Our closest friends are those that we feel comfortable talking to about anything and everything! Conversations between good friends can easily flow from fascinating projects at work, to latest updates on our dating lives, to a good book we just read. And yet, one topic tends to remain taboo among even the best of friends, and that is money!

We’ve all heard the saying, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Securing your dream job can feel like winning the lottery—unless you aren’t getting paid enough. If you are struggling to live your best life on your salary, you have a few options for trying to make it work.

The popularity of The Home Edit Netflix show has proven that there is something widely appealing about getting organized. Organizing your finances feels just as good as organizing your physical space. Follow the four step organizing method from The Home Edit organizing pros to get your finances in order: edit, categorize, contain, and maintain.

When you’re struggling with your mental health, dealing with your finances feels exponentially more difficult. If you feel anxious about your debt, you may avoid opening bills and rack up late payments. Ironically, even though mental health challenges can make it harder to address financial issues, the expense of getting mental can be a barrier in and of itself. If cost is standing in your way of getting therapy or other mental health care, consider these options.

So many personal finance experts (us included!) preach about the importance of having an emergency fund. We do this for a reason! A recent survey found more than two-thirds of Americans worry that their emergency savings would not even last them one month. But sometimes, we focus so much on the why and how of building an emergency fund that guidance about how and when to use your emergency fund falls by the wayside. 

As awareness and anxiety over climate change, human rights, and other social issues increases, financial products are increasingly called upon as drivers of change. According to a 2021 report from Morgan Stanley, 99% of millennials are interested in sustainable investing.

Unfortunately, it may not be immediately clear how to green your portfolio. 

Many people struggle with their personal finances. In fact, according to a recent survey, more than three-quarters of Americans feel anxiety about their financial situation. Action is the antidote to anxiety—you have to address your finances head on to see improvement. But sometimes, you don’t even know where to start.

Organizing your finances is a big undertaking. Get started with these five concrete actions including rolling over an old 401k, using a password manager, creating a calendar for your bills, setting up separate accounts for separate goals, and closing bank accounts you no longer use.

We’d all love to be on top of our finances, but we are not always in the right headspace to do that—especially if we’re facing mental health challenges. Mental health and financial health are so intertwined. Financial stress can be the source of mental health challenges and mental health challenges can cause financial stress. Either way, you need to focus on what is causing the stress first.

Want to retire early? Who doesn't!? Follow these five steps and you’ll be on your way to achieving financial independence.

First, let’s define our terms. FIRE is an acronym that stands for Financial Independence/Retiring Early. Typically people working towards FIRE aim to reduce expenses and/or increase income so that they can invest enough to live off of their savings before they hit “traditional retirement age.”

So you’ve successfully saved for an emergency fund and now you’re wondering: what next?  Knowing where to focus most of your money depends largely on your personal goals and the amount of risk you’re personally willing to take on in your investments. Here’s how to weigh your options and decide how to focus your resources. 

If you’re not a seasoned investor, the world of investments can seem intimidating. Between the confusing jargon and the constantly changing nature of the markets, many people choose to put off investing.

Here's an investing 101 guide to get you started.

It’s no secret that human behavior is altering our environment, and it’s only natural to want to help, but figuring out where to start can feel overwhelming—especially when changes to help the environment come with an added cost. Luckily, there are a lot of environmentally-friendly moves you can make that will actually save you money.

Tracking your weekly spending is an essential part of sticking with your Financial Plan! Just like diet and exercise, there are a million different ways to go about it. With each method, you will see great success stories and great failures. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but you do the work to experiment and find the right system that works and is sustainable for you.

At TFG, we’re focused on giving you a great financial foundation and helping you accomplish your life goals. For this reason, we follow a goals-based budgeting method. Goals-based budgeting focuses on determining how much you need to save each month to achieve your goals on a specific timeline. Learn about our budgeting method at the Financial Gym and why it works.

If your savings are minimal and your credit card balances are higher than you’d like, you are not alone: 42% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and 46% of people with credit cards are carrying a balance from month to month. Saving and paying off debt are at the heart of financial fitness. Here are six steps you can take to improve your financial fitness.

With inflation still higher than expected, many people are looking for ways to cut their costs. One of the places we feel inflation the most is at the grocery store. With inflation, you generally have to suck it up and pay for necessities no matter the cost, but with at least some fruits and veggies you have an alternative—grow your own!

There are many parallels between a physical health journey and a financial health journey (hence our name, the Financial Gym). Both involve challenging your current mindset, changing your habits, and making different choices. They are also very personal journeys and success looks different for everyone.

Debt is emotional and there are many mindset shifts involved in changing your relationship with money as you pay off debt. That is going to take time, effort, and a whole lot of self-compassion. In the meantime, there are concrete, one-time steps you can take to change your environment and make it much less likely that you will self sabotage.  

If you are reading this and feeling shame or embarrassment about your financial past (or present) and are wondering if there is any way to feel empowered and confident, here are 4 foolproof steps to develop financial forgiveness so you can finally move on and begin your journey to financial health.