TessMore Finance Blog

Ask Beverly Jones, author of the valuable new book, “Find Your Happy at Work,” to describe a time when  she  was happiest at work and Jones instantly smiles. It was, she says, when she was a grad student at Ohio University working as a paid assistant to its president and researching ways for more equal opportunity on campus for women. “In those days, women couldn’t take some courses, like engineering,” Jones, now a Washington, D.C.-based executive career coach, recalled. “Many graduate programs didn’t accept women. It was something I cared totally about. I had absolutely no idea how to go about it, so I had to make it up every day, but it was one of the most intensely enjoyable periods of my life.” The reason, says Jones (one of my go-to career experts, fellow Labrador retriever fan and longtime friend), is that “creating something and making a difference is a great strategy to go to if everything is feeling dull at work.” The secret to happiness at work But there’s ...

Student loans aren’t just a young person’s problem. At the end of 2020, borrowers age 50 or older held about 22% of the nation’s $1.6 trillion student debt burden, the AARP reports. Most of the debt held by 50-plus borrowers is the result of the borrower’s education. But many people have student loans because they took out federal Parent PLUS loans or co-signed a private loan for their child. If you’re in your 50s, 60s or older and have student loans, retirement may feel out of reach. But there are some ways to deal with your debt — that don’t involve working forever. 6 Ways to Deal With Student Loans in Retirement To pay down your student loans , you can put all your efforts toward eliminating as much of the balance as possible. Or you can minimize the pain to your retirement budget by keeping your payments low, even if that means you may never eliminate your debt. Neither one is the right or wrong approach. However, your options will vary based on the type of loans you have. Fo...

With many parents living in households where both spouses work outside the home, child care has become a significant portion of many budgets. While nobody wants to leave their children in the care of the absolute lowest paying provider, many people are looking for ways to save money on child care expenses. Here are a few hacks to consider if you’re looking for ways to save money on childcare. Use Dependent Care FSA One of the best child care hacks is a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA). A dependent care FSA is similar to a Health Savings Account. Both are accounts that are typically offered as employee benefits. A Dependent Care FSA allows you to take out money from each paycheck and not have to pay taxes on it. You can then use that money to pay for child care throughout the year. A wide variety of different types of childcare are eligible to be paid for with DCFSA funds, so make sure to check the rules and regulations of your account. By paying for your childcare c...

If you spend any time on TikTok, you’ve probably seen financial advice in many forms from investing to savings hacks. While some of the advice is good, some of it is bad and most of it is surprisingly entertaining. We’ll help you figure out which is which, so you can ensure your money is in the right places. Shouldn’t use: Investing advice A 2020 study from startup Paxful found that 64% of the misleading personal finance videos posted on TikTok mentioned investing in an individual company, like Tesla, Amazon or Alphabet.  Many TikTokers also advocate for day trading, which means buying and selling stocks that day. While it’s possible to make money by stock picking and day trading, it’s much easier to lose money. If you manage to sell stocks for a profit, you have to set aside a portion for capital gains taxes . These are often excluded from the conversation. This can result in a surprise tax bill for investors. Many TikTok influencers also tout various cryptocurrencies as a...

Monifi is a digital-only bank that has a great new account promotion for folks who have a direct deposit they can move over. They are an online bank, so anyone can open an account, but they are also a division of MidFirst Bank, which is a brick and mortar bank. MidFirst Bank is FDIC insured, Certificate #4063 , and chartered as a Federal Savings Bank regulated by the Comptroller of the Currency. As of this writing, they have 81 locations in five states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas). An added benefit of Monifi, besides the bonus, is that their app has a lot of features that can help you with your budgeting too, which means saving even more money. It’s worth checking out if you don’t already have a favorite app for that. As for the bonus, it’s nice and it’s easy to get, let’s take a look. Discover Online Savings Account – $150 or $200 Discover Bank is offering a $150 or $200 bonus to open your first Online Savings Account. Just open it with the code W...

Looking to nail a phone interview you have coming up? Well read on. Interviewing is hard. One of the few ways to make it even harder is to make it a phone interview. In-person, you can read and respond to all of the interviewer’s physical cues, but on the phone you’re often left to guess if they’re engaged in what you have to say or busy checking their inbox while you ramble on. Unfortunately, many application processes begin with a phone interview. I used to hate phone interviews…at least until I learned a few simple tips that turned this typically uncomfortable conversation into a job offer — or a follow-up, face-to-face interview — every time. What is the purpose of a phone interview?  In a phone interview, the interviewer wants a condensed version of your story and why you’ll be good for the job. It’s your foot in the door and a critical part of the interviewing process. It acts as a screening interview to narrow down the candidates.  How to prepare for a phone i...

Strategic asset allocation is the practice of setting a goal for each of your asset classes (e.g., stocks, bonds, cash), and rebalancing it every year as you realize earnings on your investments. This is a great tactic if you want to: Focus on long-term financial goals Enjoy a hands-off approach to your portfolio — and not wring your hands over how the market is performing Reduce your risk as an investor In this post, we’ll walk you through how to set up your asset allocation in a way that makes sense for your goals. What are investment assets?  When you invest, your money goes into different assets. These are government bonds,  mutual funds , stocks, retirement savings, and even real estate.  Not all of these assets carry the same risk. For instance, stocks are deemed riskier than say government bonds. Choosing your ideal mix of assets will depend on various factors including: Your age:  Your allocation strategies shouldn’t be the same in yo...

If you spend any time on TikTok, you’ve probably seen financial advice in many forms from investing to savings hacks. While some of the advice is good, some of it is bad and most of it is surprisingly entertaining. We’ll help you figure out which is which, so you can ensure your money is in the right places. Shouldn’t use: Investing advice A 2020 study from startup Paxful found that 64% of the misleading personal finance videos posted on TikTok mentioned investing in an individual company, like Tesla, Amazon or Alphabet.  Many TikTokers also advocate for day trading, which means buying and selling stocks that day. While it’s possible to make money by stock picking and day trading, it’s much easier to lose money. If you manage to sell stocks for a profit, you have to set aside a portion for capital gains taxes . These are often excluded from the conversation. This can result in a surprise tax bill for investors. Many TikTok influencers also tout various cryptocurrencies as a s...