planning Archives - Empathic Finance

7 financial tasks to do before the end of the year

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on December 11, 2023 | Featured

The end of the year is a good time for checking financial tasks off your list, because of deadlines, but also it’s a good time for reflection. … Read More

Tags: checklist, planning

Are you ready to lose your job?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on September 26, 2022 | Featured

Most of the important steps you need to take to handle a job loss happen before you lose your job. Here are those steps. A few years ago, I was let go from my full-time job. It had nothing to … Read More … Read More

Tags: emergency fund, grief, job loss, planning, unemployed, unemployment

You cheat not only the game but yourself when you don’t track all your spending

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on November 8, 2021 | Featured

The meme “You cheated not only the game but yourself” applies equally well to when you hide certain purchases from your spending tracking. I don’t know how up you are on your Twitch streamers, but I quite enjoy watching certain … Read More … Read More

Tags: budgeting, CarlSagan42, planning, saving, spending

How to travel debt-free

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 26, 2021 | Featured

Most people travel and then figure out how to pay for it, but with my plan, you figure it out in advance and come home debt-free. We’re at the point in the pandemic where the average person in the U.S. … Read More … Read More

Tags: planning, travel, travel planning

Why you may want to ignore the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on November 16, 2020 | Featured

The creator of the “4% rule” for safe retirement portfolio withdrawals doesn’t even believe in 4% anymore. That’s good news, as the actual safer percentage appears to be higher. So you’ve spent decades of your life building up a sizable … Read More … Read More

Tags: 4% rule, planning, retirement

Time to plan for the unthinkable

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on April 6, 2020 | Featured

Now that we’ve seen firsthand how the unthinkable can happen, we need to prepare for other situations that can (and probably will) happen. By now, we’ve all been dealing with “the unthinkable” for many weeks now. “Nobody” thought this could … Read More … Read More

Tags: disaster, planning, preparation, preparedness

Would your future self say it’s too late now?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 29, 2019 | Featured

While it may seem like it’s too late for you to achieve your money goals, that’s not true. To prove this, think about your future self. When some of my peers turned 30, a common thread among some of them … Read More … Read More

Tags: ageing, future, planning

If you don’t want to do it now, schedule a time to do it later

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on December 20, 2018 | Featured

I think a lot about resistance. There is so much that we know we should be doing and figuring out, so many important conversations that we need to have…and we really really really don’t want to do any of it. … Read More … Read More

Tags: calendar, planning

You don’t need to wait until you’re old or rich to see the world

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on September 20, 2018 | Featured

I’ve been in Scotland for the past week, the first time I’ve been here in about twenty years. The first time I was here was on a break from college. I had taken a spring semester off, and was planning … Read More … Read More

Tags: planning, saving, travel

Why it’s okay to make a bad financial decision (sometimes)

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 23, 2018 | Featured

I was pretty hard recently on people leasing cars. That’s because I feel very strongly about how it’s a decision that can have a significant negative financial effect on one’s life. And not only that, but the implications of and … Read More … Read More

Tags: planning, purchases

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