Jill Steinberg is a Partner and Managing Director in the Philadelphia office of Beacon Pointe Advisors, LLC, a national Registered Investment Advisor firm.
Here is what Jill had to say when we asked her about financial tricks and tips to help you live your best life:
How should you spend your paycheck?
The key to learning how best to spend your paycheck is to first write down your goals. Do you want to travel? Save for a car, college, or graduate school? Pay for a wedding? Write down an approximate cost of each goal and a time at which you want to achieve it. Once you determine your savings goals, then you will better understand how to spend your paycheck. You should also know what you own (Assets), what you owe (Liabilities), and what your Net Worth is (Assets minus Liabilities).
We often hear about spending versus saving. Are you able to save or are you spending all that you earn on Starbucks and other personal items that you really don’t need? Use the Expense Worksheet below to help identify where your money is going. Are you spending money on things that are important to you or not? Think about where you can cut back and begin to save. By categorizing your spending in the Expense Worksheet you might become aware of unconscious spending you can cut out. Another tip for higher savings is to pay yourself before you pay others. How do you do this? Set up an automatic monthly savings link from your checking account to your savings or investment account.
Next, figure out what your Cash Flow is. Start by taking your Net Paycheck (earnings less taxes) minus your expenses we consider to be Needs (housing, utilities, transportation, food, and clothing) to compute your Cash Flow Available for Additional Spending. You can then spend this on Wants (vacation, dining out, fitness, coffee, concerts/theater, pets, and charitable giving) or build Savings (debt reduction, emergency reserve fund, mid-term goals, and retirement).
Your percentage goals for Needs/Wants/Savings should be 50/30/20. This “rule” will help you to stay on track. You can use technology to track and categorize your expenses, such as: Mint.com, Ace Budget app, or simply using your Smartphone to note daily spending in the notes function is helpful. Doing this will help you to establish where you are spending that paycheck over time and you can begin to track it year after year.
Believe it or not, you are not too young to start thinking about your retirement! Dollars saved when you are younger are much more valuable over time due to the power of compounding. If your employer matches your 401k contributions, make sure to contribute at least the minimum amount to get the maximum match–it is free money! Finally, Roth IRAs and 401ks are a great way to save for retirement as all of the earnings grow tax-free.
How can you become more financially educated?
We believe a good book to assist you is one that we have written in-house at Beacon Pointe for all types of clients. Your Dollars, Our Sense: A Fun & Simple Guide to Money Matters, available on Amazon, is an easy, quick read and a great way to ‘get started’ across all areas of your personal financial life. You can also check out Mint.com and Investopedia.com—both websites that contain education about financial planning topics as well as investments. Good luck, and most importantly, get started!
Jill Steinberg is a Partner and Managing Director in the Philadelphia office of Beacon Pointe Advisors, LLC, a national Registered Investment Advisor firm. Prior to joining Beacon Pointe, Jill founded Walden Capital Advisors in 2006 to provide high net worth women and men comprehensive investment advice to help them achieve their financial and life goals. She is very passionate about empowering women both personally and professionally and is an active member of Beacon Pointe’s Women’s Advisory Institute. Jill serves on boards and investment committees for several local Philadelphia non-profits (including Live Like Blaine, a non-profit founded in her daughter’s honor). Jill graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in Economics and earned an MBA with distinction in Finance and Real Estate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
For more financial tricks and tips, check out these resources:
Expense Worksheet for Young Professionals
Planning Through the Ages for 20 Somethings
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