In May, our Certified Financial Trainer Tina wrote this helpful blog post to inform our clients and readers about this year’s unique Child Tax Credit and to help parents know what to expect as the program rolled out. Now that many people have received their first payments, an update is in order!

For most of us, our first experience with insurance is buying car insurance to meet state laws or a lender’s requirement. But building a comprehensive insurance plan is an absolute necessity to anyone who wants to be in great financial shape. At Insurify, we recognize that insurance is a vital part of a sound financial plan— not just another item on a to do list. It’s our mission to help people find the best deal on home and auto insurance products.

Rest assured, Financial Friend, you are not alone. Last weekend alone 3 meetings popped onto my calendar with descriptions like “Impending financial downfall,” “Save me from myself,” and “I can’t stop spending money.” It’s not shocking that we would see increases in spending around this time. For one thing, summer can be a rough time on our budgets, as it seems there is always another wedding, or a friend in from out of town, or a vacation opportunity, or cute new bathing suits and dresses to replace the ones that have been sitting in our drawers for two years now.

Our guest blogger today is Derby Chukwudi. Derby is a contestant in the Miss New Jersey USA competition, and she is passionate about travel, education, reading, writing, and also the power of financial literacy. Here, she shares some money myths that she’s identified and eliminated on her path to financial wellness.

I never thought of myself as being bad with money. I usually had an extra month or two of rent in the bank, I didn’t rack up charges on my credit card, I lived frugally enough to enjoy life on my small salary, and I kept my fixed expenses well within my means. I hoped I’d make more money at some point, but all in all, I felt like some major pieces of my financial puzzle were in place.

Over ten years ago now, I left a successful investment banking career to become a Financial Advisory at Merrill Lynch because I saw a tremendous need for diversity in the financial advisory space. I enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of Merrill and the education they provided me on anything from ETF’s, to life insurance to trusts and estates. I carried so much of that spirit and content with me when I left to build The Financial Gym.

Although it can seem counterintuitive at times, having and using credit cards are essential parts of optimal financial wellness. Not only do credit cards provide us with a temporary safety net if we need cash in a pinch, but in a lot of cases they are non-negotiable forms of currency, such as when we need to rent a car or leave a deposit on a hotel room. Plus, once we move on to increasingly more adult transactions, like renting an apartment or buying a home, a long and strong credit history is hard to come by if we haven’t established and wisely used credit lines in the past.

While it is important to have money in the stock market, as that is where you can really grow your net worth, it is really important to have that money working correctly for you. As you have learned in some of our other blog posts about investing, there are many different ways you can invest your money in the stock market, from stocks to bonds to real estate to commodities to cryptocurrency.

Congratulations! Investing is an important part of overall financial wellness and an important tool for building wealth for your future. The first step is to ensure that there aren’t other pieces of your financial foundation that need to be laid in place before you commit money to the market. The next step is to look at your options for investing and to choose which is right for you.

The talk of the town for the better part of the year has been cryptocurrencies. You have probably heard of a few of the popular ones: Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. A lot can be said about the current state of cryptocurrencies, and that conversation seems to change almost by the day.

Getting financially fit can be challenging for anybody, but a lot of the steps towards building a healthy relationship with money can be more tough for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Recently we interviewed Amalia Sirica, a FinGym client and LCSW. Working with a mental health professional can be a crucial part of ADHD management, but according to Amalia, this avenue may not directly address how ADHD and money intersect.

Ever heard of the terms RSUs, stock options, ESPP, and ISO? (The financial world loves its acronyms, doesn't it?) Those are options that you may have for investing that come from your employer. All of these options may not be available with every employer; you may have one, two, or even none.

The basic facts of the racial wealth gap are that Black Americans hold about 13% of the wealth of white Americans. This wealth disparity can be seen through almost every measure of wealth, from actual financial holdings, to income levels, to housing values, to stock ownership. While this issue can seem simple on its surface, the history, current reality, and potential solutions for this problem are complex.

In four more months I’m becoming a father for the first time. My wife and I are excited to bring a new person into the world, but with it come so many challenges. How much do we spend on childcare? Are we going to need to buy the latest and greatest stroller? What about college, which can push up to $50,000/year in tuition?

So, not unlike many of our clients at the Gym, you bailed on your big city tiny apartment and giant rent burden in favor of getting through a tough time without bleeding cash. Good for you for making a wise financial choice! Still, despite the charms of living in your childhood bedroom and having a concierge grocery service, you may be itching to re experience the freedoms of your own place. Somehow you did this before without missing a beat, but now with your new savings rate and bill-free living, stepping back into the world of the rent-paying adults seems more daunting than it once did. Lucky for you, we’ve been feeling this question a lot lately and we’ve got you!

Investing in stocks and/or bonds is not the only strategy you can use when it comes to investing. While many individuals will invest most of their funds in the traditional stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds, understanding less common options for investing is part of growing your overall financial literacy. Other types of investments include commodities, foreign exchange, real estate (including REITs, or Real Estate Investment Trusts), hedge funds, private equity, and the hot topic nowadays: cryptocurrency. Below are explanations of these different options.

As trainers, we always give our clients a weekly spending goal. This is supposed to be for everything that isn’t a fixed monthly expense. My fixed bills each month are rent, utilities, internet, and a Netflix family subscription. I do have a monthly Peloton subscription (just the workouts, as I don’t have the bike) but it’s reimbursed from my credit card for the rest of 2021. Annually, I also pay for renter’s insurance, 2 travel credit card fees, and professional license dues/fees. So my weekly spend goal is for things like groceries, takeout/delivery, bubble tea (I drink a lot of this), and all the other random stuff I buy.

Congrats! You have an important decision to make, and at the end of the day you have a choice between two great options. Whichever you choose, future you will be thankful! The first step in making this choice is to understand the similarities and differences between the two retirement savings vehicles. Both of them will give you a tax advantaged opportunity to invest for your retirement. Both will allow for your investments to grow tax free.

At the Gym we work with a lot of people who are focused on building credit. Some people are recent grads who are transitioning from school to full time work and becoming financially independent from their families. Others are new to the U.S., just got a social security number, and are establishing a new financial life in a new place. Whatever the reason, the process can be less than intuitive, and having a checklist to follow as you move forward can be helpful. Today we’re going back to basics to answer one of the most common questions we see: how do you establish credit when you have none?

131 trillion dollars. That’s the amount of money that governments, companies, organizations, and people like you and me need to invest in climate solutions between now and 2050 to meet the targets in the Paris Climate Agreement. As if that number wasn’t scary enough, global investment is nowhere near that level. If you’re now thinking, “well, this is hopeless,” you’re not alone! 68% of Americans are anxious about the impact of climate change; this is so pervasive that the term ‘eco-anxiety’ has been coined.