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Where’s Your Money Going? How to Track Your Expenses.
According to a 2024 Debt.com survey, nearly 94 percent of households noted that they have a budget. And yet, Americans are struggling with their expenses. With higher-than-average inflation, low wages, and high revolving consumer debt, it’s time to modify your behavior. Tracking and managing your expenses is the difference between barely making it and becoming wealthy. As you may know, the TNFG household reviews our expenses monthly or as often as needed. It’s a great opportunity to make cash flow changes instead of unexpected changes. Life happens. I repeat Negative Financial challenges will happen just as often as Positive ones. Know that they are coming and learn to adapt and…
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How Much Money Can You Make Investing in the S&P 500 through 2030
The TNFG S&P 500 year-end predictions anticipate inflation, AI-related market shifts, and retirement crises causing increased volatility. Despite potential bear markets and economic uncertainties, experts predict growth for the S&P 500, potentially reaching 10,000 by 2030. Investors are encouraged to leverage market dips and remain agile, projecting substantial long-term gains.
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Here’s the Solution to The $4 Million American Dream
Based on the last 12 months’ CPI number, the American Dream costs over $4 million. A recent analysis estimated the median cost for a family of four to live the Dream in each state was $156,666 annually. A number that seems to be rising at least 4%-5% year over year. All of this is at a time when 80% of millennials and Gen-Zers think it’s impossible to attain. As of August 2024, the median savings account balance in the United States was $8,000. Inversely, the average credit card balance for QTR 2 was $6,329 per consumer. Folks are going broke while arguing which multi-millionaire should be elected. Just 41% are…
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This November, Opt to Vote For Your Household’s Wealth
This is the time of year when we are inundated with election ads asking for us to vote and donate to our preferred candidate or party. That got tired quickly. I hate ads and don’t understand why multi-millionaires need to spend an estimated $12 billion of 2024 campaign funds on marketing. This is up nearly 30% from the 2020 presidential election. Again, it’s not their own money. To keep it brief, the last time I voted was in November 2012. After an odd racially charged interaction with a volunteer poll worker for the city of Tallahassee (FL), because I’m visibly Black with a Hispanic last name, I started to question…
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How to Multiply $100k Worth of Opportunities Using the Net Max Financial Plan
Reaching a total investment portfolio of $1M and now it's time to draft, plan and multiply $100k worth of opportunities.
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4 Tips on How to Beat Inflation. Stock Market Performance Between 2020 and 2024
As of April 2024, the stock market was down 5% and inflation is still up 3.4%. Although the market recovered since, day-to-day life has become unaffordable for most Americans. In 2024, money isn’t cheap anymore; proving that financial illiteracy is expensive. At this rate, your knowledge or financial awareness equals your family’s future purchasing power. If you want to compete in modern times, it’s now mandatory to invest. Investing $100 in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 2020, you would have about $145.67 at the end of 2023, assuming you reinvested all dividends. This is a return on investment of nearly 46% percent, or an annualized average return of 10.8% per year. But that’s…
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How We Made $5k+ in Passive Income for Q2 2024
The second quarter of 2024 was tight. High prices raged on and it's likely that the passive income economy dragged down. With price inflation up, some goals might not materialize this year but we will likely still land in the positive. Nearly $7k in gross passive income is still income.
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How Not To Let Inflation Erode Your Household Wealth
According to an article by Yahoo Finance, inflation will make these seven assets unaffordable in the next 10 years. The future is expensive.
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Tracking Our Million Dollar Investment Portfolio Since 2020
You have to have some investment if you want to excel in a capitalist system. Without capital assets, you are merely falling behind. Here’s every single month of tracking our investment portfolio since 2020. Links are also available for the full net worth breakdown for that month. Although we started to track our net worth in 2012, we didn’t start writing blog posts until June 2020 when the website was created. Things that helped our investment grow? I’m not a fan of people sharing their final investment numbers without a full context. It’s only fair to paint a real picture. For one, although my wife and I didn’t come from money,…
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Why Tracking Your Wealth Matters. Our Monthly Net Worth Since 2020
A monthly net worth breakdown can help you understand your finances and how you can increase your net worth. To calculate your net worth, you can subtract your total liabilities from your total assets: Factors affecting our Net Worth? I also wanted to add that we are a dual-income family with no kids (but a dog) living in the DMV. The DMV is a tri-state area comprised of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. It’s one of those areas where the median income is typically higher than the rest of the nation. Although we don’t have high-powered C-suite careers, we were fortunate enough to land jobs with great pay. The…
