This week I am a guest on the podcast “Advice to My Younger Me”. My episode expands on the theme of using money to increase your happiness levels and what I wish I had known when I was younger. Also check out some of their other episodes where bestselling authors and VPs of Fortune 500 companies give the advice they wish they had gotten early in their careers. There’s some really great information there....

You’ve made the decision – you want to save more, invest more, or get out of debt. You want a zero credit card balance, a full bank account, a growing 401K and enough left over for two weeks in Europe. If you are like many of my clients this is actually doable, (really, it is). But you know the catch - it means cutting back on the amount of spending you are used to doing.   Just how much should you cut back on spending?  How do you choose between the quality of your life now,...

​Recently a client came to me worried that her student loan payment was going up this month because of the new laws. However, there are no new laws yet, just proposals.  If those proposals do become law in the future, some people may see their payments go up. ​Could you be one of them? Answer the questions below to find out: QUIZ: If you answered “yes” to questions 1-4 or “no” to question 5, the new proposals student loan might impact you. Here’s how: The proposed laws impact...

Jenna’s Story (real story, fake name) ​I have a client who is digging out of debt. During one of our sessions she was very excited to tell me she had bought a pair of shoes not in her original budget.  And I was excited for her – it was exactly the right thing to do.  Here’s what she said. I’m so excited, I have to tell you about the shoes. Last month I was in DSW and saw this great pair of shoes on sale for $70. But I knew that wasn’t in my budget. I left without buying them and I...

This week I'm a guest on the podcast Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things with Keri Roberts. Hear my thoughts on why Millennials are awesome employees, how we should be bring down the high cost of college, what you should be doing with your student debt, and how much money is enough.  https://www.facebook.com/OrdinaryPeopleBeingExtraordinary/

Check out my podcast interview with Dr. Bob Wright on how to de-stress your financial life.  Stress Free Now with Christine Lane

Do you have renters or homeowners insurance? Do you know if you are covered in the event of an alien invasion or the zombie apocalypse? Well that depends on whether you have a named-peril (HO-2) or open-peril policy (HO-3). With a named-peril policy you are only covered for damage resulting from specific types of events listed in the policy.You can find a list of the most common named perils here. http://www.insuranceincblog.com/2011/06/16/named-perils You’ll see these do not include...

Do you have a “fun fund” as part of your spending/savings plan?  If you don’t have one yet, you should start one. A fun fund, also called a blow fund or an opportunity fund, is money you set aside once a month to spend purely on cool unexpected opportunities that may pop up during the year.  The idea is not to keep it long term – but rather to have fun with it in the near-term.  If you have one then you know you can afford it when, your friend is going to Hawaii for a conference...

Did you see this headline in the Washington Post - Millennials May Need to Double How Much They Save For Retirement?  Did it scare you? Here’s why it shouldn’t. If you focus on the title you’re probably thinking. ”Double??  How in the world am I going to double what I’ve put in retirement???”  ​The good news is... you don’t have to double what you are putting away now to potentially double what you end up with in retirement. Read through the article and they recommend...

I spent my summer in a financial coaching certification program and I thought I’d share some of the more amusing and scary things I learned, with some useful tips and magic spells thrown in...Jargon: What I and every other normal human call an emergency fund the textbooks like to call the “current ratio.” Anyway, if you’ve taken my webinar you know the important thing in life is to have an emergency fund of at least 3 months. The important thing on my test was to call it a...