The three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — recently announced major changes to how they will report medical debt. These changes could have a wide-reaching impact and eliminate about 70% of the medical debt that appears on credit reports in the U.S. Credit scores impact the ability to access housing, own a car, and sometimes even gain employment. These changes will reduce the double penalization of many people who are underinsured or who have struggled to make ends meet.

So what’s changing?

I’ve done a lot of research on the subject and concluded that everyone has that year: the year of all the weddings. Like all of them. At the same damn time. For me, that meant six destination weddings for six people whose weddings I really, really wanted to attend, all of which required plane tickets and hotels for two people since I was married at the time. For a BFF that same year, there were 13 weddings (although if you ask me she got off easy because most of them were in Long Island, which apparently is a place that natives like to return to to proclaim their love for one another, unlike my New Jersey homeland).

Imagine that you are on track with your budget for the month and feeling amazing about it — as you should be! But then you go for your $200 quarterly hair appointment or your $500 annual credit card fee hits, and suddenly, your budget is busted.

These types of expenses feel like surprises, but they aren’t — they are regular, predictable expenses that should be part of your budget. The problem is that we are so focused on monthly budgets that we don’t plan for expenses that occur annually, quarterly, or every few months.

I work with a lot of clients who are planning for retirement. Some are early in their careers and want to put best practices into place ASAP. Some are nearing, say, the 40 year mark, just starting to see retirement as a reality on the horizon, and want to make up for lost time. Others are on the brink of retirement and want a second set of eyes to help them feel confident that they’re going to be ok once they pull the trigger. Some have not saved for retirement and want to better understand what the future holds.

Regardless of where you are, it’s probably time to start thinking about retirement savings.

This is our fifth and final week in the series.

Once you have tackled budgeting, saving, debt, and retirement, you are ready to invest! We get a lot of questions about investing because it often feels mysterious and out of reach. The good news is that you only need to understand a few key concepts to get started. Investing is putting your money into something that you expect to increase in value, thereby creating a profit and earning you more money. At TFG, we think of investing as giving your money a workout.

My 5-year-old son saved up enough money for a Nintendo Switch this year. Weirdly enough, my first money memory is also of saving up enough money to buy a Nintendo system (a purple Gameboy at the time) with my own money. I saw the opportunity to give him his first money memory and I ran with it. So how did I talk him through saving up for it? He had received a gift card for Christmas and wanted to go spend it immediately. We walked through each aisle about 4-5 times. He picked up toys in each aisle, all of which he already had. Each time he picked up something I asked him the following questions.

We’ve all seen the news: the last year of Covid-related upheaval has created quite the housing boom. As many people are able to work from home, many have also decided to relocate, moving out of small apartments or cramped cities to have more space and a place to call their own. As we tell our clients, buying a home takes a lot of financial preparation. You’ll need to figure out how much you can afford to pay for your mortgage each month and create savings accounts for your downpayment and a contingency fund.

This month, we’re bringing you bite-sized servings of financial literacy. Each week, we’ll introduce you to a core concept and map out a fun and easy daily action item. This is our fourth week in the series.

Thinking about retirement can be overwhelming. For starters, there are so many different types of accounts, terms, and tax implications. And we have to juggle saving for something that is 20, 30, or 40 years away with our short-term goals of paying off debt or saving up for a house.

If you read, this Financial Gym article, then you already know why you should apply for a job you aren’t qualified for, in the eyes of a recruiter. Recruiters and hiring teams look for stand-out cover letters, unique answers to interview questions and interchangeable skills. These are all traits that are not specific to one field or dependent on your background. Meaning the hiring team thinks you can, and should, still apply for the job you aren’t technically qualified for on paper.

Let’s set the context: you have already gone through the homebuying process once, and you probably learned a lot from that experience as a buyer. Now, you’re ready to buy a second home. But here is the kicker: you have to sell the home you’re currently living in to afford the home you want to buy. You may be wondering, can I do that at the same time? The answer is yes and it’s pretty straightforward (in theory) with complexity in the process (in practice). To start, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page.

This month, we’re bringing you bite-sized servings of financial literacy. Each week, we’ll introduce you to a core concept and map out a fun and easy daily action item. This is our third week in the series.

Debt. Most of us have it in some form — credit cards, student loans, a car loan, a mortgage, an outstanding medical bill. Having debt is not a moral failing, but we can get so wrapped up in our feelings about having debt and how we got it that we get in our own way.

Many homeowners have taken advantage of historically low interest rates over the past few years to refinance their mortgages. If you aren’t among them, the talk of rising interest rates might be prompting you to consider whether you should refinance now. Refinancing your mortgage can have major benefits such as lowering your monthly payment and reducing the amount of interest you pay in the long run. However, refinancing to a lower rate isn’t always the best financial decision.

This month, we’re bringing you bite-sized servings of financial literacy. Each week, we’ll introduce you to a core concept and map out a fun and easy daily action item. This is our second week in the series.

Our topic for this week is saving! Saving might sound boring, but it is actually a secret superpower. Almost all financial goals involve saving, so mastering this skill will get you far. Saving is the act of setting aside any money that you earned and didn’t spend in a given month — ideally in a separate high yield savings account.

Inflation is here and we are feeling it — at the grocery store, the car dealership, the gas pump, and in our housing costs. It is frustrating to shell out more cash for the same products, but there are a few actions you can take to ensure that you are keeping your finances on track when it feels like prices are out of control.

Inflation is a broad increase in the prices of goods and services across the economy that results in reduced purchasing power. In other words, you pay more money for the same groceries, cars, and haircuts.

There are many reasons home buyers opt to work with a mortgage broker. A broker acts as an intermediary between you and the lender, helping you navigate loan documents, get the best mortgage, and quickly close on your new home. Some homeowners, however, will choose to do their own loan research and work directly with the lender's loan officer. Either option requires some thoughtful research. Your mortgage broker or lender will be in charge of one of the biggest purchases of your adult life.

Happy Financial Literacy Month! At the Financial Gym, one of our core values is “gymsplaining.” We take seemingly complicated financial topics and break them down in a way that people without a finance degree can understand. Because most people don’t get a financial education at school or from their families, many clients come to us with the goal of increasing their financial literacy. But what is financial literacy and why is it important? At its core, financial literacy is the ability to understand the impact of your financial decisions.

By this point, most people are well aware that gender can have an impact on their financial situation. As women, we face the wage gap, the investing gap, the pink tax, the mommy tax, etc. But many people are less familiar with the financial barriers that transgender and non-binary people experience.

The past few years have been particularly challenging for trans people and the folks who love them.

With the massive movement towards remote work, a lot of us have questions about what this means for our 2021 taxes. Are there deductions you can take advantage of? What if you use your cell phone for work? Can you deduct for a home office? The answer to these questions is more complicated than you might think, and more often than not the answer is no. Here we clarify some myths about tax deductions for those of who have been working remotely for most of this year. While it seems intuitive to take home office deductions, in reality few W2 employees can take these deductions.

A developmental disability is a type of condition that affects a person’s physical, language, behavioral, or learning abilities. According to the CDC, roughly 17% of children ages 3 through 17 have a developmental disability. Examples of developmental disabilities include autism, ADHD, and intellectual disabilities. People with developmental disabilities face a lot of the same challenges as any of us do with our finances. However, there are specific challenges that need to be understood so that we can find pathways to financial health and empowerment.

Here you are, ready to embark on an American tradition: purchasing your first home. It’s an often-sought-out goal, one that is implanted in our minds early on. All that aside, how do you actually go about it? It seems daunting; there are all of these expenses, ratios, and procedures you need to follow before you can even consider purchasing a home, so where do you start?

For many people, coming up with the cash for a down payment and closings costs is the biggest hurdle to homebuying.