Just married or know someone who is? Listen today for how to manage money together for financial success in marriage. We discuss financial tips for newly married couples. Here is our checklist of key steps to take for financial success and future planning: 1. Save Together: Set up joint accounts for savings with common goals like buying a house or planning trips. Consider saving a percentage of bonuses for the household and personal savings to keep individual spending flexib

Getting married or know someone who is? Smart couples master these money moves before marriage! In today's conversation, we discuss important financial steps to take after getting engaged. Some of our suggestions: 1. Start Saving Together: It’s essential for couples to begin saving together, even before the wedding. Opening a joint savings account and contributing a set amount monthly can help establish a healthy financial foundation. 2. Share Your Financial Situation: Open

In this episode of Friends Talk Finanical Planning, Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer discuss smart strategies for parking your idle cash to ensure it's safe and earns a decent return. Whether you're dealing with an unexpected windfall, an emergency fund, or just trying to be smarter about your finances, we've got you covered! Key Topics Covered: - The pitfalls of keeping money in checking or low-yield savings accounts. - The benefits of online savings accounts and

In this episode of Friends Talk Financial Planning, Bridget Sullivan Mermel shares her personal experience of being hacked and provides valuable insights on how to prevent it from happening to others. She emphasizes the increasing prevalence of hacking on bank accounts and the need for individuals to be vigilant in protecting their financial information. Bridget recounts how she was targeted through a physical check and highlights the importance of sealing envelopes to preve

Will Schwab fail? Is @CharlesSchwab next to go down? With recent uncertainty at banks, Schwab is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Schwab's stock, SCHW, is down, and they issued a special statement. Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer talk through the different issues at play when we talk about recent bank failure. How does Silicon Valley Bank compare to Schwab? Why does the amount of FDIC insured assets matter? What does the term "custody" really mean? Why

If you're worried about what the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank's recent closings, you'll want to understand exactly what money that you have that might be at risk. In this episode, we cover why you might be worried, and if you are worried what you can do about it. The FDIC insures bank deposits. When banks collapse, the FDIC insurance kicks in. It's important to know when a bank fails how much you are insured for. Also, it's important to understand basic strategi

Recession-Proof Your Finances: Which gives better advice on recession-proofing your finances? Experts or ChatGPT? That's what we decided to figure out in this episode. We agree on several recession-proofing ideas. However, our most important tips are different than Chat GPT (whew!) John's firm website: https://www.trinfin.com For advisors around the US: https://www.acplanners.org/home Thanks for watching and please subscribe! TRANSCRIPT: Bridget: Hey, John, th

CDs, or Certificates of Deposit, Treasuries, and TBills are paying higher interest than they have been in years. You can start earning 3-4% interest on money that is safe and guaranteed. When we talk about parking cash, we think—what money might I need in the next 1-5 years. We want to make sure that it’s safe. In the past 10 years or so, there hasn’t been much variance between different types of safe investments. With interest rates going up, there are opportunities to

Where to park money? A viewer inherited $500,000 and wanted to know. They (wisely) didn't want to take some time to decide exactly what to do with the money in the long term. But they wanted to know--where should they park the cash now? Where to park money is a question that applies when you're saving for any goal. It's not just about investing inherited money. It can be--where to park money to buy a house, or where to park money to buy a car. First, it's good when you

Series I Bonds savings bonds are currently paying more interest than other safe investments. That means a lot of people are paying attention. In this, our third episode about I Bonds, we talk with Linda Stratton CFP(R) about how to give I Bonds as gifts, and talk about I Bonds versus 529 college savings plans, and the real life pros and cons of I Bonds. Bridget Sullivan Mermel CFP(R) CPA and John Scherer CFP(R) go beyond what the Treasury Direct site says—what do people wh

Buying I bonds can be a smart way to keep up with inflation and earn more interest. But who should buy I Bonds? How do you actually go about getting them? These are questions we'll talk about with our special guest, Linda Stratton, CFP(R). Linda first bought I Bonds in 2005 and she's recommended them to clients, too. She joins Bridget Sullivan CFP(R) CPA and John Scherer CFP(R) in talking about who I bonds work for and how to actually go about buying them. First, Linda expl

Socially responsible money management starts with your bank

Recently a client emailed me to ask, “What is the best credit card?” Then, at a family holiday, four of my nieces and nephews asked the...

Dear Bridget, Although I like a good vampire movie, I don’t like it when I feel like my big bank has fangs in my neck. Between high ...

Dear Bridget, Is there anything we can/should do about the pending debt-ceiling deadline? Should I be getting cash out of the bank to...