XY Planning Network members regularly serve as subject matter experts for major media outlets—impressive, we know. (We help make connections by inviting our journalist friends to submit requests for XYPN members' expert input using our media portal.) We've compiled this roundup of recent articles featuring some of our superstar advisors.
Beyond Pride: Inside the Movement to Make Money More Inclusive of LGBTQ+ Americans
Money, featuring XYPN members River Nice, Brian Thompson, and David Rea
Four years after coming out as the first openly gay member of the New York Stock Exchange, Walter Schubert turned his attention to the internet and made history again. He founded the Gay Financial Network, or GFN.com: the first website dedicated to giving the LGBTQ+ community money news and advice.
As in, first ever.
“At the time, all of Wall Street’s financial products were geared toward straight couples. It was cookie cutter — everybody’s the same,” Schubert says. “What I introduced was no, everybody’s not the same.”
GFN.com’s 1998 debut was a big deal. It inspired write-ups in The New York Times, Wired and The Wall Street Journal. The site and its associated broker-dealer grew quickly, building out a directory of LGBTQ+-friendly professionals and resources on topics like how to visit a dying partner in the hospital without being legally married. Traffic climbed to 200,000 unique page views a month. Schubert was showing the world, he says, “that we were real people, too, with real problems just like them.”
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Saving for College? Here Are 5 Accounts You Can Start Using Now
NextAdvisor, featuring XYPN members AnnaMarie Mock and Eric Roberge
College is expensive: $35,720 per student, according to data from educationdata.org.
Many personal finance experts follow the airplane oxygen mask rule: Make sure your own finances are in order before saving for your children. Before you go all in saving for your child’s future college expenses, make sure it isn’t interfering with your own savings, retirement funding, and ability to pay down high-interest debt.
But if you are in a position to save for your child’s future college tuition, there are things you can do now to help your child afford the high cost of college later. And the best way to save for college is choosing a savings plan that works for your financial situation and goals.
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How to Make Sure Your Retirement Nest Egg Lasts
The Wall Street Journal, featuring XYPN member Kaleb Paddock
For retirees seeking to make a nest egg last, it might be time to rethink the conventional wisdom of withdrawing fixed amounts each year.
That conventional wisdom is laid out in the so-called 4% rule, which says: Calculate 4% of the value of your nest egg at retirement, and that initial amount, plus inflation, is how much you should withdraw each year.
But while the 4% rule appeals for its simplicity—and tests using historical market data suggest it can preserve a nest egg for at least 30 years—it is a one-size-fits-all kind of solution. And some advisers say that its lack of flexibility means it tends to undershoot or overshoot. Some retirees using the 4% rule can quickly deplete their portfolios during years of weak markets, as those fixed-dollar-amount withdrawals represent bigger and bigger chunks of their diminished portfolios. For others, the reverse can happen, leaving them sitting on piles of assets they might have used earlier.
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The ‘Marriage or Mortgage’ Trap
Bloomberg, featuring XYPN members Justin Green and Shaun Melby
In a new Netflix show, couples decide whether to spend their savings on a wedding or a home. We asked personal finance experts how much reality TV reflects actual reality.
In each episode of Netflix’s “Marriage or Mortgage,” a different couple from Nashville meets with a real estate agent, Nichole Holmes, and a wedding planner, Sarah Miller, who convince them to blow their nest egg on one of the show’s eponymous options. The show is in turn mind-numbing, heart-wrenching, and infuriating. (Also addictive.)
Filmed before the pandemic, the couples on the show are operating in a lukewarm housing market, and without the hindsight that would tell them not to risk it all on a big spring 2020 wedding. Their dilemmas are complex nonetheless: A couple is still living in the house one of the women once shared with her ex; another pair is abstaining from sex until marriage, but they’re also over living with roommates. Lost fathers, fertility challenges, heirloom-destroying fires — whatever the trauma, there is only one way to move forward. But which is it? A marriage or a mortgage?!
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6 Investing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Real Simple, featuring XYPN member Julie Quick
Investing can help you grow your money and create wealth. But common investing mistakes—such as constantly changing strategies to keep up with the Joneses—can ending up hurting your investments. So fight the FOMO you feel when you see everyone hopping on the newest trend (sorry, Dogecoin) and instead diversify and own a little bit of everything.
"When people are new to investing, it can be a challenging learning curve and mistakes are quite often inevitable," says Marjorie Radlo-Zandi, an angel investor. If you are new to investing (or thinking about starting), here are some common mistakes, plus how to avoid them so that your money is being invested wisely.
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New Accounts From Fintech Companies Offer Parents an Alternative to 529 Plans to Save for Their Kids' Futures
Money, featuring XYPN member Steven Fox
When Ksenia Yudina launched a startup that aimed to offer parents a simple, affordable and accessible way to save for college, she initially focused on 529 college savings plans.
The plans are the go-to choice among financial planners advising clients on saving for a child’s college bills. Yet last year, after offering 529 plans through her company, UNest, Yudina found those plans weren’t the go-to choice for her clients. UNest’s users wanted to save for their children’s futures, but they weren’t sure they wanted to save exclusively for college, and they didn’t want to lock their money up in an account that would penalize them for spending on something else.
So UNest pivoted, instead choosing to offer Unified Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) accounts, which have far more flexible spending options than 529 college savings plans, where you’ll get hit with a penalty if you spend on unapproved items. The company’s experience highlights a common question parents have when it comes to planning for their child’s future: where should we park our savings?
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10 Small Changes To Stay On Track With Your Savings Goals
Go Banking Rates, featuring XYPN member Charles Thomas
Even if everything else seems to be spinning out of control in this new year, you can still try to take charge of your finances. According to Fidelity Investments' annual Financial Resolutions Study, the top financial resolution of respondents for 2021 is to save more money.
Unfortunately, more than 2/3 of Americans experienced a financial setback in 2020. And while 45% of respondents said they cut back on other expenses to handle the strain, 37% turned to their emergency savings. Plus, nearly 4 in 10 respondents said they would be in survival mode during 2021.
So what does that mean for savings goals? Should people who are struggling just forget about saving until next year? It's really a personal decision -- one only you can make. But if you're interested in getting -- or staying -- on track with your savings goals, the time to start is now.
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The authors of 'Die Broke' say there are 2 big benefits to holding out for your dream house instead of buying a starter home
Business Insider, featuring XYPN member Eric Roberge
The starter home may officially be dead, but that's not a new idea.
Writers Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine predicted the fall of the starter home in their 1997 book "Die Broke," a title that looks at shifting ideas around managing and sharing money between generations. The authors say that there are smarter approaches for people starting out, and the advice is even more relevant today than it was 20 years ago.
The writers say that skipping the starter home is the best move for anyone making their first foray into the real estate market — here are their two big reasons why.
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