5 easy ways to honor EARTH 🌎 DAY and 5 top tips for Spring 🌷cleaning in your financial 🏡 house.

Did you know that April 22 is Earth Day? Do you know what Earth Day is celebrating? According to www.earthday.org – we celebrate together on April 22 to bring awareness to the importance of preserving and protecting our health, our families, and our livelihoods, by INVESTING IN OUR PLANET. There are so many ways to do this. 

Here are my top 5 easy ways to honor Earth Day

1.    The easiest is to always remember to REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYLE. There are so many great organizations to recycle your used goods to, including your local www.freecyle.org – or via a local “everything is free” FaceBook group. And of course, you can always simply donate to your local organizations, or Vietnam Vets, etc. 

2.    Also, if you have women in your life, like myself, with four of my own 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 daughters, encourage them to thrift their clothes 👚👖, and move away from fast fashion. 

3.    With the recent increase in gas ⛽️ prices at the pump, perhaps you can consider making your next car an electric, hybrid, or low emission vehicle. And if you’re not close to buying a new car, you can always ride-share, walk, bike, reduce/consolidate your trips, and stop idling your car unnecessarily (this will help the environment AND save money). 

4.    Bring reusable bags 🛍 whenever you go shopping and buy food and household products in bulk – this is great for the environment AND your budget.

5.    Consider your investment portfolio, and if you should include some assets managed in an ESG-style. ESG, or Environmental, Social and Governance investing, places emphasis on choosing investments that align with your own ESG values. For example, you may want to invest in companies whose processes and products are produced in such a way to avoid or minimize negative effects on the environment, or support companies with diverse board membership, including gender, race and age diversity.

And here are my top 5 tips for your own financial household 🏡 Spring 🧹cleaning:

1.    Review your tax return and your withholdings. If your most recent tax return resulted in a refund, you may want to consider reviewing and adjusting your withholdings from your paycheck. Getting a tax refund basically means you lent YOUR hard-earned money to the government, interest-free. Who doesn’t want to keep their money as long as possible instead of handing it the government prematurely.

2.    Beneficiaries: Review your account beneficiaries. Very often our lives and wishes change – so it is very important to review all of our accounts and their respective beneficiaries regularly – ESPECIALLY if you have been through a divorce or marriage🤵🏾‍♀️🤵. This includes your corporate retirement plans, your IRAs, and also your taxable or cash accounts, which may have a TOD (Transfer on Death), or POD (Payable on Death) attached to it. Why is this important? Your beneficiary documents help your estate avoid probate upon your demise. Probate is basically one big hassle for your family members, resulting in time spent, headaches, and potential legal fees if you hire an attorney for help.

3.    BUDGETING: Does your budget need a refresh? As a financial planner, I tell my clients that we work together to uncover positive net cash flow – the funds that are left after you pay for your basic living expenses and discretionary expenses. That free cash flow is what we work with, together 🤝, to help you achieve your long-term financial goals, and work towards your desired long-term financial independence.

4.    REVIEW YOUR INVESTMENTS, AND BE INVESTORS! I work every day to help my clients, especially women, grasp, is the importance of INVESTING. While this is a generalization, I will say it rings true based on the experiences in my own practice, but women tend to be more conservative investors 🤷‍♀️ than their male counterparts. I’ve had way too many women come to me with their retirement savings that are underinvested – either sitting in cash 💵, or some type of product that is not well-suited for providing the potential of higher long-term returns.

5.    MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU! I tell my clients that I like them to focus on ‘bringing home the bacon’ 🥓 or rather, focus on what YOU do best -- take care of your health and your family, and contact me with all of your financial questions. As a financial planner, I have a holistic view of my clients’ entire financial picture 🎨 as well as their long-term financial goals and values. When they have additional assets, we have the data at our fingertips, to determine the best location and use of the funds and get them working for us, instead of sitting idle. Too many people have a mess of accounts, an incomplete picture, or a muddied understanding of their finances, which creates difficulties in determining the best use for our assets. I like to say that I help clients make their money work harder for them instead of them working harder 👷🏼‍♀️ for the money.

To continue the conversation, please schedule time here. I’d love to share with you my philosophy behind educating and partnering with my clients, in order to help them lead happy😊, healthy💪🏽, financially rewarding lives that respect our communities and the Earth🌎.