Know2Grow

Financial Independece – The ability to live our daily lives without depending on employment income thus allowing us to pursue our dreams whether that be a passive job opportunity or retirement.

Examples:

having multiple streams of passive income

not depending upon income from a full-time position to daily live/ not living paycheck to paycheck

That depends on your new employer retirmenet plan fees. If they are low it is ok but I would just move it over to an IRA/Roth IRA depending on the account you are rolling over.

You should always be shopping for lower premium on insurance but check the companies review, check with friends and family if they had any thoughts on the company you are looking at switching to. If they are not a good company than no premium savings is worth it. Be sure they do not have a history of declining appropriate claims. If you lose your home, you want to make sure they pay.

If they have a match than yes, anything past the match would be best to do into a IRA/Roth IRA. If no company match than an IRA/Roth IRA is the next best thing. If you are maxing these out and the fees on your companies retirement plan are low than it would be ok to contribute to it.

Your emergency fund should be 6 months of living expenses, not your income. It depends on your mindset and the state of the economy. During a tough job market, you may want 9 to 12 months of emergency fund.

On most things the answer is no, extended warranties are not worth the money.

An extended warranty on used cars has shown to be effective and save a lot of money and hassle. This is about the only one we recommend.

Generally when your purchase a home there is a warranty that is part of the deal and although it may not be used, you only stand to lose by not taking it. In suburban areas, I would let this lapse and not maintain it after that first year as you can usually find easier repair companies yourself. I have heard in some areas especially rural areas it is harder to find repair companies, so it may be best to maintain a home warranty for your HVAC, appliances and things like that in this instance.

Another option is a “service plan” for routine maintenance on your car, HVAC system or something like that. An example is a HVAC service plan that charges $99 a year for two free inspections/tune ups and gives a discount off other parts and labor, when a service call is $70 each but fee is waived due to the service plan.

We recommend starting with a free only software and seeing how far you can get. Most people can complete their taxes this way unless they have a business, special investments (requiring a document such as a K-1), or unusual deductions.

You should be comparing interest rates from time to time. If a bank is offering a higher interest rate switch. Some of the banks can be sketchy so you need to be reading reveiws on them before switching.

No, stick to total market index funds or diversify your profotlio into different sectors.

Yes, these should only be held in retirment accounts. If not you could have hefty tax bill.

When you adopt children from foster care you can claim a credit on your taxes. It is a certain amount per child and you can use it for up to that amount or five years. We filed ours online through an online service. A lot of tax professionals do not have experience with this as it is not that common.

You can certainly get by without it, but it probably is not wise. None of us can predict what will happen. Some employment plans are low cost and cover nothing, some are high cost and still don’t cover much.

Review the plans and see what you are getting. Compare them to healthcare.gov and maybe speak with a health insurance broker for free to see what has the best option for you.

Relatively healthy people can get by with a high deductible plan where you pay more out of pocket but a low monthly premium because you won’t use the plan much. People with health problems, many doctor visits or many medications probably want to opt for a lower deductible plan which may have a higher premium. You are basically trying to balance having the coverage you will need at the price that won’t break your bank monthly or when you have to use the coverage and pay out of pocket. Remember to consider not just you but your signficant other, if you have kids or could have a kid adding to your plan.

Common Insurance Terms:
Deductible is what you pay out of pocket before insurance pays.
Max out of pocket is your total expense towards your bills not including premiums and in some instances other things are not included either.
Co-Pay is what you will pay at time of service.

FICA – Federal Insurance Contributions Act requires social security deductions, Medicare Tax, Medicare surtax. Some organizations offer something in place of social security and may have something different.
Medicare – A tax to cover Medicare expenses. This is what currently pays senior citizen healthcare at 80%.
Federal Tax – Your federal tax withholdings as indicated by completing the W-4.
State Tax – An amount withheld and paid to the state unless your state does not have a state tax.
Insurance – Your current insurance coverage, probably broken down into medical, dental, vision, life, STD, LTD, etc.
Retirement – This is what you are contributing to a 401k, 403b or some other employer retirement plan.

If you cannot manage credit cards well then one as an emergency card. If you can manage them and pay the balance off each month then it really depends on how you split it up. Some people have a gas card, a card for recurring monthly expenses, a eating out card, a general card. It does get complex managing multiple cards, so the fewer the better, but if you stay on top of it then you will be good.

Absolutely! You can review it by each credit bureau weekly now for free. Weekly review is overkill unless something is going on. Some people still do it yearly, but that can be too far out. Quarterly is probably a good plan of action for reviewing your credit report.

Two weeks notice is a good faith practice. In At-will roles it is not required but still a good practice to do. When a future employee does reference checks on past employers and you are non-rehireable because you did not give two weeks notice they may choose not to hire you.

New jobs are out there, but you have to be willing to look and willing sometimes to do what you do not want to do.

Start with the job boards, the ones we all know and trust. Then look at niche boards for the specific career you are in.

Another practice is networking. Let your friends and socials know, see if can be a coworker with a friend, meet new people in the field and build a bigger social circle for job opportunities.

Student loans are not bad debt. You can make this debt easier on you by starting at a juniour/community college. It is less expensive and saves a lot of money.

Also, you want to be sure you are going to a reputable education institution. There are many education instiutions that do not give a quality education and promise all these things that are too good to be true. Taking out more loan than you need or being irresponsible with them can easily turn student loans into bad debt.

Your emergency fund should be used when you lose a job, have to pay a high insurance deductible, when you suffer a car accident, when you have to replace a major appliance and do not have the savings.

Pulling from savings first is the best plan, but this is your absolute this is necessary and could not have been planned for.

Yes, in this day and age data breaches have become so common that they do not even phase us as a big deal. Right now, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is by freezing your credit. Yes, it can feel like a pain when having to unfreeze it when you have to apply for new lines of credit but it is less of a hassle then having to deal with stolen idenity and having to fix whatever has been taken out in your name. Fraud alerts do not do enough and usually will turn off potental creditors becasue that tells them you have issues with your identiy being stolen.

Contact each credit bureau by themselves to place the freeze:
Equifax – https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
Experian – https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Transunion – https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze