The Millennial Optimist

Guest Post - 8 Budgeting Tips for Millennials The life of a millennial is harder now than it has ever been in the past. With the ever-growing living costs, job competition, student loan debt, and low income, starting a family or thinking about retirement is more of a fairytale. Despite the higher literacy rate, millennials of the current era are earning far less than previous generations; owning a house and a car has become an unattainable luxury. The elders in your life might constantly advise you to save money, but only you understand that it is easier said than done. If you are hoping to achieve financial stability and quit treading water, the following budgeting tips can help you get there: 1.) Keep Track of your Spending Most millennials find bank statements and credit card reports so dreadful that they don’t even bother to sneak a peek. Living by the motto ‘ignorance is bliss’, is the ultimate recipe for disaster. If you have no idea where your money goes, how in the worl...

How You Should Spend Your Christmas Money There is no better feeling as a child or even as an adult than coming downstairs early on December 25th to open presents! As you slowly wake everyone up around you in preparation for gift giving, you are left there wondering what you might get. As you slowly grow out of your childhood, your gifts begin to come in smaller boxes and sometimes only in envelopes. These smaller and more compact gifts tend to hold an even better gift: money! As most people can remember, the Christmas eve/morning as an adult tends to follow the same path: you wait and watch as the envelopes from loved-ones are passed around the Christmas tree and you begin to imagine what you would do with the money. Would you buy new speaker? A new phone? Nothing? As you begin to open up the envelope, taking a long moment to glance at the Christmas-themed card and take a look at the kind words that the person wrote for you, you are finally able to take a quick peek at the envel...

Investing for Beginners – How Much Do I Invest? One of the hardest decisions that must be made in personal finance is when to start investing. The second hardest decision is how much to invest in the first place. Most investors when they are just starting to take their first few steps into investing and the wonderful world of compound interest are overwhelmed with the excitement and possibility of making lots of money. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money, and people are more than willing to invest more money than they should in the hopes of making high returns quickly. Although the answer to the question is different for each individual, the answer lies mainly on what your expectations are for investing and your own personality and ability to weather the risk over the long-term. The first, and most important step to determining how much to invest is to determine the correct balance between investing and saving. For some, investing and savings are synonymous – don’t t...