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Credit Card Myths
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI went for a run in the park this morning, with my favorite workout pal. Thank goodness she is a good friend as I don’t run as fast as I used to now being pregnant. Anyways, she surprised me mid-run by asking whether it was really necessary...
Scoring a Mortgage in Turbulent Times
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA“For years,” a woman said during a recent telephone conference, “I was waiting for the real estate bubble to burst so that I could buy something. Now that it finally has, no one can get a mortgage.”While it is true that it is much more...
Money Making Tips for Tough Times
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAOne of my mom’s friends has a daughter who studied interior design, and then scored an assistant manager position in an upscale furniture store right out of college. She was estatic, loving everything about her job . . . until last week,...
The iPod Issue: How Much Can -and Should- You Spend on Your Children?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI took the subway uptown today, to meet a colleague at a favorite lunch place. Turns out, the subway I was in also had twenty-something ten-year-olds, on a field trip coming back from the New York Stock Exchange. As Sebastian is only three,...
Should You Do Your Own Taxes?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy college friend was red-faced and bursting with anger when we met for after-work cocktails the other day. She arrived straight out of a meeting with her tax accountant, who had failed yet again to get her the tax refund so many people...
Credit Card Overwhelmed: Notes on Debt Consolidation
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA“My credit cards are driving me insane,” a friend complained to me over mochas (bought with cash) yesterday morning. “It’s like I can’t stop thinking about how much debt I’m in, because the minute I’ve sent off one minimum payment, I get a...
Top Financial Fears
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThis weekend, my family and I decided to go for a picnic in the park. So we filled a basket with Dean & Deluca foods and headed outside our door to Battery Park. There, the smell of grass, the sun, and the majestic beauty of the skyline...
Shrinking Your Bills
“The problem with saving,” the woman on the elliptical next to me at the gym the other day told me, upon learning that I am a financial planner, “is that it’s so boring. I feel like I can never do anything fun.”This, fortunately, couldn’t be less true. Try the tips...
Laid Off? How to Get Back on Track
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI think most of us know someone who has lost his or her job recently. To me, this recession became a reality when a client called mid-afternoon (and mid-latte) yesterday to let me know her company had let her go. Now, being a long term...
Money Management for Couples: What to Do When Your Opinions Differ
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFASomething interesting happened in my latest Savvy Ladies telephone conference. When one woman told the group that her husband’s sloppy attitude toward money was so frustrating to her, she wanted to divorce him for this reason alone, every...
Lending Money to Family and Friends
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI received an interesting email this morning. It was from a mother-of-two in her early thirties, who was broke because over the past five years, her parents had continuously borrowed money from her, supposedly to get into some miraculous...
Securing Your Job in Shaky Times
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAAt the bar in my favorite Asian fusion restaurant the other day, waiting for a table, my hubby and I overheard an interesting conversation between two twenty-something women. Apparently, one of them had lost her job earlier that day, and...
Writing Your Will
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI facilitated a workshop at a conference last week, on the topic of wills 200 men and women attended my session. Considering how many attendees the conference had, which was over 5,000, I was shocked to see how few took an interest in...
Shopping for a Home
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy husband and I just purchased our home and are so excited and smiley these days, when you see us you think we have slept with a hanger in our mouth. A home is something almost everyone wants, but acquiring one can take a lot of work – and...
Five Things to Ask Yourself about Your Retirement
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy mom flew in from Michigan last week to spend some time with us here in New York. We just went out for dinner celebrating the anniversary of her retirement and how smooth and easy this transition from employed to retired has been. She was...
Great Ways to Shop More and Spend Less
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA Shopping tips from the recession in 2008 still hold true today, if not more so. Online shopping is the norm today in 2022 and looking to compare pricing online makes it easier to find the best price for what you are looking for. Savvy...
What Are Living Trusts and How Do They Work?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFADuring a charity dinner last night, one of the women mentioned that she and her husband are drafting a trust. The discussion then went from wills to trusts and back to wills again as the other people at the table tried to grasp the...
What Are Stock Options and How Do They Work?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThis question popped up during a recent Savvy Ladies meeting. This Savvy Lady saw an advertisement on the internet for a course called Stock Options for the Savvy Trader – Make Millions With Little To No Risk. Should she sign up? It seemed...
Creating a Safety Blanket in Case of a Lay-Off
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI was recently on the Today Show talking about how to recession proof your finances when facing a layoff. Not the most upbeat interview. Not only is NBC covering this story but watching the evening news last night was depressing to say the...
The Postnup
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAOne of the main topics at my latest seminar was prenup’s younger cousin, the postnuptial agreement, or postnup. “I didn’t sign a prenup,” one woman confessed, “and my husband’s spending habits are keeping me up at night. But if I demand...
Marriage and Money
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAOne of the most common reasons women call me up is that they are dissatisfied with the way their husbands handle finances. They would therefore like to learn more, so that they can take over this crucial part of the household management. I...
