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Romance Fraud: A Costly Love Affair

11/25/2024

When it comes to scams, few are as emotionally devastating and financially ruinous as romance fraud. It’s a deceptive trap set by criminals who exploit feelings of affection, trust, and loneliness to steal from victims. While the promise of love can make people feel safe, romance fraud is becoming a growing concern, especially in the…

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Navigating Loneliness During the Holidays

11/25/2024

The first holiday card arrives in your mailbox – another picture-perfect family in matching sweaters. Your social media feed fills with office party photos and family reunion videos. And something in your chest tightens, because this year, your holiday season looks different. Whether by circumstance, distance, or loss, you’re facing these celebratory weeks alone. If…

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Teaching Money Skills to the Next Generation

11/18/2024

Teaching kids about money is one of the most valuable life skills parents can pass on. Financial literacy can start at home in a way that’s approachable and even fun. This guide shares practical tips and modern tools to introduce money skills at different stages, helping children and teens develop habits that can lead to…

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Assessing Your Risk: Are You Vulnerable to Investment Scams?

11/11/2024

Investment scams are nothing new but there are some tools that you can use to assess your vulnerability to falling for one. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has created two simple quizzes you can take so let’s explore how you can use them to better understand your own risk—and ultimately safeguard your financial future. The…

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Is Retirement Planning Missing the Point? A New Approach to Living Well

11/11/2024

We spend most of our working years planning for the distant horizon of retirement, fixating on one question: Will I have enough? Enough money to support myself when the paychecks stop, enough savings to handle life’s surprises, enough to enjoy the so-called ‘golden years’ after decades of hard work? Retirement planning, as it stands, often…

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disability insurance

Is Disability Insurance Really Necessary?

10/28/2024

Insurance in general really annoys most of us, doesn’t it? We pay for something every month and get absolutely nothing in return—until we do. When money’s tight, it feels like an incredibly painful, albeit necessary, expense, and in better times, does it ever really spark joy? (That was rhetorical. We all agree it doesn’t.) HOWEVER—when…

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boredom is a gift

Life Lessons for Everyone: Boredom is a Gift

10/21/2024

In retirement planning, we often focus heavily on finances. But there’s so much more to retirement than just money. True fulfillment in this phase of life involves addressing emotional, mental, and even existential challenges. One podcast that recently captured our attention, Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee, touched on some of these deeper…

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identity theft

Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft: An Overview of Common Threats and Prevention

10/14/2024

*subscriber exclusive* In this article, we explore the growing threat of identity theft, with over $10 billion lost to fraud in 2023 alone. Learn about different types of identity theft, warning signs to watch for, and practical tips to safeguard your personal information. Don’t wait until it’s too late—stay informed and take steps to protect…

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long term care options

The Long-Term Care Dilemma: Understanding Your Funding Options

10/07/2024

Long term care often sounds like some small possibility in the future that costs a ton of money to avoid – and it can be quite tempting to ignore it. Often though we or someone we love does end up needing some version of it – and as with anything without proper planning it can…

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Your Vulnerability to Scams Increases When You’re Desperate

09/30/2024

In times of crisis or desperation, we often become more susceptible to scams and fraudulent schemes. This increased vulnerability can have severe consequences, leading to financial losses and emotional distress. Understanding why desperation makes us more vulnerable and how to protect ourselves is crucial in today’s world of sophisticated scams. Desperation creates a sense of…

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Lesson 14: How Money Grows

04/06/2026

Turning stability into momentum Up to this point, the work has been about understanding how money moves through your life. You’ve been tracking cash flow, spotting inefficiencies, and learning that with some attention, it’s possible to pull money away from places it quietly leaks out and redirect it toward something more intentional. That process often…

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Lesson 11: Beneficiaries & Account Access

03/16/2026

Making sure the right people can act when you can’t This part of your financial life rarely gets attention because it doesn’t surface regularly. There is no monthly statement reminding you to check beneficiaries. No alert asking whether account access still makes sense. No prompt to confirm who could step in if you were unavailable.…

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Lesson 8: Your Credit Snapshot

02/23/2026

How everyday behavior quietly shapes access, pricing, and flexibility Credit scores are often treated like something mysterious or fragile, as if one wrong move sends everything spinning. In reality, your credit score is a summary. It reflects a handful of behaviors over time and reacts slowly, not emotionally. Businesses understand this instinctively. They borrow, repay,…

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Lesson 5: Month-One Closeout

02/02/2026

Seeing how your system actually works January was about easing into a new year where you gained visibility, started to recognize pressure points, became familiar with bill creep, and began to understand the role timing plays. This week is your first quick review – not to perfect anything, but to see how the process felt…

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Lesson 2: Identify Your Pressure Points

01/12/2026

Seeing where things snap under pressure Last week we talked about getting everything out of your head and onto one page — income, expenses, the whole picture. Think of it like a vision board, a seating chart, or a house plan. The point isn’t the tool itself. It’s that you can see everything at once.…

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The Year That Taught Us How Money Really Works

12/29/2025

SO how’s your year going!?!?! 2025 is about to come to a close – and while we never meant to rhyme, it certainly kept us on our tippy toes. BUT-  it also proved to be quite useful, albeit exhausting at the same time. But mindset is crucial here because why go though all of the…

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Last-Minute Money Checklist: 10 Smart Moves to Make Before December 31

12/22/2025

Every December, the same headlines circulate: “Boost your 401(k), harvest tax losses, make your charitable contributions.” Helpful, for sure, but if you’re trying to drum up some extra cash before the year resets, here’s where to look. Let’s dive into your year-end “cash sweep” – the lesser-known places where real dollars are hiding. 1. Wellness…

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Financial Erosion

12/15/2025

Financial trouble doesn’t always show up as a disaster. Sometimes you think you’re stable, your routines feel normal, and nothing seems wrong,  yet the numbers quietly move against you. That’s erosion. It’s subtle, it compounds, and it happens even when you’re trying to do the right things. This is what it looks like in real…

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Feeling Stable Isn’t a Strategy

12/08/2025

There’s a specific moment in financial recovery that doesn’t get talked about enough. It’s the point where things finally feel manageable again. You’re paying bills on time. The panic has dialed down. Maybe your emergency fund has a little life in it again. You’re not “thriving,” but you’re no longer bracing for impact every day.…

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Financial Clean-Up Season

12/01/2025

The end of the year tends to push people into two camps – those ready to sprint toward resolutions, and those too exhausted to think about it. Instead of resolutions we like to use December as a time for maintenance.  No matter where you are in your financial journey, clearing out the clutter can help…

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Lesson 15: Workplace Plan Basics

04/13/2026

Understanding how employer plans fit into your bigger picture Workplace retirement plans are often introduced early and then left largely unexplored. You enroll during onboarding, pick something that sounds reasonable, and then life moves on. Contributions happen in the background, statements pile up unread, and years can pass before you stop to ask what role…

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Lesson 12: Tax Prep Check-In

03/23/2026

Making sure taxes don’t quietly undo the rest of your plan Filing season brings clarity. You see the final numbers, the refund or balance due, and how the year played out. This week is about using that information while it’s still useful. Withholding decisions are often set once and left untouched, even as income changes,…

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Lesson 9: Month-Two Closeout

03/02/2026

When the numbers stop feeling foreign By the second month, something shifts. You’re no longer staring at a blank sheet, and the process starts to feel familiar instead of intimidating. Month one often feels like a heavy lift. You’re setting everything up, uncovering things you hadn’t looked at closely, and maybe finding a few places…

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Lesson 6: Set a Real Emergency Fund Target

02/09/2026

Turning clarity into a real safety net Last week, you pulled together the numbers that run your life. Real monthly costs, plus the non-monthly expenses that sneak in throughout the year. That work gives you something most people never have: a clear baseline. This week, we use it. The goal is simple. Turn that baseline…

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Lesson 3: The Bill Creep Audit

01/19/2026

Seeing the small increases you stopped noticing Autopay is one of the most useful tools in modern finance. It keeps bills from slipping through the cracks, protects your credit, and saves time. We use it too. But convenience has a tradeoff. When money moves automatically, it also becomes easier for costs to drift without being…

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A Little Cushion Goes a Long Way

12/15/2025

If you’ve ever been through a layoff or even a close call, you know the feeling: once you get back on your feet, you never want to be that exposed again. Parallel income isn’t about becoming an entrepreneur or squeezing more work into an already full life. It’s about insulation – a way to stay…

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Revenge Saving: When Discipline Turns Into Overcorrection

12/08/2025

There’s a lot of talk about overspending, impulse buying, lifestyle creep, and holiday pressure. Almost none of the conversation covers the opposite problem: what happens when people swing too far into restriction after a hard financial year. It’s common. People stabilize after job loss, illness, divorce, a layoff scare, or a period of high debt,…

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Don’t Let Your Financial Recovery Make You Vulnerable: When Help Searches Become Targets

12/01/2025

Most people know not to click unknown links or download attachments from strangers. What’s harder to see is how scammers find you in the first place. They don’t need to hack your computer or break into your accounts. They watch your online behavior — the searches you run, the forms you fill out, the ads…

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The Mental Weight of Holding the Line

11/17/2025

In every family, someone ends up being the person who keeps an eye on the budget. Sometimes it’s one parent, sometimes it’s both, and sometimes the role shifts depending on the season. But whoever is holding the line knows how heavy it feels. It’s not just about numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about emotion, timing,…

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Beyond Policies: Building a Real Long-Term Care Plan

10/13/2025

Last week we looked directly at long-term care: what it really looks like, how much it costs, and the hidden burden on families. This week we’ve focused on how insurance connects to that reality – life insurance with its riders and cash value options, and disability insurance that protects income long before retirement. But here’s…

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