This post is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, the first American female service member to die in combat in Syria.

Quick, what are the three biggest financial items on your mind right now? Chances are that if you’re like most people, your list probably looks like this:

  1. Paying down debt (whether a mortgage, car loans, student loans or credit card debt)
  2. Retirement savings (or lack thereof)
  3. Protecting from the risk of bad things happening

Continue reading “The Missing Piece – the Case for Objective Credit Advice”

 

If I stopped you on the road and asked you the one thing that was characteristic of managing money, what would say? If you’re like many people, chances are you probably said “the math” or “the complexity” of tasks and decisions involved in managing your money. In fact, entire industries have come into being, and making very good profits, thank you very much, premised on this fundamental construct that effective finance means complex finance.

Continue reading “Just “Kiss” The Problem Away – Why Simple Is the New Black”

 

When we think of doing better with managing our personal financial situation, the “better” part typically comes with the picture of more technology, more data or just more external “stuff”. Yet, there is plenty of evidence that hardwired cognitive and behavioral biases are one of the biggest barriers and challenges preventing us from managing money better.

Continue reading “Behavior Science Is the Answer”

 

If you’ve ever made countless resolutions to “finally” bring your “finances” in “order”, only to be derailed again due to one challenge or other, to be flummoxed at the exact same spots as before – you’re not alone. There are as many solutions to the problem of solving personal finance for good as I can count into the four and five figures. Yet the problem continues to be intractable for many, compounded by the frustration of having followed yet another new app or mantra, only to fail again.

Continue reading “The Seven Challenges of Personal Finance”

 

If there is one thing that characterizes the lives of women across multiple social strata – it is the severe lack of time and bandwidth that most of them battle constantly. The same amount of attention and mental capacity has to be apportioned between many equally important and demanding tasks – work, home, kids, and not least, money, for many busy women.

Continue reading “When Too Little Costs Too Much”