Three Numbers to Remember: 5 – 2 – 9. Every year we hear that private and public college education costs are rising. And now we hear that college graduates’ debt loads are climbing right along with tuition prices. (According to the 2019 student loan debt statistics the average undergraduate who borrows leaves school with about $30,000 in debt.) The COVID-19 Pandemic added more fuel to the fire for those asking “Is it worth it to go to college?”. College enrollment sank 25% among graduating high school seniors in 2021. Most chose to delay their college plans due largely to their parents or guardians being less able to provide financial support due to the pandemic.
Whether you are a member of the baby-boom generation born between 1946 and 1964, or a member of the generations of younger people that follow, you may be surprised to learn boomers are as likely to buy a business as to sell one.
How to Have the Best Financial Date Night Ever!
Flowers…chocolate…401k? Let’s face it — talking money and financial planning with your significant other on a “date” may not be your first choice for spending quality time together. Even in the best of relationships, discussing money and finances can send two people running in opposite directions. Yet establishing the habit of scheduling an annual financial date night nurtures your long-term relationship and future together.
Back in second grade, it didn’t really matter much if you failed to make a decision. If one of your parents called out into the back yard to ask if you wanted a PB&J or grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and you were intent on climbing the tree and didn’t answer, you suffered no lasting harm from being served your second choice lunch option that day. But things are different now that you’re a business owner.
After the grueling pace of graduate school, obtaining that advanced degree, and finding a great course for your professional career – you can finally turn your attention to other life choices. One choice that you’ll be faced with is what to do with the substantial student loan debt. More importantly is, how do you balance enjoying life while starting to pay-off those looming large loans?
Life is complicated these days. And if you’re part of the sandwich generation, with a parent 65 or older and either raising a child under 18 or supporting an adult child, then calling life complicated may feel like a ridiculous understatement. But while being squeezed in the middle will never be easy, there are a few steps you can take to manage your financial and emotional risks.
Are you caught in the middle between supporting children and caring for aging parents? At a time when your career is reaching a peak and you are looking ahead to your own retirement, you may find yourself having to help your children with college expenses or supporting them during a job search while also looking after the needs of your aging parents. Squeezed in the middle, you've joined the ranks of the "sandwich generation."
There are times when imagining the worst-case scenario helps you prepare most effectively for the best case. The transition of a family or closely-held business is one of those times.
Ask yourself, why is it that while Harvard Business School reports at least half of all companies in the US are family businesses - and just over half of all publicly listed companies in the US are family owned - that the most-cited family business statistic is from John Ward’s seminal study finding only 30% of firms survive through the second generation, 13% survive the third generation, and only 3% survive beyond that?
The Family Business Institute identifies a major cause as the failure to imagine and plan for worst-case situations that could dramatically affect not only ownership succession, but management succession planning and leadership development as well.
Your marriage isn’t working - you respect each other but have drifted apart over the years for whatever reason. Now you and your spouse have decided to divorce and close this chapter of your lives. You’ve heard the stories and perhaps witnessed a few horrors through friends or family who have divorced; that doesn’t mean you need to have the same experience.
If you have ever recycled at home, avoided products made overseas by sweatshop labor, grown your own vegetables, supported gender and racial diversity, or owned a fuel-efficient car, then you may be surprised to discover your investments can be working against your values. Do you know what’s in your portfolio? How can you find out what your money is supporting?
