Many of our clients are feeling “sandwiched” between caring for their kids and their aging family members at the same time they are balancing working, saving for retirement, and living their own lives.  

As part of our Thriving After Divorce Speaker Series, Mary Molnar, occupational therapist and co-owner of Senior Care Authority - Greater Cleveland, presented on this very important topic of what is the sandwich generation and how we can manage it better.  

What is the sandwich generation?

The sandwich generation is defined as a group of people typically in their 40s and 50s who are raising their children (or still providing financial support - like if you have kids in college) while also caring for their aging parents or other family members. 

According to Pew Research, more than half of Americans in their 40s are “sandwiched” between their children and an aging parent and are providing physical, financial, and emotional care to both...

Give Your Budget a Check-Up

We’re in the full swing of Summer, and whether you’re in vacation mode or you’re working just as hard as ever, July is a great time to review your budget. After all, if you created it in January, a lot can change in 7 months, and you want to make adjustments now if you need to. Budgets are fluid documents that are meant to be changed and updated as needed to make sure your money is always working for you.

You don’t need to spend hours and hours pouring over every detail of your budget, but I do suggest taking the five steps listed below to make sure you’re on track to reaching your goals by the end of the year. 

Review & update your budget

If you created your budget at the beginning of the year, now is the time to make sure that it’s still working for you. Are you staying within your budget, or are there some categories that need to be adjusted? With the increases we’ve seen in food and gas prices, many...

Personal finance books come in two varieties: entertaining or drier than twice-reheated pork chops. So, you may not think of giving recent graduates personal finance books for fear of wasting your money on a book they’ll never read (see: pork chops).

That said, there are some fantastic personal finance books out there! I love giving at least one of these ten books as graduation gifts because they all teach wise financial lessons in relatable ways so grads start out their young lives on the right financial foot.

(Our original post included five books, but I found five more that are worth checking out!)

1. The Latte Factor by David Bach

I love giving The Latte Factor as a gift to everyone, not just recent grads. This book is short and sweet, but very impactful. It teaches that no matter where you are in your personal finance journey, you have the power to achieve your financial goals. You’re richer than you think (and you didn’t have to take any big leaps to make...

So who has started spring cleaning? Do you have a good system in place so it doesn’t take hours and hours to get the job done? There certainly are a lot of cleaning checklists on Pinterest and Instagram. As we’re thinking about spring cleaning our homes, it’s also the perfect time to spring clean your finances. The first quarter is over, and last year's taxes have been completed, so let’s get organized financially for the rest of the year.

Here are 10 ideas for spring cleaning your finances.

Check your credit reports. You can check your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus once a year so I recommend checking one at the end of April, one at the end of August, and one at the end of December. Credit report mistakes can prevent you from getting a loan or force you into paying a higher interest rate. If you see any errors or fraudulent activity on your credit report, file a dispute with the credit bureau right away.   

Review your monthly...

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, many of us are focusing on those special people in our lives and how we can show them what they mean to us. And that is certainly important…but I also want to challenge you to do something for yourself.

Self-love and taking care of yourself should be a priority - I'm sure you're familiar with the airplane safety speech…put the oxygen mask on yourself BEFORE assisting others. And that's great advice for other areas of your life too! 

As a financial advisor and money coach, I want to encourage you to do one thing this month that will help you improve your financial wellness. After working with hundreds of clients, I know that financial wellness can significantly impact a person's overall well-being. 

There have been countless challenges since March 2019, and now we're experiencing high rates of inflation and supply chain issues. So this is the perfect time to see what changes you need to make in the new year....

It’s easy to overspend and go over budget during the holiday season! I’ve certainly done it plenty of times!! I know it’s hard not to get caught up in the gift-buying season with all of the advertisements and “special” deals that we’re bombarded with every day. And none of us want to be viewed as a “scrooge.” With some planning and research, there are so many ideas for creating a wonderfully memorable holiday season without stressing about spending too much. 

Here is a recap of some of our previous blog posts that share gift ideas for some people that may be hard to buy for as well as tips on how to stay on budget and creative ideas for decorating. 

8 Ways to Stay on Budget During the Holidays

Read about some tips to help you stay on budget, including setting spending limits, only shopping for the kids, using cash-back websites, and more! Even if you only want to incorporate a few of these tips, they are sure to help you stay...

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays with its focus on family and gratitude, and it’s the perfect opportunity to feel grateful for everything that I have, despite whatever bumps in the road tried to take me off course throughout the year. But Thanksgiving can also be a difficult time for people for a variety of reasons so I wanted to share how developing a gratitude mindset can help you take a different approach to not only Thanksgiving but each new day. 

So what is a gratitude mindset? 

Gratitude is defined as the quality of being thankful and exhibiting a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Simply put, a gratitude mindset is the ability to focus on the positive things in life rather than the negative - you know the glass is half full kind of thinking. You see opportunities instead of obstacles. When you can focus on gratitude, the number of things you appreciate continue to grow. 

Why should you strive for a gratitude mindset?

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A lot of people, women in particular, are hesitant to ask for more. Whether it’s a mindset that’s holding you back, fear of rejection, or something else entirely, you have to pursue what you want — and sometimes, that means asserting yourself and asking for what you want!

Even if you work for a company that reevaluates the market rate for positions and adjusts salaries accordingly or you work for yourself and can increase your rates any time, there is still a level of needing to feel confident to advocate for yourself when and if it becomes necessary.

Why It’s Important to Ask for More

I have a client who works in data analytics, but she wasn’t “trained” to do data analytics (ie: she didn’t go to school for this particular set of skills she has). Instead, she evolved into this role in the company and she’s good at it. However, because of the way she evolved into it, she was significantly underpaid when we started working...

April is Financial Literacy Month! It’s such an important time for me because I truly believe in the importance of education, especially around money. The reality is that the schools don’t provide much, if any, financial education.

So, I want to make sure you have the tools to feel confident in sharing this information with your kids and also so you are confident in advocating for yourself when it comes to your finances.

I remember learning about money at a young age — I must have been about 10 and my brother was 15. My mom was a single mom. She hurt her back and couldn't go grocery shopping, so it fell to us (my brother and I) to go to the store and get what we needed.

It was the first time we had to be responsible to get the groceries and it was a little scary. We were in charge of making sure we chose wisely so we would all have food to eat for the whole week and hadn’t loaded the cart with groceries that would exceed our budget.

Even though it was a...

When you want to feel empowered around your money mindset, there's one thing that is at the heart of preparing to increase your income. Sometimes, in mindset work, we forget that we do have a great deal of control. While that control isn't over anything outside of ourselves, we can control our thoughts, reactions, and beliefs — and that is powerful! And it starts with asking.

Kids are great at this. For example, my kids always want McDonald's. Never mind that 99.9% of the time, my answer is no when they ask. But they always ask for it. I'm sure if you're a parent, cousin, or caretaker of any sort, you've had this experience, too.

And as any kiddo is too familiar with hearing… Just because you want it doesn't mean it's going to happen. But when you realize that you have a great deal of power over your choices in your money mindset journey, you can learn to guide your thoughts and actions to prepare yourself for an increase in income.

There are two main steps to getting...