@brokemillennialblog

This is a quote I gave to CNBC earlier in the pandemic for an article about how to prioritize paying your bills. It’s a reality for so many right now — many who never thought they’d be in a financial tailspin because their job felt secure. Now, they feel as if their work isn’t “essential”. It’s painful and heart-wrenching. ▫️ Shame and embarrassment around debt and financial struggles prevents people from seeking the help they need. Millions of Americans (and people around the world) are financially struggling as a result of the pandemic. Even if you did everything “right” and had six months of emergency savings, we’re beyond that now. ▫️ There isn’t a tidy way to sum up this post. I just want to normalize talking about struggles and help people feel comfortable reaching out for help. A few sites to consider are AuntBertha.com and HHS.gov. Please share resource recommendations you may have as well! ▫️ • • • • • •

We've all got that awkward AF money conversation we're avoiding! 😬Maybe it's sticking up for yourself when you go out to dinner with friends and can't afford to split the tab. Maybe it's feeling really angsty about asking your parents if you're they're retirement plan. Maybe it's asking a co-worker how much they make because you've got a sneaking feeling you're underpaid. Maybe it's feeling super uncomfortable about asking your partner if they have debt (or revealing your number to them).  ▫️ Broke Millennial Talks Money hits shelves December 29 and helps you handle all those awkward talks and more! 🗣BUT, you don't have to wait until then to talk directly with me about awkward money convos. 🎉On October 16, I'll be joining @thefinancialdiet’s THE BIG RESET SUMMIT for a panel discussion + a live Q&A to help you navigate awkward AF money conversations. Mine is just one of many workshops and discussions happening at the summit! You also can catch replays if you aren't able to be there live. ▫️  Tickets to the summit are $29, but you can save $10 with my ✨ discount code ✨ BROKEM (you gotta plug it in before checking out). The link to buy tickets is in my bio + in my stories.  25% of the proceeds I earn from affiliate commissions will be donated to City Harvest, which helps battle food insecurity in NYC! • • • • • •

Many college grads seek “career jobs” -- those that align with an area of expertise and offer security, growth and the almighty benefits package of health insurance, retirement plan and paid vacation days. Most probably didn’t dream about piecing together an income from multiple jobs – especially ones sans benefits and that don’t necessarily require a degree. But the current economic climate might make this reality more likely. ▫️ When I graduated nearly a decade ago, the Great Recession was technically over and the U.S. was in recovery, but the job market wasn’t exactly booming. I had a hard time landing a “career job.” It didn’t help that I was seeking employment in journalism and theatre -- two industries that in good times can offer few steady jobs and be notoriously low-paying.  ▫️ The job I ended up securing was as a page for The Late Show with David Letterman. It felt tangentially related to both my career aspirations, but it was a part-time job with odd hours and I needed to find other work to supplement my income. I applied for just about every service-industry job I could find, from waitress to movie theatre usher to barista. Ultimately, the latter worked out, and I became employed by a well-known mermaid-logoed coffee chain. Truthfully, I went into this job just to pay my bills not really considering that it may actually help me professionally. But it was on that job that I learned a lot of the “soft skills” that still serve me in my career today.  ▫️ "Soft skills” like customer service, multi-tasking, learning how to handle demanding people, de-escalating stressful situations, handling a lackluster manager or learning from a great one – these are all skills that will be useful in your career long-term. There is also always a chance a non-career job could lead to unexpected places. ▫️  Click the link stories an in my bio to read my full article on Bloomberg Opinion about graduating into a tough economy. And drop your advice for recent grads in the comments! • • • • • •

💸How do you decide who to trust with your $$$. Seriously, it's important. ⚠️ “Financial advisor" is a fairly unregulated and bastardized term. Insurance salesmen sometimes go under the moniker of "financial advisor" when they're really "salesmen". And what do salesmen do? SELL YOU THINGS! Now, the lines do get blurry here because there are ethical financial advisors who can sell you products, so here's what I want you to know... ▫️ HOW DOES YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR GET PAID?!  ▫️ Does your "financial advisor" (yes, quotes) work with you for free? Umm...what does grandma say about a free lunch?! There's no such thing. If a financial advisor isn't charging you directly, then the money is coming from somewhere and that somewhere is probably commissions on the products you're being sold.  ▫️ The clean and simple way to hire a financial advisor is to work with a fee-only Certified Financial Planner (CFP). It's the gold standard of the financial planning world. The fee only part makes the relationship simple. If you elect to do a fee-based CFP, just make sure you 100% understand where any commissions are being collected. You can use search tools like LetsMakeAPlan.org and XYPN or Garrett Planning Network to find a CFP. (No ad, just my recommendations) You should 100% date around until you click with the right person. ▫️ P.S. The other big word you want to know: FIDUCIARY. You want to only work with someone who is a fiduciary, meaning they do what's in your best interest. You need to directly ask "are you a fiduciary' and if they say no, you walk. CFPs are required to be fiduciaries, but it never hurts to confirm.  ▫️ Want to learn more? Check my stories today (9/4/20) for some articles I've written about financial planners. Have my books? Check out Chapter 17 "I'm Not Rich Enough to Hire a Financial Planner" in Broke Millennial and Chapter 9 "Robo-Advisor or Human Advisor: Which is Better" in Broke Millennial Takes On Investing.  • • • • • •

Let’s talk about building a nest egg in uncertain times (or, if you’re like me, you raided yours right before life went sideways)... ▫️ It’s hard to focus on the future when the present is a nightmare hellscape. Sure, in an ideal world you’d be able to muscle through and keep contributing at least a little to retirement accounts and putting money into savings. ▫️ But it’s also okay if you’re pressing pause in order to put on your financial oxygen mask. For some that’ll be pausing retirement contributions to shore up cash reserves. It’s not ideal, but cash on hand is important in a crisis. One of the things you can be doing right now is shoring up your knowledge about investing so you’re ready to go in the future. Broke Millennial Takes On Investing should be available at your local library so you don’t even have to spend a penny to gain the knowledge! • • • • • •

Let’s talk about building a nest egg... ▫️ It’s hard to focus on the future when the present is a nightmare hellscape. Sure, in an ideal world you’d be able to muscle through and keep contributing at least a little to retirement accounts and putting money into savings. ▫️ But it’s also okay if you’re pressing pause in order to put on your financial oxygen mask. One of the things you can be doing right now is shoring up your knowledge about investing so you’re ready to go in the future. Broke Millennial Takes On Investing should be available at your local library so you don’t even have to spend a penny to gain the knowledge! • • • • • •

✨GIVEAWAY ALERT✨ It’s really exciting how much the Broke Millennial community has grown this year! I want to thank all of you, so I’m doing a giveaway. ▫️ 👉🏻3 people will win a Broke Millennial book (winner’s choice on which one)! 👉🏻2 people will win access to my worksheet bundle pack, which includes help on building a bare essentials budget, setting better savings goals and paying down debt more effectively and while in financial distress. 👉🏻1 person will when a 30-minute money talk with me! (It’s like an IRL AMA). ▫️ ✨HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY✨ All you have to do to enter is comment below about a money win you’ve had in 2020 and tag a friend to help celebrate and share! 🎉(Despite it being a dumpster fire of a year, let’s celebrate even the littlest of wins!) On Friday, August 21 at 12 pm ET, I’ll draw the winner out of a hat. And by “hat” I mean a random number generator! You must live in the US to win the books because of shipping $$$. ▫️ • • • • • •

When Alexandra Dickinson @_alexandradickinson said that to me during our interview, I felt like the human version of 🤯🤯🤯. It’s such a simple and powerful way to reframe negotiating. ▫️ Not to play the scare tactic approach, but failing to negotiate can cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life when you factor in compound interest (especially assuming you invest some!). It’s critical we get comfortable having that potentially awkward conversation! ▫️ My third book, Broke Millennial Talks Money, kicks off with a section on how to talk about money at work. Everything from how to ask a co-worker (or fellow freelancer) to how to become a stronger negotiator. ▫️ Broke Millennial Talks Money is available for pre-order now (including indie sellers 🙌🏻) and hits shelves 12/29/20! Link in bio. • • • • •

This morning I was on Rachael Ray @rachaelrayshow talking about my own experience doing a no spend challenge and giving tips on how to feel in control of your financial life! (Filmed pre-Covid) • • • • •

⚠️We use the wrong language when it comes to retirement. You aren't "saving" for retirement. You're investing for retirement. It's an important distinction because you need to actually pick investments within your 401(k), IRA or 403(b) and don't just let it sit in cash. 💵Some companies will default you into a target date fund, but you need to make sure your money is actually invested. 👉🏻(Swipe the photo to get all the details!) ▫️ Target date funds (sometimes called life cycle funds or all-in-one funds) get mixed reviews. The downside is that they're a one-size-fits-all solution to a situation which should be highly personalized and curated to you and your life. They also are often actively managed, which means they have higher fees than you building an investment portfolio of index funds or ETFs. ▫️ However, what I like about them is it removes the overwhelming decision fatigue of figuring out how to pick investments when you might not know much (or anything) about investing yet. It also isn't a lifetime commitment. You can start with a target date fund and then switch up your investments later on. ▫️ Have you checked lately to make sure that you're INVESTED for retirement?  • • • • •

Please report this account as inappropriate because it’s pretending to be someone else. The _ is the key difference in our handles (and all the spam on their feed...). Do not respond to any DMs from it! They’re trying to scam this community and will be stopped.

Getting married is one of (if not the) single biggest financial decision you can make. And no, I’m not talking weddings. I mean getting married and merging your life — and money — with someone else. Peach and I talked so much about money before getting married, before even getting engaged. We’re not perfect. We don’t have the same emotional relationship with money and our goals/desires aren’t always aligned. But what we do well is listen and communicate. As part of the Wealth & Legacy Summit, I’ve created a 50-minute session about how to initiate “the talk” about all things money with your partner and what to do if you just can’t seem to talk money without fighting. The class even includes scripts for initiating and navigating this potentially awkward conversation. 💥DOORS CLOSE JULY 4! The Wealth & Legacy Summit also includes sessions teaching about: Generational wealth  Budgeting How to crush debt  How to curb emotional spending Investing Career 👉🏻BONUS OFFER UNTIL 7/4/20: The first 20 people to purchase the summit will be eligible for bonuses, one of which includes a 30-minute one-on-one coaching session with me! Email proof of purchase to info@brokemillennial.com. Click the link in my bio to learn more! • • • • •