What I wish I would have known, and what I plan to tell my kids. — One of the dumbest financial decisions I have ever made was buying my first brand new car. Not too long after I graduated from college, I began a job in the financial services industry. I had recently moved to Atlanta, so a car was a priority. It was 1997, and…

When they start talking “Economy” here is your cheat sheet. — You are going to hear a lot about the economy and i want to simplify the terms and concepts you hear often. Millions of Americans require information to aid their financial decisions, however we are more likely to respond irrationally when the information is hard to understand. It’s important to…

To build a healthy relationship with money, you must have a good understanding of your financial behaviors. — Some people with little money have big problems and need help to manage their money. Others go looking for a financial planner — but some mistakenly think they need someone to help them when the problem is that they don’t know how (or even if) what or where to begin…

What Money Actually Is and How It Fits Into Your day-to-day life — I want to explain how money works so inflation coverage makes a little more sense. Talking about inflation and feeling inflation creates different responses; the inflation numbers give us a historical perspective of where we are today. However, the 8.5% inflation in the 80s would feel very different from the…

Financial resolutions can be difficult. They differ from other resolutions because you will see the results of your financial changes later. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth pursuing! Making smart decisions with your money today will pay off in the long run and help you avoid financial stress. …

Warning: Not all bond investments are socially responsible — In a widely viewed body-camera video, 17-year-old Erik Cantu was shot while eating a burger in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in San Antonio, Texas[i]. The officer apparently mistook the teenager’s car as stolen and fired into the vehicle. Three weeks later, Cantu remains in the hospital. The…

According to a recent report by Congress’s nonpartisan budget analyst, the bottom 50% of Americans have not fared well in the years prior and especially since 2008. — After 15 years, we can see what happened during the financial crisis of 2008: People who entered terrible mortgages because they wanted a home ended up paying for it — as did those who knowingly bought one to flip. In the 2014 movie “The Big Short,” investments were front and…

A case for using financial psychology in wealth building. — Each year my behavioral finance students have a case study on https://playspent.org/. An interactive financial decision simulator of a hypothetical worker over 30 days. The learner experiences the plight of an individual in a challenging socio-economic environment. The exercise opens the eyes to the experience of millions. The exercise yields…

I served on the financial literacy task force in 2015, collaborating with legislators, schoolteachers, non-profit heads, and business specialists on how to define the voids in financial literacy. They divided us into three parts; k-12, College & University, and Adult. I was fortunate enough to co-chair the adult subcommittee. Each…