financial literacy Archives • Family Finance Mom

S2-18: Market Correcting, Housing Update & A Deep Dive on US Agriculture and Rising Food Prices

On this week’s episode of Finance Explained, the market had its third consecutive down week this month and is now in correction mode and headed for bear market territory. I’ve got the latest on the housing market through March, as the spring selling season starts to pick up. And this week’s deep dive features a…

Market Update 4-4-2022

Last week, we saw the end of March, the end of the first quarter and the start of a new month. The market eked out a gain for the week, finished up for March, but had its worst quarterly performance since Q1 2020 at the start of the pandemic. In other economic news for the…

Market Update 3-28-2022

Last week, the market rallied for the second week in a row, finishing the week up +1.8%, up +3.9% for March thus far, but still down -4.7% for the year. The big story of the week, however, was a major move in interest rates. Learn just how much interest rates are increasing, what’s driving it,…

5 Key Challenges to Watch Driving the 2022 Financial Outlook

If any of us had an actual crystal ball to give us the 2022 financial outlook, we’d be billionaires… but the reality is there are a lot of unique, atypical, and historically unprecedented economic and financial data points right now. So, what can we expect economically and financially in 2022? There are 5 key challenges…

Do the Rich Really Pay Less In Taxes Than Other Americans?

Tax the rich has become a popular political mantra. It’s an ancient political strategy that leverages a popular villain to gain the masses support. And it’s further fueled by a repetitive soundbite we hear over and over – that billionaires pay less in taxes than their secretaries. Or that specific ultra-wealthy individuals paid no taxes…

3 Reasons Net Worth is the Smartest Measure to Track for your Family Finances

How do you track your family finances? And more importantly, how do you track your progress to your financial goals, beyond just your income and paying your bills every month? The answer is net worth. Learn more about the definition of net worth, why it’s the smartest measure for tracking your wealth, and how shifting…

How To Get Personal Finance Classes in Every High School

There are two things I hear consistently from Family Finance Moms on a daily basis: I wish I had learned this when I was in school. How do I make sure my kids learn what I didn’t about finance? The way to address both of these is simple. Personal finance classes in every high school…

What Drives the Stock Market?

One of the questions I probably get asked more than any other is why is the stock market behaving the way it is… especially over this last year. The last year has shown to be one of the wildest rides I’ve seen in the stock market over my lifetime. But its behavior through the pandemic…

10+ Elements to Build A Successful Family Finance Plan

We talk about all sorts of different financial literacy topics here at Family Finance Mom. And sometimes, the amount of information out there to absorb and retain can be completely overwhelming. So this year, for Financial Literacy Month, I decided to create a checklist for you to follow to help you build a successful family…

10+ Things to Know About How Mortgages Actually Work

This quarter for the Family Finance Book Club pick, we read The Big Short by Michael Lewis, giving many of you a front-row seat and eye-opening read about how the mortgage industry nearly collapsed the entirety of Wall Street, taking Main Street down with it… but it also left you with lots of questions. Like,…