Category Archives for "Personal Finance"

When the Republicans passed their tax cut at the end of 2017, the Republicans proclaimed it was a (windfall) tax cut for corporations and a (small) tax cut for individuals. Well, it is a windfall for corporations. For families? It depends. For Cubicle Warriors? It’s probably a tax increase. If you were curious, you might have […]

Sooner is always better when it comes to retirement planning, and that’s why you should go over your retirement plan with your employer as soon as you’re hired. Don’t just set your 401k contribution without asking any questions. When you sit down with your employer to talk about retirement, here are five important things to […]

Most of us don’t have enough money to last us through retirement. That’s true for those of us close to retirement age — but also true for those just starting their careers. Yes, we can increase the amount of money that we save into our 401(k) plans — and that really, seriously helps, especially if […]

At the top of the Employment Security Hierarchy are finances. Specifically, I advocate having a year’s worth of take-home pay in the bank (confession: I don’t yet in liquid savings though I have in the past). And while a month’s pay, or three months or six months isn’t a year, it is a whole lot […]

When you look at what you need to perform a good job search, most people would tell you: job skills, networking, stuff on resumes. Few mention great job performance that produces those results hiring managers crave. Fewer still will mention finances. I’m one of the fewer still. Now, a thousand financial sites will tell you […]

You know what the best defense is for the risk of getting laid off? One year’s take home pay in the bank. You’ll never remove the risk of a layoff. Job security is a myth. Even if you are consistently adding job skills to your resume, getting great reviews, and have confidence in your ability, […]

Political news constantly highlights Social Security as not being funded enough (not true, but that’s the line). Pensions — especially government pensions — are not funded enough (true). And 401(k)’s took a hit in the Great Recession, giving many people 40% haircuts to their potential retirement nest eggs in a very short period. But Ezra […]

Saving money isn’t easy, especially for something so way out there, like, you know, retirement. Yet the more you save right now, the better position you will be in the future. Compound interest from saving early means something and what it means is more security and choice the closer you get to retirement. There are […]

For most people, a 401(k) is an excellent financial tool which helps them save for retirement without having to pay taxes on either their contributions or their investment gains. While investing in a 401(k) is an excellent idea and an efficient way to build long term wealth, not properly managing the account can be devastating […]

The end of the year is my time to review my finances. While I’m not a personal finance expert, I am responsible for my personal financial decisions that I make during the course of the year. In order to get perspective — and not get burned — I take this week to do my personal […]

When CIO’s start getting articles about personal finance — the basics, not the fancy investments — you know that personal finance has come to career management. Here’s the basic thrust of Where Personal Finance and Career Management Meet: Good career management stems from a foundation of good financial management. Career freedom and financial freedom begin […]

With job losses continuing, job stress for those still employed continues. Does management know how to distribute the work? What work will we no longer do? Will there be more layoffs? Will I have a layoff next? For those who are already laid off, the mission is clear: find another job. For those who stay, […]

When dealing with your personal finances, I’ve long recommended saving one year’s take-home pay. I have seen few personal financial advisers favor that amount of savings; most say an emergency fund typically three to six months long. That’s hard enough to do, I understand. But Cubicle Warriors take the challenge and get the savings out […]

Part I of “When will the economy get better?” noted that it is sometimes easier for me to see how we are doing through charts and graphs. It referred people to the Calculated Risk blog and the excellent February Economic Summary in Graphs. What the short article did not do was explain why I use […]

Part of managing your career is managing your 401(k). Right now, your 401(k) is looking ugly. Should you stop contributing to your 401(k)? Here are three reasons to keep contributing – and one reason you might stop. 401(k) has company match Without going crazy on percentages, if your company is contributing a company match to […]

While many look forward to the new year, there is at least one item from 2008 that merits attention. It may be the year that the end of company retirement plan support begins. It all started with companies eliminating pensions, of course. That part is old news. The new news is that more and more […]

Do you remember Enron? While many will remember the fraud that was done in the energy markets, I remember the thousands and thousands of employees who lost everything in their 401(k)’s because they had invested all of it in Enron stock. In a period of just months, they lost everything they had saved. I thought […]

Seriously, this post is way too late for most people. But, perhaps in the future people will find this post and save some money. Here it is: too many people believe if they sell the stocks in their 401(k) they will incur the 10% tax penalty for doing so. This is totally false. You only […]

People stare at me when I tell them that career management is also personal finance. They either get a “deer in headlights” or a glazed look over their eyes when I bring the subject up. Not that I provide financial advice, mind you. No, just the importance of a few principles about why personal finance […]

Yesterday, I wrote about the need for Cubicle Warriors to have a year’s worth of take home pay in the bank. From a career management perspective, these savings represent your ability to search for the right next position in your career in case of a layoff. Most people would take one look at this advice […]