admin, Author at Keeping Up With The Bulls

The Roaring 20s are Coming Back – Plan Your Spending Before It Gets Out of Control

03.29.2021 by admin // 1 Comment

Every day we’re getting more and more good news. Vaccine production is ramping. More shots are getting into arms. We hear that everyone that will want a vaccine in the United States can get it starting May 1st. We’re still a little bit away from that but there is a chance we could actually have a normalish Fourth of July. Summer 2021 could kick off our Roaring 20s.

All of those things you’ve wanted to do the last year – see your family, see your friends, go out to eat, go on trips and more can get pretty expensive pretty quickly. So, how do you celebrate the roaring 20s and plan your spending before it gets out of control? Prioritize what’s most important to you, look for the best deals and make sure you spend within your meals.

Know What Your Means Are

It’s important to live within your means. What your means are may be different than before the pandemic due to job changes or being able to save up extra over the past year. Whatever it may be, know how much money you’ll have available to spend over the next 6 months – 1 year. Then, know how much money you’re willing to spend over that same time period. These two numbers may be different. You may have more money available to spend, but you may want to now have a bigger emergency fund, pay down your student loans or increase your investments. Alternatively, you may have other life changes on the horizon (starting a family, starting a career) and have plans that are now or never opportunities and it’s worth it to save less than usual.

Prioritize What Is Most Important

You’ve given up a lot over the past year. Once things are safe again, where do you start? It’s not just about money, it’s also about how you’ll prioritize your time. Prioritize the most important things to you and then spend money on doing those things first. We’ve also been reminded over the past year that some of the most important things are really free. Being able to hug your parents, or go to a playground without worry for example.

Also consider, what did you used to spend money on that you should continue to not spend money on? For example, perhaps you used to spend a lot of money commuting. Can you go full time remote or hybrid so that you don’t have to spend as much money commuting as you did in 2019? This past year has taught us all how to spend more consciously and how easy it is to save money when we can’t travel, eat out and go to concerts. As life gets back to normal figure out what expenses shouldn’t come back. Similarly, don’t forget to budget new expenses you have that didn’t exist in 2019. About 33% of Americans considered getting pets in 2020 and according to CNBC dog owners spend an average of $1,200 a year on their dog.

Opening up safely may come gradually. That international trip you wanted to go on may have to wait a little longer. For anything that’s your top priority but can’t be done yet set aside some money for that so you don’t find yourself in a situation where you don’t have enough money to do the thing you really want to do.

Restart Your Life How You Want It

The pandemic didn’t just put our spending on hold, it put our lives on hold in other ways. Many parents had to juggle home schooling with working, and some had to put their own career plans on hold to survive the last year. Reassess your own goals, and what it will take to achieve them. These may look wildly different than what they were in 2019 and that’s ok. Where do you want to live? Where do you want to travel? Who is most important to spend time with? What do you want your career to look like? What do you want your usual weeks to look like? This may mean a promotion and more money, this could mean taking a step back and making less money. It’s something you’ll have to weigh as you reassess where your time and financial priorities lie in the post pandemic world.

Don’t Forget About Your Mental Health

The pandemic has been pretty traumatic and has affected everyone differently. In May 2020, the US Census Bureau found that about one-third of clinical anxiety or depression. If you run a marathon, do you immediately continue your pre-marathon training schedule the very next day? No, you take time to assess what you need for your physical recovery and do just that. We need to do the same as we emerge from the pandemic. There are plenty of resources to help with your mental health. Know what is covered under your insurance and make sure you take the time you need to heal your mental wellbeing.

Don’t Forget Sometimes The Most Important Things Are Free

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to make up for all of the things we lost over the past year. And while the year has been tough, we did gain a lot like appreciation for the simple things, the ability to slow down for a little, not having to spend a ton of time commuting and more. Hugging your parents or catching up with a friend doesn’t have to come with the expense of a $200 dinner. Remember, people are just happy to be with you in person again.

Find Deals On Housing

One of your largest, if not largest, expenses is housing. The less you can spend on housing the more money you have to spend on other fun activities or increasing your savings. If you rent, there is an opportunity to find a better deal on housing. Over the past year, what have you learned about where you want to live and what you want in your home? With many people moving back in with parents or leaving the city rents were in free fall in many cities in 2020. While rents have started to rebound there are still plenty of deals on renting in the city in 2021. In Boston, rents are down over 8% and in San Francisco rents are down over 12% for example according to the Home Buying Institute. As interest picks up landlords will have less incentive to offer these deals so signing a lease sooner than later will leave you more likely with a rent reduction or even a couple months of free rent. Waiting until later could cost you hundreds of dollars a month.

Find Travel Deals

Now that you’ve prioritized what’s most important, how do you still find good deals for vacations, seeing family and more? If you’re prioritizing seeing family or traveling book your travel ASAP. Many of the best deals were already 6 months ago when there was still a lot of uncertainty. Because there is still some uncertainty though your best bet is to start booking refundable flights and lodging now while the hospitality industry is still trying to lure people back. Make sure you know what the policies are to cancel or reschedule in case you do have to push it back.

See Also: 5 Tips To Save Money On Travel

Find Deals for Clothing And Other Physical Goods

Most people that have been able to work from home the past year have spent most of their time in the same loungewear outfits. With most people spending more time at home than usual many have taken the opportunity to organize their closets. They’re donating clothes and also selling them. This has led to a lot of great finds at thrift stores, Poshmark, The RealReal and local consignment stores already. For the best deals, buy secondhand or buy clothes when no one else is buying.

The Roaring 20s are Coming Back – Plan Your Spending Before It Gets Out of Control Summary

It has been a long year and we’re all excited for things to get closer normal. We’re excited to see friends and family, be able to travel again, pick up the hobbies we’ve had to put on hold and more. Before you spend all your money make sure you know what your financial limits are and what is most important to you. Prioritize your money, prioritize your time and remember, don’t feel guilty about spending money. We’ve sacrificed a lot over the past year, enjoy seeing the people you’ve missed, the places you’ve missed and completing your bucket list.

How to Invest Money In Your 20s

02.01.2021 by admin // Leave a Comment

Wow, Gamestop ($GME) was on a wild ride the past month. Even seasoned stock investors had to start Googling “what is a naked short” and “how is it legal to short a stock over 100% of float” when this all started. We don’t yet know how this will end; however, it’s likely to end really well for some people and really badly for others. The good news is $GME has now generated excitement for first time investors to consider investing.

If you’re now interested in investing in your 20s, here are some ideas to consider before you buy your first stock. Don’t get caught up in all the hype. You have decades left to reap the benefits of investing in stocks and it’s important you make the right investing decisions for yourself. Here are 5 considerations to invest money in your 20s.

Invest Enough In Your 401k To Get The Full Employee Match At Minimum

A 401(k) plan is a retirement savings plan sponsored by employers. It allows employees to contribute to their retirement savings pre-tax in the United States. The 401(k) contribution limit for 2021 is $19,500, unchanged from 2020. Don’t know if you have a 401(k) plan or match? Ask your boss or look at the internal benefits webpage at your company. If you are eligible, your company will have information on how to sign up. The contribution amount you elect will be taken directly from your paycheck.

At minimum, you should always contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the full match. Consider how much you’ll save on taxes this year when you decide how much you’ll contribute to your 401(k). Also consider your money needs in the next 5-10 years. When you’re starting out in your 20s you’re paying down debt, saving for a car and saving for a house. It’s easier to put more money in retirement accounts when you’re no longer saving for a down payment.

Even though a 401(k) can be a set it and forget it account it’s best to check the performance of your 401(k) investments periodically. A 401(k) is a great investment vehicle; however, many companies limit what you can invest in. Even if you have a 401(k) you should also open a Roth IRA account for retirement savings and investments.

Open A Roth IRA To Lock In Gains Tax Free

A Roth IRA is a retirement account that offers you a tax benefit when you retire in the United States. Roth IRA contributions are not tax deductible. You also do not pay taxes when you withdraw money at age 59 ½ +. This is different from traditional IRAs and 401(k) plans.

Make sure you’re familiar with the benefits of a Roth IRA and the Roth IRA rules first. Important rules include you can only invest up to $6,000 in 2021 pending income eligibility and you can only withdraw certain money penalty free before 59 1/2. While you don’t pay taxes on gains, you also can’t write off losses on your taxes.

At the beginning of your career, your salary is lower, your taxes are lower and you have less money. It’s harder to contribute at all to your Roth IRA, let alone the maximum. At the same time, you have the opportunity for money you contribute to grow tax free for 40+ years. In a Roth IRA you also have the flexibility to invest in any stocks, ETFs and mutual funds you want.

How do you set up a Roth IRA? It’s very easy and can be done in minutes. Charles Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity all offer Roth IRA accounts among others.

Use Company Benefits like ESPP and RSUs

Do you work for a publicly traded company? Your company may offer an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or ESPP. This benefit enables you to buy company stock at a discount. ESPP is a way for you to make extra money without any extra effort. The only steps? Enrolling in ESPP and deciding when you want to sell the shares. Whether you keep the shares or sell the shares is based on your own investment and tax strategy.

Another possible benefit to take advantage of is equity compensation. Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) are a popular way of giving company equity to employees at tech startups and large public companies. RSUs are a great way to grow your wealth. If they aren’t part of your comp plan today, inquire if this is something your company offers. A company may offer RSUs to employees, but may not offer them to all employees. Sometimes employees have to perform at a certain level, or need to be at a certain level, or they are offered as part of an employment package. Whether you keep the shares or sell the shares is based on your own investment and tax strategy.

Buy Individual Stocks in the Stock Market If You Like Risk

You want to buy individual stocks to get rich quick, but how do you know which one to buy? When starting anything, I always ask myself about what I’m willing to pay to learn. Learning anything cost money. Even if you teach yourself, you always need to buy the basics. For example buying / renting gold clubs or technology to watch how to videos on YouTube. How much are you willing to spend learning something new?

The thing about stocks is that there is a chance it could go to $0. That chance depends on which stock you pick. For example, Gamestop is a very volatile stock. If you buy a share and it comes crashing down you could lose most of your money when you decide to sell. This is why it’s good to know how much you’re willing to spend to learn something new.

If you’re willing to spend $100 to learn something new, buy $100 worth of a stock or several stocks. Say the stock goes up in value, great! If it goes to $1, you were willing to spend $100 to learn something new. Now, you’re left with $1 and knowledge about how to set up an investing account, how to buy a stock, how stock prices fluctuate, where to learn more about your investments, how to sell a stock, how to write off stock losses on your taxes and more.

When you buy your first stock consider buying a share of a company that excites you. That way, you’ll want to learn more about the company. You’ll want to listen to quarterly earnings, learn about market valuations and more. If you’re not excited about your first investment you’re less likely to spend extra time learning about investing in the stock market. Generally, stocks fall into two categories: growth stocks and value stocks.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks are stocks that are considered to have the potential to outperform the overall market based on their future potential. These stocks usually don’t pay dividends and tend to be more volatile. Examples of growth stocks include Tesla, Roku, Square and Amazon.

Value Stocks

Value stocks are stocks that are currently trading below what they are really worth and the thought is they have the opportunity to provide a better return. Some value stocks also offer dividends so you don’t have to wait to sell a stock to get some cash. Value stocks are usually larger, more established companies. Examples of value stocks include companies like Verizon and 3M.

Both growth and value stocks have the possibility to go up in value and go down in value. There is no guarantee the stock will go up. And, if you think a stock is overvalued there is also no guarantee that stock will go down.

See Also: Smart Money Moves In Your 20s

Buy ETFs If You Don’t Want To Actively Manage Your Stock Portfolio

ETFs stand for electronically traded funds, also know as index funds. When you buy an index fund you are buying a basket of individual stocks. If you buy a S&P 500 ETF, you’re investing in all 500 companies that are in the S&P 500. The more diversified your portfolio, the less volatile your portfolio is. The goal of index funds is to match the performance of a specific benchmark.

There are fees for ETFs; however, they tend to be lower than mutual funds. Before you buy an ETF make sure you know what fees the ETF charges per year. The average fee for index funds is 0.15% according to Morningstar data from April 2019.

How To Invest Money In Your 20s Summary

No matter how you decide to invest money in your 20s it’s important you choose a strategy that works for you. Before you start investing, make sure you know the options that may give you free money to start investing. This includes things like a 401k employee match and RSUs. Other important considerations? When you’ll need the money, your risk tolerance and how much time you want to spend.

Investing money in your 20s is hard when you don’t have as much money and it’s new. Like everything, you’ll learn from your mistakes and get better over time. Even if you buy a bad stock, or sell a good stock early it’s better to learn these lessons when you have less money at stake.

Different strategies work for different people. Investing when you may need the money for a big purchase in the next 5 years is different than investing money when you don’t need money for 20 years. Different people also have different risk tolerances. If you’re going to lose sleep worrying about losing money in the stock market a lower risk, set it and forget it strategy may be more aligned to your goals.

Personal Finance Blogging Year 2 Stats

01.10.2021 by admin // 4 Comments

Personal Finance Blogging, Personal Finance Blog, Blogging lessons, how to blog

Keeping Up With The Bulls is officially 2 years old! They say the second year is much easier; however, the pandemic derailed things a bit. When I was off in 2019 for the holidays I pre-wrote a lot of content knowing I had a busy year ahead at work. Then, the pandemic hit. And, a lot of this content didn’t seem relevant. We were shocked, concerned about our health, uncertainty about our jobs. Many of my articles just seemed tone deaf and irrelevant. Last Dec – Feb I started a saving money attending wedding series and a saving money celebrating holidays series. Even the content I wrote at the start of the year was immediately irrelevant. Nevertheless, this personal finance blog improved over the past year, I’ve learned a lot more about how to blog and I’m excited to continue to improve it in 2021.

A Whirlwind of a Year Led to the Blog on the Back Burner

In March, I stopped caring about the goals I set for my personal finance blog and focused on buying groceries like most of the world. I wrote a few new articles that were a little more relevant for the times like Fast Easy Recipes With Few Ingredients and Self Care at Home for any Budget. With pure luck, I happened to write Tips for Working Remotely back in February bringing my total relevant content to 3 blog posts.

After surviving March, I went in waves with this blog. Some weeks I was super motivated and thought we’re home always, this is my opportunity to really bring my blog to the next level. But most weeks it wasn’t a focus. I decided to build out a career section because so much content out there focused on side hustles and not enough on making more money in the typical 9-5.

In March, the stock market went crazy. A few friends knew I liked to invest and wanted to get started so they reached out to me. After a few years hiatus of mostly holding stocks with a few trades here and there I got back into it. I texted quite a bit with friends about what we were buying and selling. I created spreadsheets with target entry points which we never got back down to and started following a lot of traders on Twitter. Looking back, financially it was better to spend my time investing and not blogging. I ended up beating the market! It was a welcome distraction and you can read all about my 2020 stocks investment performance. With my enthusiasm for stocks renewed I’m excited to finally write some investing content here in year 3.

What I Learned In My Second Year of Blogging

In year two I learned more about how to blog. As always, there were things that went well, and other things I need to improve upon next year. Even still, I continued to make a lot of improvements based on what I learned in my first year of blogging. I’m excited to really begin to take my blog to the next level in year three.

Things That Went Well On The Blog

SEO Basics

I’m still far from a pro at SEO but I’ve improved from where I started two years ago. I have Yoast installed now which has helped improve the ease of readability. I do a little keyword research using the Moz keyword explorer and try to incorporate a keyword or two but mainly still write what I want.

I also was able to build a few backlinks this year. While I didn’t keep track, there were two notable ones. Thanks to A Dime Saved one of my saving money tips was included in 13 Ways to Make the Most of Black Friday This Year on MSN. I was also featured as in the Know Your Blogger Series on Personal Finance Blogs.

Ranking for Keywords

At the end of 2019 my post on Why Attend a Women’s conference? started getting some traction in Google and I was super excited. Same with some of my wedding related content like How to Plan a Bridal Shower on a Budget Almost all of that traffic went away starting in March. One step forward, a few steps back. Luckily while this traffic went away, other posts began to improve in ranking. Overall, search drove a lot more visits in year 2 than year 1 and I have no doubt this trajectory will continue in year 3.

In 2019 I tried a bunch of pins and really never got any traction. I’m not very creative and pins take so much more time than writing a tweet I was ready to give up on Pinterest. But in 2020, some of my pins actually started driving some traffic to my site! My most popular pin is for Smart Money Moves in Your 20s. It’s only a few a day, but enough to motivate me to really learn about Pinterest this coming year.

Move to SiteGround

After a lot of technical difficulties with Bluehost and my site going down for days at a time multiple times I finally switched hosting providers. I am now with SiteGround and have had a much better experience. It’s more expensive, but you also get what you pay for.

Partnership and Sponsorship Requests

At this time, I am still not monetizing my blog, but I have received a few requests for paid sponsorships. Even though I am currently turning these down, it’s exciting to get the requests. Once the blog hits a certain traffic level I will consider partnerships and sponsorship requests.

THE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG

Wrong Google Analytics in 2019

My Google Analytics never matched my WordPress metrics in 2019 but I thought this was common and didn’t think much of it. Well, in Jan, turns out I had Google Analytics installed twice somehow and it was double counting all of my visits! So, I thought my blog didn’t do great in 2019 to start and turns out I did even worse. LOL! Luckily it was fixed early in Jan so 2020 is right; however, my 2020 blog goals were based on faulty data. When I found this out I was still determined to hit my initial blog viewership goals. When the pandemic started though I decided to put these goals aside.

Still Not Achieving My Target Blog Viewership Numbers

I could have achieved my viewership goals but decided to put less effort into the blog. The reality is, blogging is a lot of work. If you put in the work upfront it can become passive over time but you have to put in the effort to get there. Many blogs that have much better numbers than me post one to three times A WEEK! In 2 years of blogging I have a total of 64 posts. The people who post 3 times a week end up getting to this same amount of content in their first 5 to 6 months. Like many things, your results are based on the amount of effort you put into something. Had I put more effort into this personal finance blog over the past year I likely would have hit or exceeded my target blog viewership numbers.

KEEPING UP WITH THE BULLS BLOG BY THE NUMBERS

In my second year of blogging about personal finance, I wrote 24 blog posts. This exceeded my goal but is also less than the 40 posts I wrote in 2019. I also went back and improved content I wrote in 2019. Some of the initial content was pretty terrible and I still need to rewrite a few of the initial posts. For social platforms, I am mainly on Twitter and have 1,485 followers, over double the followers I had at the end of last year.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Personal Finance Blog Google Analytics - Page Views, Avg Time on Page, Bounce Rate, % Exit

In 2020 I had 17,217 page views, compared to 14,130 page views in 2019. I also had almost double the amount of visitors. Since some of the page views were double counted last year due to the plugin mishap, it’s more likely I had 8,881 page views in 2019 as that’s what is listed as unique page views.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Most Popular Posts in 2020

The most exciting thing for me on the blog this year was that more traffic came from posts actually about personal finance and helping people make more money! Four of the top five posts last year were all about food, this year it’s down to two. I’m glad people are finding ways to save money on food helpful and finding new recipes but that really isn’t the focus of my blog. I really started this blog to help people make more money. Even though a few food posts generated a lot of traffic last year, I saw a lot more traffic overall come through for personal finance and career related content.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Search Performance

Keeping Up With The Bulls Google Console Analytics- total number of clicks and total number of impressions

Keeping Up With The Bulls showed up 212K times in Google search, over 4X more than 2019! Of these, 5.57K clicked through to the blog, over 8X more than 2019! Overall, I have a lot more search optimization to do but I am pleased at this year over year progress. Some of the content I think is very important like learning about RSUs and the importance of sponsorship at work just isn’t searched much. RSUs in your compensation package and having at least one sponsor can immensely impact how much money you make at your job. Even though this content doesn’t do well in search I will continue to write it. If it helps even just one person it’s worth it.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Highest Google Search Referrals Posts

Originally my 2020 goal was to get more traffic from the posts that drove the most search traffic in 2019. The top search referral post in 2019 was Easy Trader Joe’s Dinner Ideas. Since my main focus to drive more traffic to personal finance and career related content I ended up focusing on other posts instead. I am happy about the progress I made here over the last year.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Year 2 Blog Goals Results

Consistently hit 75 + views / day. I did not hit this, but this goal was also based on faulty numbers. In Nov and Dec I consistently hit above 50 views per day though with almost no social promotion so I’m pretty excited about this.
Hit 5,000 views at least one month. The highest amount of views I got in 2020 was 2,632 back in May (excluding January). I am going to keep this goal for 2021.
Reach 500 views / month from organic search. Achieved! Not only did I hit this, but I hit this goal the past 5 months and even got to over 1,000 views per month from organic search in Nov and Dec.
Write 20 more blog posts. Achieved! I ended up writing 24.
Continue to refresh old content. Achieved! I still have a few posts I need to refresh but overall I made a lot of progress here. I will continue this in 2021.
Continue to learn more about SEO and implement what I’ve learned. Achieved! Still much more to do here, but I am happy with the progress I made last year.
Reach 1,000 Twitter followers. Achieved! I am now at almost 1,500 Twitter followers.

Keeping Up With The Bulls Year 3 Goals

Consistently hit 100 + views / day
Hit 5,000 views at least one month
Reach 1,500 views / month from organic search
Write 20 more blog posts
Write more investing content

That’s a wrap on the year 2 of Keeping Up With The Bulls! For anyone that started their blog after me I hope this was helpful and that you can learn from my mistakes. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and engaged with me the past year. If there is any content you’d like to see more of please don’t hesitate to reach out!