Ross Menke

LOOKING TO PAY for your child’s college? With costs increasing at an alarming rate, you may feel like you’re swimming upstream. Much like saving for retirement, you need to begin socking away money for college as early as possible. Each year that passes is one less year that your savings have the opportunity to grow.
Start by getting a clear picture of college costs today. You can use the Department of Education’s College Scorecard to look up the annual cost of specific colleges.

JADAV PAYENG LIVES on a remote river island in India and is eloquently known as “Forest Man.” He has been planting trees his entire life, one at a time, to revive the ecosystem of his native land.
Today, the island is a dense 1,300-acre forest. It’s home to hundreds of thousands of trees and a variety of animals, such as tigers, deer, monkeys and elephants. How did he do it? Payeng credits nature.
In a 2017 interview with NPR,

OWNING A BUSINESS comes with a unique opportunity: the chance to better the lives of your employees. The paycheck you provide helps them pay for their daily expenses and supports the local economy. But there’s an opportunity to do even more: By being thoughtful in how you structure employee benefits, you can ensure they have a more prosperous future, while also helping them lead happier lives today.
Remember, money is simply a tool to help you enjoy your life—and one way to do that is to buy time.

MANY OF US SUFFER from so-called loss aversion: We get more pain from losses than pleasure from gains. In other words, we’d rather not lose $5 than find $5 we never had.
Loss aversion has been extensively studied in financial decision-making. But it also applies to sports—especially golf. For instance, tournament coordinators might change a hole from a short par 5 to a long par 4. Par measures the number of strokes a golfer is expected to take to complete the hole—and,

IF YOU ASK MY WIFE what my favorite food is, she won’t hesitate to answer: It’s avocados. I make a large bowl of guacamole almost every week. Maybe that’s why I take offense when I read articles saying avocado toast is the reason millennials aren’t saving for retirement.
Avocado toast has a bad reputation with personal finance writers, because it’s an expensive and favorite brunch choice, especially among my generation, those born in the 1980s and ’90s.

MOST AMERICAN families are living paycheck to paycheck. This was highlighted by the recent government shutdown. Many federal workers quickly found themselves in financial trouble, when they didn’t receive their regular pay. In fact, a Federal Reserve survey found that four out of 10 Americans either couldn’t cover a $400 emergency or, to do so, would need to borrow or sell something.
That brings us to a question I’m often asked: Why do financial advisors insist clients establish an emergency fund?

SINCE ENTERING THE workforce in late 2010, I’ve been giving advice to others on how to put their money to good use. There are few things I enjoy more than having a conversation with a couple about such a complex subject. Along the way, I’ve pushed myself to learn more about specific financial planning strategies, as well as about human behavior and psychology.
These readings have not only taught me how I can better help my clients,

BABY BOOMERS ARE retiring every day and Generation X is right on their heels. With this, an increasingly large amount of wealth is making its way into IRAs and Roth IRAs, thanks to rollovers from employer retirement plans.
I’ve found that many folks don’t quite grasp the complexities of such accounts. On the surface, they seem pretty simple: You contribute to an IRA or Roth IRA, receive tax-deferred growth and then gradually withdraw the funds during retirement.

I OFTEN TALK WITH estate planning attorneys—and they tell me that individuals typically complete an estate plan just twice in their lives: upon marriage and upon retirement.
On the one hand, this is good. Major life changes warrant a review of your estate plan and an update to key documents. On the other hand, this is not so good. Much like other areas of your financial life, your estate plan needs to be reviewed on a regular basis.

EVERY GENERATION faces its own unique financial challenges—and my generation has, so far, had a particularly rough time. Consider a 2018 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which looked at the connection between birth year and financial well-being.
Some 48,000 families were divided into six groups based on their birth decade—from the 1930s to the 1980s. I was born in 1987 and hence belong to the 1980s cohort. The Great Recession affected all generations,

FOLKS OFTEN FEEL that, because they’re a certain age, their time has passed and it’s too late for them to pursue new goals, whether it’s saving for retirement or starting their dream business. But I believe we can reinvent ourselves at any age.
Last year, I listened to an NPR podcast that featured an interview with Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill. You’re probably familiar with Bob’s Red Mill: Their products are now sold in most grocery store health-food sections.

AS I DRIVE AROUND town these days, I notice a lot of cars with temporary license plates—an indication they were recently purchased. What’s the reason? When I turn on the TV, I see a commercial for a local car dealership that’s offering to accept your tax refund as the down payment on a new car. Now it starts to make sense.
The dealership knows consumers are about to receive an influx of cash.

SOME 200 MILLION Americans say they want to write a book. Yet typing 50,000 words into a cohesive story can appear to be a monumental undertaking—and it might seem like only individuals with the freedom to retreat to a cabin in the woods will ever become published authors.
Making the long financial journey to retirement, so you quit the workforce with a nest egg large enough to replace your working income, can seem equally daunting.

INDEX FUND INVESTING seems to grow more popular by the day—for good reason: For very little in investment costs, you can get a diversified basket of stocks, a return that matches the targeted benchmark and a tiny annual tax bill.
But now that you have yourself such a fine financial vehicle, the responsibility to be a good investor lies in your hands. Or should I say, with your emotions? Even the best investments suffer downturns and spikes in volatility.

AS SHARK TANK STAR Lori Greiner once said, “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.”
Got the entrepreneurial itch? When I hear people say they have a great business idea, but don’t have the money to launch their business or quit their day job, my heart sinks. They’re missing the point: In today’s world, there are countless opportunities to start a business without any initial investment.