Retirement Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

A Beginner’s Guide to Micro-Investing in 2021

Last Updated: January 15, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 1 Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

What is micro-investing? Lately, I have been hearing a ton about micro-investing, so I thought an article on the topic would be great. My sister-in-law and editor, Ariel Gardner, has been using micro-investing apps for over a year, and today she is going to teach you all about this topic.

I heard about micro-investing for the first time a few years ago, and I was immediately intrigued.

The idea is that you’re investing on a small scale, and it’s meant to appeal to new investors who feel intimidated by traditional investing.

Maybe you feel like you don’t have enough money to start investing or investing just seems too difficult. There’s also the reality that the market goes up and down on a regular basis — also scary for anyone who’s new to investing.

Micro-investing aims to remove all of those barriers and teach you that investing is more accessible than you may have thought.

About a year after I learned about micro-investing, I decided to try it out and invest through a couple of different apps — Stash and Acorns.

Today, I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned through the process and about some of the best micro-investing apps available now. [Read more…]

What is Value Investing, and Why Should You Care?

Last Updated: January 15, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Today, I have a great guest post from Chris about value investing. Chris started a digital marketing business that focuses on freelance writing, content marketing, and SEO — all while working full-time and playing dad to two kids. You can check out his blog – Money Mozart to read more.

Have you been thinking about getting into the investing game, but have no idea where to start when it comes to choosing a strategy? Find yourself totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options and information?

Then you may want to take a look at one of the best long-term, proven investing strategies around— value investing.

Let’s take a deep dive into this technique, learn more about value investing, and explore why you should care about it in the first place.

Related content on how to start investing:

[Read more…]

Why Save Money Now? 9 Reasons That Will Help You Start Saving

Last Updated: January 15, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Learning to save money is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Saving money can help you prepare for emergencies, start a business, retire, and more.

Financial security is one of the best reasons for why you should save money, and being prepared financially is one of the best feelings in the world. You can travel more, pursue your passions, quit a job you don’t love, try new things, and more.

But, I hear over and over again from people that they don’t want to save money now because they think they have the rest of their life to do so.

However, that’s far from true, especially if you want to be prepared for emergencies or retire.

When you decide to start saving money now, you will be ready to live the rest of your life.

You can take chances, try new things, and be ready in case something awful were to happen. Saving money gives you the freedom to worry less and live more. [Read more…]

How To Save For Retirement – Answers To 13 Of The Most Common Questions

Last Updated: February 21, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Would you like to learn how to save for retirement?

Learning how to save for retirement is how you start preparing for your future. It’s necessary if you don’t want to work for the rest of your life or if you want to do amazing things after you quit working, like traveling or trying new hobbies.

I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon, but it’s something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and planning for. There are lots of reasons for why you should too, such as:

You can retire sooner rather than later.
You won’t have to keep working forever.
You can lead a good life well after you finish working.
Compound interest means the earlier you save the more you earn.
You won’t have to rely on your children or others in order to survive.

But, many people are confused or overwhelmed when it comes to retirement savings and investing. [Read more…]

Why Investing for Retirement is So Important for Women (and How To Do It)

Last Updated: December 27, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! Michelle speaking for a moment. Today, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Amanda Holden. She runs one of my favorite financial blogs – Dumpster Dog. Below is a guest post from her on why investing for retirement is important for women – and how you can start. Enjoy!

Play along with me for a moment: Imagine a deliciously styled woman in her 70s.

She is having a sip of her morning espresso at a sidewalk café in Paris. She’s perusing a big, beautiful novel alongside her (much younger) Parisian lover, who is bringing her a third croissant for before 10 am (because why not).

This woman is you.

Or at least, this woman could be you.

Whether or not your retirement dream includes croissants and a Parisian lover, you’re going to need to save and invest to make it happen.

We’re so accustomed to thinking about retirement in terms of an age—age 65—when in reality, retirement is an amount of money saved.

Because young people will not have access to the pension plans of our parents and grandparents, retirement is entirely our responsibility. [Read more…]

How To Reduce, Reuse, And Save More Cash

Last Updated: April 13, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hi, this is Michelle’s editor, Ariel! You may have seen me here before talking about taking my side hustle full-time, living in a small house, and real life frugality. When I’m not working for Michelle, you can find me spending a lot of time over at M$M, working as a staff writer and editor-in-chief.

The other day I found myself asking this question in a popular FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Facebook group:

Anyone else focusing on a zero/low waste lifestyle and merging that principal with FI?

I asked this question because, while I don’t hang around in those kinds of communities a ton, I find that what I often see is more focused on sexier topics like investing strategies and increasing your income.

Both of those are incredibly valuable tools when you’re working to improve your financial health, even if you aren’t working towards FIRE, but I was searching for advice that felt a little more relatable to my personal goals.

It turns out that I wasn’t alone. [Read more…]

12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More

Last Updated: February 22, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 26 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you looking for passive income ideas so that you can start making more money? Learning how to make passive income streams can significantly change your life by helping you earn more money and diversifying your income.

Building passive income is something that I’ve been working on for the past several years. See, I want to continue to bring in an income while being able to focus on other goals of mine, like doing more hiking or biking (which will most likely never generate income). I also want to diversify my income so that I’m not too reliant on one source.

For me, finding passive income strategies is great because I can focus more on life instead of business, and I can do it while continuing to earn a great income.

Unfortunately, many people think that passive income simply isn’t real, that it must be luck and not work, that you’re a trust fund kid, or something else.

But, that’s not true at all! All of the passive income ideas in this article are real ways to make money.

Now, that doesn’t mean that earning passive income takes literally no effort (it’s not a get rich quick scheme) – there’s probably going to be some effort to get the passive income stream started, and perhaps some effort to maintain it for years to come. [Read more…]

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