debt

3 Ways to Improve Your Financial Health in 30 Minutes

Last week I gave a presentation on 3 ways to improve your financial health. I love getting down to the nuts and bolts of personal finance! We (including financial planners) often make the topic more complicated than it needs to be. When you really gets down to it, you can address 80% of your financial management problems with three things: a budget, a savings plan, and a debt payoff plan.

In this article I’ll explain these 3 points, and for each I’ll give you a simple exercise you can implement this weekend--each one taking about 30 minutes.

Should I Pay Off Debt or Save?

If there’s any question more common in the personal finance world, it’s this one: Should I pay off debt or save that money instead?

I love this question, because it’s addressing a financial topic that I wish were on the forefront of more minds. Paying off debt and saving are two great ways to utilize our money that we should all be thinking more about. Your situation isn’t as cheery if you’re having to decide between paying off debt, saving, purchasing a new sports car, or buying a bigger home you can’t afford.