Tag: Finance

gold bitcoin coin lying on a phone displaying cryptocurrency graphs
Posted in Uncategorized

3 Helpful Investment Tips I’ve Learned in the Last Two Years

Posted on by tracydee

Are you on a journey to learn more investment tips? I’m on a path to financial freedom, and investing is a big part of the process.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial or investing expert. These are just my experiences, opinions, and learnings. I added the disclaimer because people have opinions and advice that might be different than mine based on experience and education. I just wanted to share 3 things that would have been helpful for me to know at the beginning of my investment journey.

black blue and red graph illustration - investment tips diagram
Photo by Burak The Weekender on Pexels.com

Let’s go back in time to December 2020. That’s when I put my first $10 into the stocks. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I picked some random stocks and went for them.

A couple of months later, they were doing really well. I added more when I could, just $10 here and $10 there. By the time summer 2021 rolled around, the stocks were looking great!

Here is where I made my BIG mistake (well, maybe it won’t be a mistake in 10 or 20 years). I had some retirement savings sitting there, earning 0%. PLEASE check your IRA accounts and make sure you actually INVEST the money. So I filed the paperwork to move it and invested it all during the months of September/October 2021.

At that point, I was subscribing to Motley Fool and following the top stock pick advice. So, hopefully, in the long run, it will serve me well. But the problem was that I invested everything I had when the market was super high. After that, it started dropping and continued into 2022, dropping lower and lower and lower.

Since then, I’ve learned a few things helping me build my IRA and personal investment accounts.

Here are my top 3 investment tips

  1. What CEO’s buy — You can check when CEOs buy stocks of their own companies. Some say this may indicate that the CEO thinks things will go well and the prices will rise. When they buy stocks, they are required to file a form. One website that tracks the purchases is here.
  2. Dollar Cost Averaging — A year ago, I had never heard of this term before. Basically, this means you consistently put a little bit into the stocks for a long time. So over time, the average price you pay for the stock will balance out. This has helped me a lot since I bought a lot of stocks at top dollar. It also helps because I only invest small amounts in different stocks. I now have a diversified portfolio with daily ups and downs in different sectors. However, I think it has strong potential for the long term.
  3. Dividend-paying stocks — One thing to consider when choosing which stocks to buy is the dividend yield. Not every stock pays a dividend, but some do and have consistent returns year after year. If you have a lot of money to invest, this is an easy way to make passive income. If you put all your investment money into dividend-paying stocks, you will get that money to re-invest. These are the stocks I am focusing on in 2023.

I hope these investment tips help you get started on your investing journey! I plan to share more as I educate myself and learn more on my own financial journey.

Being financially literate is very important and schools don’t do good enough job of preparing people to manage the various financial aspects of life. These are tips I wish I would have known years ago, but I’m glad to finally start now!

marketing businessman person hands
Posted in Manifestation

What Is Passive Income? Explaining This Important Idea

Posted on by tracydee

Have you ever heard of the phrase passive income? What is passive income anyway? Maybe you have. Perhaps you even know what it is. Most think of it as a pipe dream, though — something most bloggers, entrepreneurs, and business owners strive to achieve. However, it’s not reserved just for the few who hit it big in this world.

Passive income is a type of income that does not require active work

Passive income is a term that is thrown around a lot in the personal finance community. It’s not just a buzzword, though — it can be a very real way to make money online.

Passive income is money that you earn without having to work for it. With passive income sources, you’re making money while you sleep or after your workday ends. The idea of passive income is that you build something up once and then it runs on autopilot. Your time, labor, and expertise are used once to install passive income streams that generate money over long periods of time.

You could work for 40 hours a week or 50 weeks out of the year, and still end up with zero passive income. Passive income is all about building up the money you make without having to actually work for it.

For example, this blog takes me a lot of effort to write. However, one day I could be making passive income from advertisements on popular posts or affiliate links strategically placed.

Like this affiliate link here for TubeBuddy if you’re building a YouTube channel:

https://www.tubebuddy.com/Tracydeetips

There are many benefits to passive income

There are many benefits to passive income. The most obvious benefit is the lack of labor involved in its generation. You don’t have to work at your job to make money from it; you simply invest your money into a passive income stream and let it do all the work for you!

Another benefit is that you can spend more time with family or doing whatever else makes you happy. In fact, one of the biggest reasons people choose to invest in passive income streams is so they can spend more time with their loved ones while still making money!

What is passive income and another benefit? Passive income is also great because it allows you to accumulate wealth over time without having to work at all! This is especially true if you’re using a long-term strategy (such as real estate investing) rather than short-term strategies (like trading stocks).

what is passive income
Photo by Alexander Mils on Pexels.com

Passive income is often created by making an investment

What is passive income and how do you create it? Passive income is often created by making an investment. When you make an investment, you’re hoping the value of that investment will increase over time. It could be an investment into a tangible thing or investment in your time at the start.

Let’s say you buy some stock in a company that you think will grow over time. If it does, then when you sell that stock, you can pay off your original investment and then some — creating passive income for yourself.

Or maybe you buy a rental property and rent it out to tenants every month. If the rent is more than what it costs to own and maintain the property, then that’s considered passive income.

But passive income can also be earned in other ways — by selling your own products or services online, for example. The more time and effort you put into building passive income streams, the more money you’ll make from them over time.

What is passive income and is it for me?

In the end, passive income is still a bit of a niche subject. It’s not something that most people are going to be familiar with in the beginning, and it can be easily misunderstood as well.

The best thing you can do is educate yourself on it, look for examples of it as you encounter them, and determine for yourself whether or not passive income is for you. You may find that it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

Personally, I’m trying to learn as much as possible about ways to make money in my sleep! Even if it requires a bit of investment with my time up front.

savings tracker on brown wooden surface
Posted in Uncategorized

4 Important Reasons Why You Need Financial Literacy Now

Posted on by tracydee

Your net worth is your financial health

You need financial literacy. One of the most important things to do in order to grow financially is to know where you are now so that you can chart a course for where you want to go. You need to be aware of your financial health, and one of the ways you can check on it is by calculating your net worth.

Net worth is the value of everything you have, minus any debt. It includes money in your bank accounts, retirement accounts, investments, real estate holdings, personal property like cars and jewelry, and anything else that could be sold for cash. Determining your net worth helps you evaluate how well you’re doing financially by giving a snapshot of your current situation. It shows whether or not you’re getting closer to achieving your goals and allows you to calculate the rate at which you’re moving toward those goals.

This number is an important tool for financial health awareness because it can help guide your financial decisions when it comes time to make a big purchase like buying a house or getting married. You’ll know if your savings will be able to cover the costs or if they need some extra padding beforehand.

You make spending decisions every day

Every day you make financial decisions, even if you don’t realize it. You decide what you want to buy and how much money you want to spend on it, whether it’s a $5 cup of coffee or a $300 new pair of running shoes. You decide what things you need and how much they’re worth to you. And this is why you need financial literacy.

But the most important part of financial literacy isn’t just understanding how money works—it’s learning why what we do with money matters. When we understand the importance of our financial decisions in the context of their larger impact on our lives, we can grow our savings and get out of debt, we can avoid problems with credit and taxes, we can plan for retirement and investment vehicles, and we can be responsible for our own financial futures—no matter what age we are.

The more we know about the way money works, the better equipped we are to be responsible for our own success and help others who may not have had the same advantages.

you need financial literacy
Photo by Alexander Mils on Pexels.com

Everyone will need to manage money at some point in their life

Everyone will need to manage money at some point in their life so you need financial literacy. Whether it’s paying a bill, buying a house, or saving for retirement, managing your finances is an essential life skill that means you need financial literacy.

Do you have the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions about money and manage your finances? Many adults do not strive for this goal. Instead, they turn to friends and family or rely on their partner’s knowledge of the subject.

Some people are uncomfortable with the idea of financial education because they feel intimidated by math, they’re embarrassed by their level of financial literacy, or they simply don’t know where to start. But financial literacy is vital for everyone regardless of age or income level.

Financial education is not just about learning how to manage your money – it’s also about understanding how to use it as a tool to help you meet your life goals.

There’s a lot of financial literacy you can learn on your own

You need financial literacy and there’s a lot you can learn on your own. In fact, if you’re interested in learning about money and finance, there are plenty of resources available to help you get started.

The Federal Reserve offers some great basic advice on managing your personal finances with the goal of creating and maintaining a positive credit history. There are also plenty of great books out there that will introduce you to basic economic concepts, like how interest rates work and the importance of budgeting for saving.

One book I found particularly helpful was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kyosaki:

And don’t forget about the wealth of free material online, including on YouTube. For example, one site that is particularly helpful is LearnVest, which helps users understand concepts related to investments, savings, and debt reduction. Many of these resources may be able to answer all the questions you have about money management—you just have to take advantage of them!

pexels-photo.jpg. why you need financial literacy
Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

Learn With Friends: If you’re interested in learning more about personal finance, consider getting together with some friends who share similar goals for their future and have similar levels of experience with money management. You can set up a Facebook group or grab a few tables at your favorite coffee shop—it doesn’t matter where or how; just meeting regularly can help motivate everyone to stick with the group through the ups and downs of learning new concepts. It’s helpful because you need financial literacy.

Takeaway: Learning about finances when you’re young can help you later in life, but it’s never too late to start!

close up photo of monitor
Posted in Goal, Manifestation

Why I’m Teaching Myself How to Invest NOW

Posted on by tracydee

For all of my life, my mindset approaching money has been from a lack mindset. Learning how to invest was never a priority. The common phrases I am used to are:

“We can’t afford that.”

“It’s too expensive.”

“Don’t waste your money.”

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Yet, at the same time charging things on credit cards was completely normal. Especially to have experiences. And for that, I am extremely grateful. I had the opportunity to do some amazing things in my childhood that instilled a love of travel in me even now.

But…

The decision to go to college and take out student loans is a huge part of my existence now even if I try to pretend they’re not there. I won’t be truly debt free until they are gone.

I wish I would have learned about investing sooner. I remember in 7th grade, we played a stock market game that was really fun. However, much of what I heard about it was that it was risky. And it’s for the wealthy people.

how to invest
Photo by Alexander Mils on Pexels.com

Now…

With the invention of YouTube, TikTok, SkillShare, and Coursera, just to name a few, there are more places than ever to teach yourself what you want to know.

And now, I want to know how to invest. I keep hearing about crypocurrencies, NFT’s, and just general bull and bear stock stuff. And I want to be able to understand it and make smart decisions that could set me up for a successful financial future.

A few months ago, I joined Motley Fool. While they send out way too many emails trying to get you to buy other products, I find much of the information useful in learning how to invest.

The reality is that it’s not a get rich quick scheme. It takes patience and long-term commitment to riding out the ups and downs of the market overall.

So, what have I been doing?

For the last year, I’ve been taking the stock recommendations from Motley Fool and other sources to build my portfolio. I follow money Tik Toker’s and YouTuber’s who share practical advice and tips for beginners.

I am building my portfolio by using Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA). Some of my stocks I bought at high prices at the beginning of 2021. Ever since, I have been investing $10-$25 per stock as the prices fluctuate. Hopefully, in the long term this will result in gains as my central price point takes into account the highs and lows.

Now, I still have so much to learn. And I’m eager to keep learning more about investing so that I can travel the world and work from anywhere. This is just one stream of passive income out of many that I plan to develop.

Subscribe to follow my journey and I’ll be sure to share any tips I learn along the way!

Posted in Uncategorized

4 Helpful Ways to Make Money Working From Home

Posted on by tracydee

Many people want to make money working from home.

Well, now that I’ve had the privilege of working full-time from home for over a year, the one thing I can say I have enjoyed the most is autonomy over my schedule. I did have that before, even when going into the office or teaching at my school to some extent, but more time was available to me without the commuting back and forth to different places.

Now, I’m in a bit of a 3-month limbo here between my current part-time job and my next full-time venture. I’ve utilized some of these freelancing sites before off and on to try to make a bit extra, but I’m especially interested in earning a stable income over the next couple of months from these opportunities.

I will share the two main sources of part-time WFH income I’ve used and then some of my aspirations to grow over the next couple of months.

Make money working from home

  1. Rev.com – This is a transcription company that has clients from all over the world submit interviews and meetings to be transcribed. You have to apply by completing a transcription test. There is a learning curve by getting used to their system and platform, but once you figure it out, it gets much easier. You start out at the lowest level and then if your stats are high enough after 800 minutes, you move up to the highest tier. This is better because you have access to higher paying jobs and clearer audio files. Some of the initial files can be tough in the lower category, but if you stick with it, you’ll find it’s actually pretty fun. The pay is per minute and varies by each file, and is paid out weekly.
  2. Upwork or Fiverr – So far, I’ve only completed jobs on Upwork for editing and formatting. Because of my background in education and research, this category works well for me. Upwork is what I started with about 3 years ago, but now I’m interested in setting up a profile on Fiverr as well. It’s pretty simple to set up a profile, but be prepared to answer questions when you’re bidding on jobs to show your level of experience or expertise.
make money working from home
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

New WFH goals

E-books – I have a lot of training in education and since writing is still in my routine, I was thinking about creating some e-books to sell. I made a 30-day time management journal that I posted in my Etsy shop. Another avenue is to use Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and make sure to format designs in Canva to match their requirements.

If you google how to make money working from home, you’ll get tons of articles and websites directing you to opportunities. I know I only listed 4 different avenues here, but I prefer to start with some small, proven websites and then build from there if I still need more.

For example, if you stay consistent with transcribing on Rev.com a little each day, you could make a pretty decent monthly side hustle.

The thing that is appealing to me about the e-books is that it really turns into passive income over time. It takes effort to create everything up front, but with digital products, you only need to do it one time. I’m also taking time to market on Pinterest and of course, here on the blog and on my YouTube channel. All of that is part of committing to a goal that may take a little bit of time to get off the ground.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure to verify it is legitimate and decide if it is worth the time investment to get started.