Category: Money

Has a product or service ever hit the market and the first thing you thought was, “I totally could have made that!” And you know what? You’re right. You could have. But you didn’t, did you? Someone else beat you to the punch. They come up with a business idea, they came up with a prototype, and then they followed through on building the business and promoting their product or service. The reason you didn’t come up with it first is you weren’t ready. I firmly believe this. Starting a business takes a certain type of person, this is true, but it takes more than that. It’s all about coming up with the right idea and doing it at the right time. Here’s how you can come up your own ideas. Be Patient You can Google “Best Small Business Ideas” all you want. The sad fact is these pieces of […]

These women are redefining what it means to be female with money ambitions. October 12, 2018 7 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Let’s talk women entrepreneurs and money. Specifically, women entrepreneurs wanting to make money. It may seem like a given, that if you start a business one of your top priorities will be to earn money. However, many women entrepreneurs have a tendency to sidestep the issue of money. Actually aiming to be rich — and vocalizing it — is often a failed social experiment if you happen to be female. Ambition of any kind — including financial — is deemed an unlikable trait in women (though an admirable trait in men) and even though gender parity and overcoming the wage gap have become popular topics of conversation in the Time’s Up era, too often women are faulted for having money goals. Related: My Female-Led […]

Most entrepreneurs focus on their product or service. They don’t know how to scale, when to scale, or anything about marketing. When a new business first starts, solopreneurs quickly get an accountant and an attorney, which is smart. But there is a lot more to it than creating a product, a business plan, and getting funding. It doesn’t stop there, even though most of the content on the web usually ends at that point. They tell you has to get the business started as far as getting money and making yourself look good for investors. But what’s after that? When do you build a website? When do you hire employees? When do you create a second product or expand your list of services? The problem is each individual business needs to figure this out on their own. This is why there isn’t much content on the topic. But knowing when to […]

Founders of Robinhood, Kabbage, Wealthfront and more share their wisdom on everything from saving to investing to the power of new technologies. July 12, 2018 6 min read Good sense about money is one of those things that most of us have to learn the hard way, and that’s also true of many of today’s top entrepreneurs in the money management and fintech space. They’ve had their share of bad investments (Enron, anyone?), waited too long to build credit and didn’t think long term about what it would take to reach their savings goals. The tools they and their teams build address many of these issues, some involving AI to help the average person balance their financial priorities and make personalized decisions. Others automate saving so you can “set it and forget it” and your hard-earned cash starts compounding well before your retirement years. Others help you budget, invest and […]

Aside from the occasional indulgence, most financially successful people keep a close eye on their budgets and bank balances. July 3, 2018 11 min read This story originally appeared on GOBankingRates People have struck it rich by launching social media startups, inspiring wildly successful crowdfunding campaigns and writing wizard-themed best-selling books. But most successful people have far more boring backstories of accumulating wealth through savvy spending and smart saving strategies. Related: How Richard Branson Built His $5.1 Billion Fortune Aside from the occasional indulgence, most financially successful people keep a close eye on their budgets and bank balances. They rarely waste money on goods and services that don’t offer much in return. See below for which items to cut from your budget and get expert tips on how to manage your money better. (By Charlene Oldham) Lottery tickets Image credit: Icatnews / Shutterstock.com If you truly want to strike it rich, don’t play the lottery. This […]

Thinking about investing your money? Read this first. June 27, 2018 4 min read This story originally appeared on Career Contessa If the word “investing” makes you squirm, you’re not alone. It’s easy to get bogged down in confusion from Martha Stewart indictments to Spotify “going public” to NPR covering the morning stocks.  But it’s also essential for women to do a better job of thinking about long-term investments. Statistically, women live longer than men. Thanks to that pay gap we’ve been covering all month, we make less than men over time. And then, it turns out, we invest less of the money we do earn. So what does that mean? It means that we’ll live longer, on less with less saved than our male counterparts. Not exactly the retirement on a beach you were planning, right? Related: The Financial Vocabulary Every Money-Savvy Woman Needs That’s why we asked our favorite money coach, Ashley Feinstein […]

These everyday fixes can supercharge your stash and help you reach your goal. May 1, 2018 6 min read Since 1980, we’ve traded the Walkman for streaming apps, the floppy disk for cloud storage, and M*A*S*H for NCIS. Another key shift? Between 1980 and 2017, the U.S. personal saving rate dropped from 12.9 percent to just 2.4 percent. If you’ve seen a steep decline in your own savings, you’re not alone. Almost half of small-business owners say cash flow concerns keep them up at night, according to a recent Square report. But if you’re looking to launch your own business — or build up funds for another significant goal — here are four actionable tips for amping up savings. 1. Figure out where your money is going — and where you can cut back. The first step to shoring up more money for your goal: figuring out exactly where your […]

Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis, we’re still picking up the pieces. Historians will continue to pick apart the 2008 financial crisis for many years to come and new facts will come to light. But for the most part, we already know the basics of what happened. It’s just that most of us don’t have a doctorate in Economics. Understanding what happened outside of “people lost their homes and everything generally sucked for a while” is difficult for laymen. One recent film tried to help normal folks like me understand what went down behind the big bank curtain on Wall Street. The Big Short (2015) is a film based on a book of the same name by Micheal Lewis. The film takes the concepts laid out in the non-fiction title and tries to make them palatable and easily understood. While the film writers do generalize and skew a few […]

Millennials are better with money than their reputation might lead you to believe. March 2, 2018 4 min read This story originally appeared on Due It seems you can’t go a week without finding a new article about a new industry millennials are killing. But while they may not be fans of paper napkins or bar soap, they are actually better with their money than their reputation might lead you to believe. It turns out that millennials are not ignoring their money, their retirement or their financial future. Instead, they are very focused on money, but also cautious and conservative with their hard earned dollars. Read on to learn how millennials are a generation of financial rock stars, and what they are doing right when it comes to their personal finances. They are getting ready for retirement As millennials’ baby boomer parents approach retirement, America is up for a big wake up call on […]

It’s only a fraction of the millions you dream about. February 22, 2018 2 min read How many times have you thought, If I just made $5,000 or $10,000 more per year, then I’d be happy? Turns out, a marginal raise like this might be the key to feeling satisfied and happy for some. Psychology researchers from Purdue University and the University of Virginia crunched Gallup World Poll data and found that people reach peak life satisfaction when they earn $95,000 a year. The researchers determined this by examining self-reported income and life satisfaction data from 1.7 million people across 164 countries. However, satisfaction is different from emotional well-being. If you’re satisfied, all of your needs have been met, but more money might bring more problems. Individual earnings of more than $95,000 a year are correlated with lower life satisfaction. Once people pass that income threshold, most are able to […]