Balancing Your Retirement With Your Needs Of Today

Should you invest while paying for adoption? Should you borrow from retirement? Laura Coleman talks with Michelle Waymire from The Young & Scrappy on The Adoption and Fertility Finance Show today about how to balance retirement planning with the needs of today. 

First and foremost, if your company offers a match for retirement savings, don’t leave money on the table! Don’t walk away from the opportunity to invest on someone else’s dime. Once you’re in the habit of not investing, it’s hard to get back into the habit of saving for your future. So rather than stopping retirement savings, it may make more sense for you to throttle back while you’re saving for adoption. But don’t stop completely!

The absolute best places to put your adoption goal money really depends on the goal and timeline you’re working with. Is it 6 months, 2 years, or even 5 years? If it’s really short term, it can feel like you’re leaving money on the table by not having it invested, and the last thing you want to do is lose money. A high yield savings account (HYSA) or a CD is a great choice for those shorter goals.

If you have 3 or more years in your savings timeline, then a taxable or brokerage account would be a better choice. Charles Schwab or Vanguard have target date funds that help you plan for goals around a certain date. You could even try Betterment, a robo-advisor. Laura and Michelle talk about some of the benefits of using these brokerages as a savings tool.  

Michelle and Laura share ideas about how to use money dates to realign priorities and goals with your partner. Whether you choose quarterly or annual money dates, remember to keep checking in with each other regularly to be sure that your finances are aligned with your values. 

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Are you ready to become a forever family? Schedule your 15 minute free no judgement appointment today to talk with Laura about where you’re at in your financial journey, where you’d like to be, and how you’d like to get there.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

Young and Scrappy

Best high yield savings 

Best CDs 

Schwab

Vanguard 

Betterment   

Young & Scrappy Investment Course

 

Check out what Kelli had to say about the Preparing Financially for Adoption course! 

"I believe one of the biggest struggles families can face is financial struggles and the last thing you want or need is to tie your roller coaster emotions that adoption can bring to poor financial decisions. Preparing financially for Adoption is a resource I wish we had available to us when we adopted! What a gift it would have been to have the structure and accountability to keep us on the same page and communicating before, during and after our adoption process.

The spreadsheets provided are gold for staying organized which can relieve a lot of stress. There are also guides for date nights and talking about the $ that I find valuable even now! Money is something that is easy to let one person handle or to choose to not talk about and it's so vital to stay connected on this topic especially when you are making big life decisions for your family such as adopting.

Because Laura is a Money Coach and an adoptive mom you can trust she is giving you sound and valuable information.

There are so many things that are required to invest in to prepare for adoption, in my opinion this course should be one of them!"

— Kelli