On April Fool’s Day I introduced you to something new: The My Discovery Destination! Financial Calendar. The idea behind it is that at the beginning of every month, I will share with you a checklist of things you can do to make small changes in your personal financial planning that could help you earn big rewards down the road. If you noticed, each blog post in April addressed an item on April’s list. Well, May 1 st is just about here (where did April go?), and I haven’t forgotten my promise. I have May’s calendar ready to go! I invite you to take a peek so you’ll know what topics we’ll be discussing next month. You can find it here . “But,” you say, “it’s not yet the beginning of May. It’s the last Thursday in April. So, why are you introducing a new check-off sheet?” GREAT question. The fact is that April snuck in an extra Thursday on me this year for a total of five. If I had paid more attention, I would have listed FIVE items to talk about in April. Rest assured that I w...

The US tax system is very hard to understand. With the pages and pages of rules and regulations that not only change every year but have different guidelines for different circumstances, it’s no wonder becoming a CPA requires a Masters Degree as well as passing a really tough test. While very few of us tax-paying Americans understand everything there is to know about IRS tax code, most of us DO know this: April can mean tax-return time. But, do we really comprehend just what is meant by a tax return? I’m willing to bet we do not. In order to get a tax “return,” one must first OVERPAY taxes. Many citizens don’t make enough money to owe any tax and had none withheld from their paychecks all year long. If they get a payment from the government during tax-return time it’s technically not a tax return because it's not an overpayment of taxes. But, I will leave that explanation for another time. I am speaking particularly to those who have had taxes collected from their paychecks, ...

Are you ready for Christmas yet? Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about it. Yes, Christmas. You know it’s only eight months away, right? You say you aren’t worried about it yet? Well, perhaps you should be. Please allow me to elaborate. And I will do so by starting with a question (okay, maybe a few questions). How much did you spend for Christmas in 2020? How did you pay for it? Are you STILL paying for it? Now you get to ask me a question (I’ll do it for you): Why are we talking about Christmas when it’s only April? Oh, I’m so glad you asked! Too many people don’t plan for Christmas and end up going into debt for it. If you do that, Christmas ends up costing you a whole lot more than you planned on (for a review on how credit cards and revolving credit work, take a look at my blog post from September 5, 2019 entitled “Know the Difference”). The fact that Christmas comes in December every year should not be a surprise for anybody. I mean, it’s not even like Thanksgivin...

You’re running out of time. Next Thursday is a very important day, and I’m not talking about me turning another year older, even though that’s exactly what will happen. This year I’m not even talking about filing personal (not business) income taxes since that deadline has been extended until May 17, 2021. I’m talking about the ability to contribute to your Roth IRA for the 2020 calendar year. Allow me to explain. Disclaimer: I’m not telling you to run right out and do this if you are not in a position to do so. You should NOT put money away for retirement if you’re struggling to make a house or rent payment. I implore you to be responsible with your finances, and I’ve written many posts outlining how to do this in the fairly recent past. I invite you to peruse my blog library. A Roth IRA is one of a few GREAT places to put money away for retirement. The best thing about this type of retirement account is that the money grows TAX FREE which means the government will never be able t...

April gets a bad rap. First of all, there’s the first, the day you can’t trust ANYBODY or ANYTHING. Then there’s the rain so that May can be beautiful. If you live in the Rocky Mountain West like I do, spring hasn’t quite sprung so it might be shorts weather one day and snow boots the next. And don’t forget TAX DAY. I once heard a report that said divorce filings are higher during the middle of April than they are at any other time of year. And you probably won’t believe me, but every tax-paying-and-filing adult’s least favorite day of the year happens to be my birthday. I kid you not. Someone once suggested I get a judge to change it, lol. According to my opinion in the first paragraph, we can deduce the only redeeming thing about April to be Spring Break, if April is lucky enough to be the host that year. If it wasn’t for that, the “Ides of March” would just keep on rolling right on through and NOBODY would survive. Oh, wait, Spring Break is just for kids and those who work in educ...

No, I’m not talking about the 80s song by the synth-pop band Animotion (dating myself AGAIN). I’m talking about becoming fixated, absorbed, and fanatical about something. In this case, Kingsford, author of “Brain-powered Weight Loss,” calls it a “healthy obsession.” Basically, it means that “you no longer struggle” to be financially fit. You thrive on it! Now, this does not mean that you won’t make any mistakes; sure, you will. But you now have the tools to get back on the path when you stray. You don’t beat yourself up. You see how far you’ve come and use that to help you shape your future. You are in control of your finances and your life from here on out. I remember listening to The Dave Ramsey Show once where Dave told the caller that when you are at the place where you have your home paid for, the grass in the backyard feels different under your feet. Now, I owned a townhome, so, technically, I did not own the grass. BUT I CAN tell you that once I paid off that mortgage, I ch...

Stress does weird things to us. Even if we don’t feel “stressed out,” our bodies manifest tension, and it will find a way to get out (and will try to take your credit card with it). But I think that most of you would agree with me that if we had a heads up before a specific stressful event were to occur that we could probably minimize the effects that it could have on us. Why? Because we would have time to formulate a plan of how we would respond to said stressful event. So, what constitutes a potential stressful situation? Anything that might increase the risk of you acting in opposition to your plan. Kingsford describes “a high-risk situation can be any occasion that has the ability to cause you to behave in ways that are not in line with your…goals.” She also says, “The way to outsmart a high-risk situation is to face it with your mental machinery fully loaded.” How do you do that? Well, you will need to have a plan ready to implement when the situation arises. I suggest you sta...