Twelve years ago, I became a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch with the hopes of changing financial advisory. Before this, I met and worked with too many advisors at Merrill Lynch who seemed no better than a used car salesperson (and ironically many of them were car salespeople before they were advisors) and I just knew there was a better way to support people on their financial journeys. I set out to become the advisor I wanted in my life — someone trustworthy, someone who gave advice they would take themselves and someone who truly cared for their clients and took responsibility for their financial success.

At The Financial Gym, we have the good fortune to have seen a lot of people undergo huge financial transformations. When I see this happen, in an effort to offer the best support I can to future clients, I always ask what the top 3 tools were that helped move the financial journey forward. I almost always hear the same 3 answers: Tracking your spending, automating your savings, and meal prepping. We will go over the other two in later posts, but today we’re going to cover tracking because it is the one I get the most resistance to, but the one that I think has the most impact. The resistance comes because the job sounds tedious. Recording every transaction sounds hard, and it can be easy to forget, so people feel like they just can’t do it. However, much like any other habit, you can change this one, too.

Anyone who has done the math on how much they take home per year versus their salary has likely noticed a stark difference between their total earnings and the amount that gets deposited in their bank account. Of course, a good chunk of that difference goes to taxes and other required deductions that employees have little-to-no control over. But sometimes a significant portion of that difference is spent on benefits that they do have a say over. Because these benefits are deducted from employees’ paychecks, they tend to stay out-of-sight, out-of-mind, but if an employee is consistently coming up short on cash each month, it’s worth examining what they are paying for—and whether they should continue to pay for it.

We all love a discount, right? What if you could give yourself 5% off almost all of your purchases? With a selection of five different credit cards, you can. All of these cards have no annual fee so you won’t need to pay for the privilege of earning these cash back rewards.

To get 5% back on almost everything, these are the cards you should have in your wallet. Every three months, the Chase Freedom Flex offers 5% cash back in a category selected by the cardholder on the first $1,500 spent in that category. From July through September 2022, cardholders can choose to earn 5% back on purchases made at gas stations, rental cars, movie theaters, and some live entertainment.

If you’ve been following the stock market, cryptocurrency, retail investing, NFTs and anything else related to investing/speculating, you may have experienced the roller coaster that was exuberance and then pessimism. From March 2020 to now, the stock market and the economy both went rapidly down, then rapidly up, kept going up and then began to gradually go down. These ups and downs are the result of the pandemic, social and civil unrest, political turbulence, wars, inflation, production chain issues, extreme weather conditions; the list goes on and on. All of these issues affect assets in one way or another and often come as surprises. And, that’s exactly what we want to talk to you about.

Let’s be real: it’s been a tough few years and the events of the world have taken a toll on everyone’s mental health. Employers recognize this but wonder what they can do with limited resources. The good news is they employers can do a lot for their employee’s mental health and well-being by fostering more flexibility, connection, and support without spending a lot of money.

Providing additional paid time off for employees to use for their mental health goes a long way toward making them feel supported. Considering that employees are not likely to do their best work when they are feeling off, it’s not too much of a financial sacrifice for most employers (depending on the business they’re in).

When I heard the Gym was offering the chance to become a Certified Financial Trainer, I had already been a member for over 4 years. Joining the Gym was the first real investment I made in myself, and when my trainer asked me what my goals were I never imagined celebrating so many of them with the Financial Gym community. I celebrated my wildest goal of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail by stopping at one of the former physical locations in NYC because without my trainer clarifying my goals, I never would have thru-hiked. I traveled to Atlanta to meet and hike with other Gym members and have been delighted to hear their continued progress on podcast updates.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans have either no emergency savings or less than one month of expenses saved for emergencies, according to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Most employers recognize the value of helping their employees save for retirement—that’s why they offer 401(k)s and matching contributions. But what about helping employees prepare for their most basic financial needs such as affording unexpected expenses? Some employers are doing just that by offering emergency savings accounts to their employees.

One of the most common questions we get when the stock market is going up and down and loopy-loop like a rollercoaster is: Should I hold off on investing in the stock market until things settle down? There are generally two schools of thought.

At the Financial Gym, though, we’d encourage you to ask yourself another question before we give you an answer: Do you have a full emergency fund? That is, three-to-six months worth of expenses in cash.

Everything is getting more expensive, including your credit card debt. Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.75%—the largest one-time increase in nearly three decades. Credit card companies factor the Fed’s rate into the annual percentage rates (APRs) they charge consumers, so if you are carrying credit card debt, you can expect to pay even more on interest in the coming months.

But luckily, you are not powerless in the face of rising interest rates.

When you’re designing your financial wellness benefits, it’s helpful to know what employees actually have on their minds financially so you can best address their needs. Our Certified Financial Trainers (CFTs) work with employees across the country and throughout various sectors, and the same topics come up again and again: budgeting, retirement, and debt management. We’ve all heard the advice “you need a budget,” but about 50% of people don’t use a budget or even know how much they spend last month. When employees are taking control of their finances, this is often where they start because cash flow affects all other areas of their finances.

We’ve all heard the advice before that if you want to eat healthy on a budget, you need to meal prep! My belief is that this is the most common advice because it really works. I personally am a huge fan of meal prepping as I’ve not only seen the benefits it has on my wallet, but also the time it saves me throughout the week. That being said, if I am being realistic, there are some weeks I just don’t get around to meal prepping! So, I’ve developed a number of backup plans, tips, and tricks for whipping together a cheap and easy meal that doesn’t need to be meal prepped.

It's the first week of a new job. Amidst the excitement of taking on a new role and meeting coworkers, your HR manager sends you a pile of paperwork to fill out—W2s, health benefits enrollment, the employee handbook. As if you weren't overwhelmed enough already, among that stack is your 401(k) enrollment form and a list of investments which to choose from. Decision fatigue leads many people to the default option: a target date fund.

Once the new job craziness dies down, you may start to wonder: what is my retirement account actually invested in, and is it right for me?

Even smart employers who offer financial wellness benefits for their employees might hit a new challenge: participation in these benefits is not in line with their expectations. One study found that of employees who have access to financial wellness benefits, only 8% said they participated in them. This could be a sign that the employer is not offering the right type of program.

To get the most out of a program, employers need to make sure that their financial wellness offerings check off these boxes.

I’m not sure if you know this, but I still work one-on-one with clients. As the business has grown, I have taken progressively fewer clients, but I’m fortunate enough to be on the financial journeys of about 40 clients, with many of whom it’s been over five years now; and no matter how busy I get, I will always be here for those clients because at this point, they are beyond clients, they’re family.

This past weekend, I had quarterly reviews with two couples who both share 7-year anniversaries of working with me. They started with me at different points in their lives/families and careers, but both have accomplished so much over this time.

Employees and employers alike are struggling with inflation. In the past year, wages have increased 4.5% while the cost of our most basic necessities (groceries, rent, gas, and mortgage payments) has risen between 10%-48%. This has put pressure on employers to increase pay or risk losing their employees to competitors. If across-the-board salary increases in line with inflation aren’t in the budget this year, what else can employers do financially to assist their employees? Inflation hits low-wage workers the hardest because there is often little flexibility in their budgets to begin with.

When it comes to figuring out how to build credit, you might already know that a credit card can be a powerful tool in strengthening your credit profile. If you’re relatively new to using credit cards to build credit or simply want to brush up on better cardholder habits, knowing how to use a credit card wisely is the first step toward your credit goals. Here’s what you should know: Rewards credit cards can help you save money in the long run. Some cards offer tantalizing sign-up bonuses valued at hundreds of dollars and the prospect of getting cash back on basics, like gas. The appeal of earning rewards can compel you to recklessly chase points.

With the stock market recently finishing off a 7-week downward spiral toward a full-on bear market, investors have been scrambling and prices have been rising. You have probably heard of—if not already been feeling—the effects of inflation. Inflation increases the cost of goods and lowers the value of your assets compared to your purchasing power. When this happens, it can cause us to seek ways to preserve our wealth. With this in mind, you may have come across I bonds as a way to earn a return while hedging against inflation. We’re here to clear up some details about what a Series I bond is so you can make an informed decision about whether you should buy into this asset class.

Understanding our personal finances --- how to budget, save, pay off, spend, and invest wisely -- is essential for everyone, including your employees. Financial wellness is a growing concern of employees and the Culture and HR managers that we speak to on a daily basis.

One of the most common questions we get when speaking to HR Directors is “Why do I need The Financial Gym when we can bring in our 401K provider to speak about financial literacy?” This is valid, and it begs the question: “How financially literate are your employees?”

The racial wealth gap is well-documented: the average Black household has a net worth ten times less than the average white household. Also, Black households hold only about 3% of the country’s wealth despite making up close to 16 percent of the population.

Some of the proposed solutions to the racial wealth gap focus on actions that Black Americans can take to improve their own individual financial situation: save more, get more education, buy a home, or start a business. At TFG, we are huge fans of financial literacy and taking control of your personal finances, but we also understand its limitations in overcoming hundreds of years of government-backed discrimination.