companies that are deemed to have a negative social impact—e.g., companies that profit from poor labor standards or environmental devastation—while increasing exposure to companies that are deemed to have a positive social impact—e.g., companies that foster inclusive workplaces or commit to environmentally sustainable practices.” With Betterment's Social Impact Portfolio, you can invest globally in companies that align with what you care about most, without sacrificing portfolio performance.
How we spend and invest our money has the potential to change the world. And while the road to radical change much resembles the stock market – unpredictable, long, and not always forward – the future of our world begins with how you choose to invest for better, starting today.
Read on to hear how three members of the Create & Cultivate team are putting financial resolutions first in the New Year.
I hope to adapt an approach to investing that supports our community and our planet, utilizing one of Betterment’s SRI portfolios that focuses within the realm of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing. Betterment's Social Impact Portfolio invests in ETFs that support minority empowerment and gender diversity, and is committed to offering investment funds that do better for our communities and the planet.
In order to pay off some outstanding debt, I plan to limit the amount of "stuff" I accumulate and bring into my home and be more conscious of my spending habits – which includes putting a limit on the amount of nights I order takeout.
My husband and I have a goal of owning our own home in 2022 and are working to pay off our debt in 2021 as well as save up for the down payment. We’ll be sticking to a stricter budget and doing things like making more meals at home versus ordering take out. We also plan to start a new savings account set up for this, specifically, with a monthly goal number to hit for savings.
The above article is sponsored by Betterment. Any links provided to other websites are offered as a matter of convenience and are not intended to imply that Betterment or its authors endorse, sponsor, promote, and/or are affiliated with the owners of or participants in those sites, or endorses any information contained on those sites, unless expressly stated otherwise.
Ask an Expert: How to Create Financial Wellness By Rebuilding Your Personal and Financial Life Post-Layoff
Money can be stressful. Not having money can be very stressful.
We’ve been spending a lot of time at Create & Cultivate HQ discussing how we can best show up for and support our community during this uncertain time. Community is at our core, and connecting with others through one-of-a-kind experiences is what we love to do. While the world has changed, our mission has not. We’re committed to helping women create and cultivate the career of their dreams, which is why we’re proud to announce our new Ask an Expert series. We’re hosting discussions with experts, mentors, and influencers daily at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm PST on Instagram Live to cure your craving for community and bring you the expert advice you’ve come to know and love from C&C. Follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram, check out our Ask an Expert highlight reel for the latest schedule, and hit the countdown to get a reminder so you don’t miss out!
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Taking the time to create a financial roadmap will help you feel more in control and take the uncertainty out of your future financial picture.”
-Kathy Entwistle, Senior Vice President of Wealth Management, UBS Financial Services Inc.
It happened. It’s not a drill. And you most certainly aren’t happy. Why would you be though? You were part of a major layoff, a restructuring, or some other term your company arbitrarily chose to deliver bad news, and now you are wondering what to do. You don’t want to spend time on a government web page endlessly scrolling for answers on unemployment, and you definitely don’t want to breach the subject with your friends or family yet.
That is exactly why Kathy Entwistle, the senior vice president of wealth management at UBS Financial Services Inc., has outlined clear, actionable steps for you to take because while it is always acceptable to ask your network for help, a little preliminary research can bring a sense of independence and the power to stay positive and keep moving forward. Consider this your go-to source for handling all things personal and financial wellness for the next 30 days.
Find your best Spotify playlist, give yourself a hug, and let’s get to planning your next act!
Put Yourself First
Take some time to process the fact that your day-to-day life has changed. Not only is social distancing starving the human condition for connectivity and engagement, but your routine and purpose will have to be redirected, too. Find time over the next few days to look inside, reflect, pause, and even try meditating if this is not something you normally do. There are many great mediation apps, and most are offering free trials.
Set Your Goals and Objectives
Whether you choose meditation or some other form of internal reflection, one important guidepost in your checklist and planning will be your purpose and intention. Setting an intention as to your schedule, routine, and plan to get yourself back on track will be crucial. The less intentional you are about your goals and objectives, the less effective you will be in pursuing them.
Let’s start with your career intention and work our way to your financial intention. LinkedIn just became your new best friend (or same old friend for some who use it often). Reaching out through messaging, connections, and coffee breaks will provide exposure to the people who can provide proper guidance, advice, and possibly even the interview you wanted all along.
A great book to read to help guide you on your new career path is called, “What Color Is Your Parachute?” It will give you some great questions to ask yourself when assessing your career intention, and possibly, a new career path.
Assess Your Resume
Find time to recraft your resume and ways to be a storyteller rather than a fact board. Make sure your resume tells your authentic story and is crafted to the right target audience for jobs you will now be applying to. Let’s not forget; your current connections at your company are extremely valuable. Reach out to both those who have been laid off and those who haven’t, but you know well. Their recommendations and willingness to help you on your next path are not to be overlooked!
Review Your Financial Plan
You want to first reacquaint and understand where you stand financially. How much you have, how much you need, and where you can pull cash flow from. Is it your portfolio kicking off dividends or coupons from stocks and bonds? Do you have an emergency fund with three to six months of easily accessible funds? Do you have anyone who is depending on you?
Make sure to take a look at your credit card statements or activity online. This will tell you where you might be able to cut costs, like shopping for clothes online or ordering takeout. Just as you would block off time on your schedule for meetings, block out time on your schedule to review your plan, we might even suggest you accompany it with a matcha or your favorite cold brew.
Review Your Severance
The standard is two weeks of severance for every year you have worked at the company, but that is not mandatory. Make sure you take the time to understand what they are offering you, you are even permitted to try and negotiate.
Also, check to see about your health insurance coverage. Will your employer be providing Cobra coverage and for how long? If you have a partner or spouse, make sure to account for yourself on their benefits when appropriate.
Not everyone’s package will be the same, so focus your energy on yourself and what you can control. While we are still in the assessment stage, we are already moving forward. Keep that playlist rolling!
Review Your Debt
If you have credit card, auto loan, or student debt, now might be the time to conserve and preserve your cash. Don’t pay anything other than the minimum until you get back on your feet and are in a better position to get back on track and put together a plan to reduce your debt. These are debts that you will want to be able to eliminate once you have your cash flow back in place and you have an emergency fund set aside.
Map Out a Savings Strategy
It might seem that much more difficult to worry about your day-to-day expenses let alone remember to stash away some for later, but it is important to keep saving, even if you have to decrease your contributions to your savings account. Ideally, you would not be selling any of your investments to fund your day-to-day expenses so you can continue to let your nest egg grow, however, we realize that you might need to sell some investments to get by.
Come Up With a Selling Strategy
You will want to be aware of any tax impacts of selling investments with unrealized gains. Unrealized gains are taxed at capital gains, instead of your higher ordinary income rates, and could cause an even larger burden if you don’t have the funds to pay the taxes. You will also want to keep in mind your long term investment strategy. If the investment has good prospects for future return or it is an investment providing cash flow, you might want to rethink selling that position just for liquidity.
Consider Borrowing
Think about borrowing, as long as the rate of return will outmatch the rate of borrowing and opportunity costs. For example, rather than selling your investments to access cash, think about keeping your long term investment strategy running and borrowing for short term liquidity. When you get back on your feet, you will be happy to see your nest egg was compounding for a longer time and without any tax drag or reduction in size.
Money can be stressful. Not having money can be very stressful. Taking the time to understand your financial picture and take the steps necessary to create a financial roadmap will help you feel more in control and take the uncertainty out of your future financial picture.
About the Expert: Kathy Entwistle is the senior vice president of wealth management at UBS Financial Services Inc., providing straightforward financial advice tailored to the life you lead. Kathy has been in the financial services industry for more than 25 years. A former stay at home mom who donated her time teaching local financial classes to women, she rose to the heights of being named a "Forbes America's Top Women Wealth Advisor" in 2017 and 2018. As a seasoned multigenerational practice within UBS Private Wealth Management, Kathy, along with her son and the rest of her team, has guided generations of sophisticated families as well as senior executives and entrepreneurs through complex financial challenges.
Tune in daily at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm PST, for new installments of Ask an Expert.
Follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram, check out our Ask an Expert highlight reel for the schedule, and hit the countdown to get a reminder so you don’t miss out. See you there!
If You Have These 4 Money Books You Won't Need a Financial Planner
Read 'til you own it.
photo credit: Beth Cath
Sure, the world wide web has a seemingly endless bounty of information. Better yet, it’s all just a click away. But that doesn’t mean you should discount the value of a great book, especially when you’re looking to take charge of your financial situation.
Whether you are looking to reduce your debts, up your savings, start investing, or anything in between, there’s a book for you. Ahead, we check out some of the best personal finance books, period. So, pick up a coffee and settle in for some excellent reading—and start cultivating the bank account of your dreams, too.
FINANCIALLY FEARLESS
LearnVest founder Alexa von Tobel published Financially Fearless a few years ago, and it has quickly risen to the top of the ladder when it comes to must-read books. Von Tobel won’t make you give up your latte. But she will make you whip your finances into shape. That’s the good news. The even-better news is it won’t hurt. Von Tobel’s advice is accessible, down-to-earth and easy-to-implement. By the end of this book, you’ll feel confident about your financial future and raring to put your new money routines in place.
WORTH IT
If you hate being the last to know, make sure you add Worth It, the book by DailyWorth founder and CEO Amanda Steinberg, to your reading list, stat. Worth It will inspire you to see how money can be the key to freedom—by building your savings, taking control of your situation, or even just taking steps to understand what comes next for you. Sure, Steinberg gets into the nitty-gritty, which can be overwhelming for some of us. Happily, Steinberg makes it feel as easy as talking to your BFF.
YOU ARE A BADASS AT MAKING MONEY
If you’ve already read Jen Sincero’s life-changing New York Times best-seller, You Are a Badass, don’t skip the financial-themed follow-up: You Are a Badass at Making Money. Here, Sincero breaks down her money story in detail in a series of personal essays. Along the way, you’ll discover the little lessons that Sincero has learned from, all of which lead her from living in a converted garage to traveling the world. While every woman’s story is and will be different, Sincero’s is relatable, which means it’s practically guaranteed you’ll be able to pull something from this book that will change your life for the better.
OWN IT
Okay, so Own It is not a book about money. But it is written by Sallie Krawcheck, Ellevest founder and one of the most powerful women to have ever worked on Wall Street. In Own It, Krawcheck offers up advice on how women can play by a new set of rules in the workplace. And Krawcheck doesn’t just talk the talk; she walks the walk. Drawing on her experiences at the highest levels of business, Krawcheck outlines all the steps women can take to seize our power, at this moment in time, and change the game.
Noa is a Certified Financial Planner™ and founder of Socialyte Capital, a financial planning firm for style influencers. She is passionate about helping women reach their wealth potential through financial education and strategic money management.
This post was originally published on April 18, 2017, and has since been updated.
MORE FROM OUR BLOG
The 5 Keys to Conquering Your Credit
Do you know how healthy your finances are?
Sponsored ad by Chase Slate®
How would you answer these questions: “Do you have healthy finances?” “Do you often spend more than you make every month and dip into your savings?” “Do you know where the BULK of your income is going?”
Chances are good you said “yes,” to the first question, “maybe” to the second, and “no” to the last. Everyone wants to think that they are doing well (or at least OK) financially, but we also innately avoid looking at the nitty gritty dollar details. The ones that make us do a double take and realize, maybe our finances aren’t actually that healthy. The cost of living is high (!!) and that can be hard to stomach.
So, what’s a modern working millennial woman to do? Rip off your blinders and look. According to Brittney Castro, Certified Financial Planner™ and Chase Financial Education Ambassador, it’s the only way for you to secure your future and status as a financially wise woman.
“As a Certified Financial Planner™,” Castro shares, “I talk to modern millennial women all the time, and I think it’s important to recognize that women in this age group have a diverse mix of financial goals, from paying off student loans, to increasing their income, to improving their credit, to saving for a down payment on a house.”
What you do with your money today drastically impacts your future. If you’re wondering where to begin, read through Brittney’s five keys to conquering your credit and achieving financial health below. Then, check her out at #CreateCultivateNYC this May where she’ll be speaking on a panel on behalf of Chase Slate.
MAKE A MONEY DATE WITH YOURSELF
You make regular dates to check in with friends and family. See how they’re doing and what’s going on in their lives. The same concept can (and should) be applied to your finances. If you don’t know where your money is going, there’s a good chance you’re not doing the best at saving.
So, make a date. Put it in your calendar and don’t flake!
Brittney suggests this plan of action:
- Schedule a specific time, once a week, to review and plan your budget. This can empower you to keep tabs on your spending habits.
- During your money date, plan for upcoming expenses, such as birthday gifts or special outings, and adjust your budget accordingly.
PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME
“Another simple but powerful way to improve your financial health – pay all your bills on time,” says Brittney.
“Payment history is the most important factor when it comes to calculating your credit score (generally 35 percent of the score),” she says.
Building credit is an important part of financial health. There are many big steps (ahem, buying a home) that aren’t possible without good credit. Even if you think you’re going to be renting forever (get financially savvy and you won’t!) you need to take the steps right now to secure your future.
According to Brittney, “The credit information that a lender requests could mean the difference between paying huge interest fees and potentially securing the deals we want.”
The gist? “Set up payment reminders or enroll in automatic payments so you’ll never forget,” says Brittney.
USE THE TOOLS THAT ARE READILY AVAILABLE TO YOU
The internet actually wants you to succeed. It’s true! The information superhighway is literally an information SUPERHIGHWAY that charts ALL OF YOUR SPENDING. You don’t have to balance a checkbook or tally up receipts. It’s all there waiting for you to explore.
Brittney says, “Take advantage of tools that empower you to make savvy financial decisions and manage your credit and finances with confidence.” Whether you’re using your smartphone or your laptop, there are numerous services and apps that want you to succeed!
“For example,” says Brittney, “The Chase Slate Credit Dashboard gives cardmembers access to their FICO® Score and a graphical analysis of their 12-month score history.”
Knowing your credit score helps you assess where you stand and how close or far you are from achieving your goals and creating the life you want.
GO ONE STEP FURTHER BY CHECKING YOUR CREDIT REPORT
In addition to monitoring your credit score, checking your credit report is essential to making smart financial decisions.
“Visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free, in-depth overview of your credit history,” says Brittney. “Review the report closely for any errors – late payments or amounts owed that are incorrectly listed – and immediately remedy with the credit bureau.”
And if you think checking your credit report might negatively impact your score – think again! When a lender makes an inquiry – a request for your credit report information – there is a small impact on your credit score. However, these so-called “hard inquiries," which can happen when you apply for new credit or a loan, begin to fade in impact after the first 12 months and drop off your credit report completely after two years.
WHEN IN DOUBT, USE THE 50-30-20 RULE
What’s that? Brittney explains, “Using this rule – 50 percent of what you earn (net income after taxes) is allocated to living expenses, 30 percent is spent on nonessentials (like eating out and shopping) and the remaining 20 percent goes to your savings account. This approach is easy to implement, and can be adjusted to your personal money priorities.”
While we tend to notice the big expenses (as they make the biggest immediate dent in our savings), it’s often the little ones that get us in the end. Every time you order takeout, press BUY on the pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing, or opt for a morning latte at your local coffee shop instead of making coffee at home, you’re spending money that could easily be put in your savings, or go toward paying your bills.
Let’s think about the coffee example for just a second (and actually do the math). If you buy a latte every morning at $4/cup, seven days a week, 365 days per year, that’s over $1,400.00 dollars in lattes (!). The cost of pressed juice is even higher.
Use the 50-30-20 rule to determine exactly how much of your income you can safely allocate to these types of non-essentials. Then, you can move forward with confidence, knowing you’re making steady progress toward your financial goals.
Have other financial questions? If you’re heading to NYC, write them down and be ready to ask Brittney during the Q&A when she joins us on “Just Do It: A Real World Guide to Channeling Your Entrepreneurial Spirit” on behalf of Chase Slate.