Good Financial Reads: Holiday Hangovers, Managing the Finances of Your Side Business, and More

Following along with the blogs of financial advisors is a great way to access valuable, educational information about finance — and it doesn’t cost you a thing! Our financial planners love to share their knowledge and help everyone regardless of age or assets.

Catch up on some of the latest posts with this week's roundup:

Holiday Hangovers and Cash Management

by Jennifer Harper, Bridge Financial Planning

All of us know that Christmas falls on December 25th. Every. Single. Year.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that many readers felt a cash crunch in January from holiday spending. Now that the holiday hangover has subsided, it may be a good time to re-evaluate the importance and value of good cash flow management (aka Budgeting). It also happens to be a good next step after the post from last month about setting priorities and intentions.

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Managing Your Personal Finances with a Side Business

by Aaron Hatch, Woven Capital

There are a lot of perks to running a side business. Earning extra income can make you less dependent on your main job to pay the bills while building up marketable skills. Since you have all the extra cash flow, you’ll want to spend it wisely. Here are some strategies to deal with the variable income to make the most of it:

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Want Kids One Day? Begin Saving Today

by Sophia Bera, Gen Y Planning

If you’re feeling the urge to have your first baby, you’ve probably spent the past few months or years imagining what your future baby will look like, what names you like, and how adorable they’ll look in a onesie with little ducks on it (so adorable!).

But when you’re planning to have a baby, you need to plan for more than nursery color schemes. Babies need more than onesies and love, y’all. Babies can be expensive. A child costs nearly $250,000 to raise until age 18, and that doesn’t include college!

That seems like a daunting figure, but you can take advantage of the pre-baby years to prepare your finances as much as possible. I’ll walk you through all the things you need to consider.

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Higher Risk Does Not Equal Higher Returns

by Kenneth Klabunde, Precedent Asset Management

Back in 2013, I outlined research supporting the less risk = higher returns thesis in Why Risk Matters. Due to the asymmetry of returns required to recover from portfolio losses, it is possible for an investor to take less risk and simultaneously achieve higher long-term returns. This is a key principle that guides our portfolio management decisions, and it is never more important than during market declines.

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