Growing Your Money

Growing Your Money

Who doesn’t want to find ways to grow their money? But it starts with getting organized.  That means understanding how much money you are saving away each month, based on your income and expenses.  With a budget plan in place, you can start thinking about different places and products you can use to start growing your money.

To start, check below for tips on how to build a budget and basics around investing.



What is financialfootprint?


Investing Basics

Learning About Investing

Once you have your financial house in order, you may want to start thinking about investing.  Remember to consider the following:

  • Investment Goals: What are you looking to gain out of investing? Are you just investing to learn? How much time do you want to allot towards investing?
  • Risk Tolerance: Check out an investor questionnaire to see how your personal tolerance for risk should affect your investment decisions.  If your investments dropped by 20% today, would it faze you?  What type of return would you be happy with?
  • How much to invest: How much are you looking to invest when you start? Are you looking to put more in over time?
  • Investment Time Horizon: How long are you investing for? Are you looking for a return within months, years, decades?


How to Build a Budget

Building a Budget

When it comes to building your budget the key is  to pull together as much information as possible.

  • Identify your different sources of income net of taxes, retirement contributions, etc.
  • Organize your monthly expenses by needs and wants
  • Write down your short and long-term goals (saving for a vacation, moving to a new apartment, financing a car etc.)
  • Leverage tools out there to organize your expenses.  Pen, paper and excel work just fine but there are a lot of budgeting sites today that can help you get organized!  You can take advantage of our very own budgeting application (shown on the left) called the “The bÜdg”.
  • Remember to update your budget as life happens!