Bloomberg economists have estimated that the average household in the U.S. will be spending upwards of $433 more per month in 2022 than they did last year. This is a minimum of $5,200 per year if you make no changes to your style of living. If your budget has little room for additional expenses, you will need to make some difficult decisions about your budget.

IPO or Initial Public Offering is the process of a private company offering shares to the public as a new stock issue. The IPO allows the company to raise capital by selling shares of its’ company. Companies must meet SEC requirements and it often takes months to navigate through all the requirements. It indicates that a company has grown and matured enough to meet the demands and benefits of the responsibility it must carry to public shareholders.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is the investment in companies that promote ethical and socially conscious ideals such as environmental sustainability, justice, corporate ethics and/or advocate against discrimination. This can be accomplished by either specifically including companies that are making positive impacts and/or can exclude others that are making negative or questionable impact.

Many equate saving with investing. Yet the two concepts are not entirely interchangeable, there is a difference between saving and investing. Saving is putting money away that is for later use with little to no risk of loss. While you save in order to invest, you then take on some risk by investing in assets which ideally will increase in value but that doesn’t always occur. Here are some of the key differences to understand.

Talking about money with your children does not have to be complicated. The best way to accomplish this is to use day-to-day activities and turn them into learning opportunities.

Younger children often do not understand money and its’ value. This is most apparent when you are giving your child coins. For example, if you give your child the choice between a penny, a dime and a nickel they will almost certainly choose the nickel simply because of the larger size. It is highly important to teach your child value at a young age.

New couples are busy enjoying learning about each other and sharing parts of their lives with one another. Very often an important aspect of sharing a life that gets ignored is discussing your values surrounding financial matters. Things such as financial goals to credit card debt can bring a host of challenges to the relationship. Having open conversations about navigating each partner’s financial situation as well as their feelings on various financial matters is key to helping you build a strong financial foundation in your relationship.

Retirement is just over the horizon and while most people have making ends meet during that period on their minds there is another extremely important part of aging that should be explored. Medicare! There is a 7-month initial enrollment period that begins 3 months before you turn 65, the month you turn 65 and 3 months after you turn 65. If you do not sign up during that window of time you will be penalized for late enrollment, which comes in the form of higher premiums (typically a 10% increase premiums).