Clearly, there is a lot of work needed to be done in the economic and financial empowerment of women. The Women Financial Advisers Network (WFAN) works tirelessly with 100% commitment towards empowering women and giving them the right tools for financial independence. Partha Iyengar along with his partner Prajakta Shidhore (co-founders Life & Money) together started WFAN with the objective of bridging the gender gap in India by encouraging women to embrace financial well being and training them to become successful financial advisers.

As Iyengar puts it, "Research shows, 60% of young women drop out of the workforcewithin 5 years and overall 26% drop off from the workplace completely. Our vision is to bridge the gender gap in the workplace in India, by empowering them not only to become micro-entrepreneurs and financially independent, but also to help them lead a balanced and meaningful life. Once they have the skills, they can then help serve other men and women across age groups through the four paths that we use to facilitate this transition towards financial awareness and independence."

The learning process for the four paths mentioned by Iyengar are, Financial Life Planner and Investment Adviser, Holistic Financial Wellness Coach, Holistic Financial Wellness Program Trainer, Holistic Financial Wellness Program Children. All the learning across these is based on Life Planning and Coaching Process.

The low ranking that India holds in the economic gender gap is the result of symptoms like low self-confidence and financial awareness among its women. Thankfully this can change. With a view to bring the best minds to this generous and ambitious objective of bridging the gender gap, WFAN is announcing key international partnerships and collaborations across the four paths.

These will be beneficial in developing learning processes and scalable formats for members of WFAN and also for the overall community.

Speaking about the launch of these collaborations, Partha Iyengar, Co-founder, WFAN and Life & Money, shared these thoughts, "Our virtual learning platform along with various collaborations help us provide our members 24x7 support through Global and Indian coaches. Moreover, they will be able to learn from time tested templates, toolkits, resources and will have access to an amazing vibrant global community that holds each other's back.Our vision and mission also include the need to be in alignment with 6 out of 17 UN Sustainable Goals for 2030. We are committed to the UN Sustainable Goals and in the next phase of our expansion, we will be expanding the platform on a large scale to the rural market to serve women and the consumers of rural India."

The journey began with a purposeful collaboration between WFAN and The Garrett Planning Network, USA founded by Sheryl Garrett in 2000. The 'Financial Life Planner and Investment Adviser' program focuses on helping existing Independent Financial Advisers to transition to a Fee-Only model and add value to themselves and their clients.The Garrett Planning Network pioneered the fee only hourly model to serve the underserved low and middle-income earners in the United States. The network currently has 250 members serving 25000 families across the US. Garrett and her team will be involved in making their successful model applicable and scalable in India. Read more about them on https://garrettplanningnetwork.com.

Next comes the exclusive collaboration with Sage Financial Solutions Inc, USA founded by Saundra Davis in 2010. Davis has pioneered the coaching profession focused on the finance industry. This collaboration will facilitate the certification of "Holistic Financial Wellness Coach" by applying their customised curriculum which focuses on balance rather than just financial awareness and execution. You can read more about the existing program here: http://sagefinancialsolutions.org/.

In another exclusive collaboration, WFAN has partnered with It's a Habit Inc, USA for their children and money wellness program.It's a Habit Inc was launched by Sam Renick in the year 2000. His 'Sammy Rabbit' program for children has impacted an estimated 2,50,000 young minds in the age group of 3-13 years, across the US. You can read more about the existing program here: https://sammyrabbit.com/.

Lastly, the path towards Holistic Financial Wellness Programs Trainer, is covered by Life & Money, based on a curriculum designed keeping in mind the teachings from Richard Thaler's 'Nudge'. You can know more about the existing onsite and online programs here: http://www.yourlifeandmoney.com.

Women can become members and participate across the four paths to access earning capabilities through these in a fee only model. Each path involves a two-day live training program followed by access to the online network and platform and coaches.

All these efforts together will not only result in bridging the gender gap by bringing more women into the workforce through micro-entrepreneurship but also improve the financial awareness of the overall community by sharing this knowledge through coaching programs cutting through various age groups.

About WFAN:

Partha Iyengar, co-founder of Life and Money has been following the work and practices of his role model and mentor, Sheryl Garrett at The Garrett Planning Network. Iyengaris an experienced Trainer and Financial Life Planner. Iyengar has pioneered the fee-only model in Financial Life Planning in India. His unique Financial Wellness and Life Planning programs for millennials and financial advisers impacted thousands of participants. The idea of spreading this awareness and training to empower women has now taken shape through WFAN.

Iyengar hopesto reach as many women as possible in an endeavour to make them self-reliant entrepreneurs, who can then share their own learning through the coaching skills acquired in the four paths defined by WFAN and help their clients to lead a rich and balanced life.

The six UN Sustainable Development Goals that WFAN has aligned itself with are, good health and wellbeing, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities and partnerships for the goals.

Read more about it on http://www.wfan.in.

Contact: partha@yourlifeandmoney.com

SOURCE WFAN

https://www.wfan.in

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WFAN to Enable Women Towards the Path of Financial Independence - PRNewswire

Accomplishing the financial cushion to retire early is a fantasy for most. Bringing the fantasy to reality is not as difficult as it sounds. The key is straightforward: Save significantly more every month. Sounds simple, correct? One moment.

The typical rule of thumb given by financial planners is to have a goal of saving up to 20% of total earnings. But if you want to retire when you're younger, that percentage will probably need to be more like 40% to 50% of your income. Of course, that's not so simple since a big part of your paycheck goes to day-to-day, necessary expenses. So if you want to save that much, you need to make some serious lifestyle adjustments. It requires making changes, but it's doable.

A relatively new movement called Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) has been developed around this "sacrifice and over-save now to retire early" concept. FIRE followers develop strict savings programs (up to 75% of income) and make associated sacrifices like living in small apartments, walking to work every day, restrictive diets, and so on. This path may be too restrictive for many, but the mindset offers some takeaways that might be worth considering.

First, stick with the fundamentals of long-term growth investing: Choose a diversified portfolio of stocks with exposure to different styles, sizes, sectors, and regions.

To speed up the retirement investment cycle, you can build a portfolio structured with more risk - and the potential for higher returns. It should in any case be adequately diversified to safeguard against sharper than normal market downturns that can be hard to recuperate from and that can ruin any opportunity to achieve your early retirement goal. There are various strategies to diversify a portfolio, and how you do so should be guided by your age, your risk appetite, your growth and income needs, and your long-term objectives.

After accelerating your savings and setting up an ongoing plan, invest your savings into your portfolio at the earliest opportunity. Try not to attempt to time the market. Stay put, and let the compounding characteristics of the markets do its work to help grow your retirement wealth exponentially over time.

Astute investors pick retirement growth stocks with low beta, strong earnings estimates, positive sales growth, and expected future growth.

Zacks offers investors useful rankings for lower risk growth stocks for retirement portfolios. The following are a few selections that merit a closer look: OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), TC Energy (TRP) and NexPoint Residential Trust Inc. (NXRT). Earnings and revenue has seen growth of at least 5% or higher over the last five years, with a beta of 1 or lower.

Do You Know the Top 9 Retirement Investing Mistakes?

Whether you're planning to retire early or not, don't let investing mistakes derail your plans.

If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more, click the link to download our free report, 9 Retirement Mistakes that will Ruin Your Retirement.

This report will help you steer clear of the most common mistakes, like trying to time the market, lack of diversification in your portfolio, and many more. Get Your FREE Guide NowNexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. (NXRT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTC Energy Corporation (TRP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportOceanFirst Financial Corp. (OCFC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.

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Easy Investing Secrets to an Early Retirement - February 21, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Being financially stable and independent is supposedly a goal for each one of us. More often than not, we add it to the list of our resolutions at the beginning of each New Year, and it is likely to tell that this year is no different. However, things do not always go according to the plan on paper. One of the reasons for this is our money-handling mannerisms. Yes, you can only change your financial health if you get better with money. Now, here are a few simple tips that can help you fix this.

Can you really be financially independent? Thats often a debatable question both in finance classes and in these streets. Well, you can! In fact, it starts by acknowledging that it is not only possible to achieve financial independence but also live debt-free life.

However, this is only possible if you budget for your needs, and live within your means. In other words, spending a small fraction of what you are earning is one of the best ways to have financial stability and freedom. Personal budgeting doesnt need a lot in terms of financial skills. You can use personal budgeting apps and other tools to help you track your budget and cash flow.

Putting an extra coin in an income-generating plan is a sure-shot way of safeguarding the future. Its an insurance policy financially. Although investment plans will vary depending on such factors like age and financial ambitions, you ought to implement this personal finance advice to secure your future. Try to invest part of your income in a venture that makes you some money now and in the future. Its one solid way of securing an independent financial future.

In life, there are rainy days, and the only way to survive through them is by making hay while the sun shines. Yes, that may sound like a clich, but in the context of a safe financial future, it makes sense!

Different people have different earning patterns. Some wait until the end of the month for their accounts to chime. Others earn on a work basis and therefore the payments might be irregular. Still, there are those, like freelancers, who only earn when some paying job is thrown their way.

It doesnt matter what your earning pattern is. The fact remains that you need a savings plan that suits your future needs. Opening a savings account and setting a savings plan can help one navigate financial shocks of an uncertain future. This can be achieved by setting aside a certain percentage of your net earnings and depositing in a savings account, especially one that you can earn some interests and dividends from.

There are myriad motivations for saving, besides financial security. Your savings will help you settle a debt in future, or buy some property, or add to your investments etc. So, you should start saving as much as your earnings permit to improve your financial health.

Money brings with it burning passion. As the one earning it, you feel the need to spend it in satisfying not only your most necessary needs but also the insatiable wants. The defining gap between the two is usually too narrow to differentiate. Thats why you will buy ice cream when its sunny and still buy a bottle of water.

Whats important here is deciding what you cannot do without and spending on it, while keeping discipline to avoid spending on items you can conveniently do without. As such, it is important to cultivate a culture of budget spending on things that you need and completely avoiding impulse buying or unplanned spending.

Regardless of our financial strictness, there are times when taking a debt becomes a necessary part of financial growth and survival. For example, you can take a debt to expand on your business, settle for medical bills, accelerate a start-up, etc. Whats quite important in this case is to only take up necessary debt with a well laid out plan on how to repay the debt. This helps you to avoid debt traps which could disrupt your future financial plans.

In a nutshell, it is worth noting that financial stability is indeed a possibility! But your money handling mannerisms will dictate if you can achieve financial health. Start by learning how to budget for your needs, learn how to save and more importantly keep an eye on accruing unnecessary debt.

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Simple yet effective rules to improve your financial health - AZ Big Media

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will give up the name royal as they withdraw from official duties as members of the British royal family and embark on new lives in the private sector, the couple confirmed on Friday.

Harry and Meghan, who are also known as the duke and duchess of Sussex, had planned to use the name SussexRoyal as an umbrella brand for their new charitable foundation and social media accounts.

But after protracted and difficult negotiations with Buckingham Palace, the couple has agreed not to use royal in any of their philanthropic or commercial activities after this spring. They will withdraw trademark applications using the name and remove it from their Instagram account and website.

On the site, the couple left little doubt that this like other aspects of their new arrangement with Buckingham Palace was not their preferred outcome.

The preference of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex was to continue to support Her Majesty The Queen, albeit in a more limited capacity, they wrote in a lengthy description of their new status, including the loss of the royal designation.

That decision cements the split between Harry, the second son of Prince Charles, and the House of Windsor, one that emerged last fall when he and Meghan abruptly announced that they planned to step back from their duties, seek financial independence and spend part of the year living in North America.

That precipitated the deepest crisis for the royal family since the aftermath of the death of Harrys mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997.

Britains tabloids ran headlines about a rift between Harry and his brother, Prince William, and reports that Meghan, an American actress who married Harry in May 2018, was isolated and unhappy in her new family.

After emotionally charged negotiations that resulted in an uncompromising deal, Queen Elizabeth II granted the couples wish to leave in return for them agreeing not to use their loftiest titles, His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness, and for giving up other perks and privileges, including public funding.

Harry and Meghan, however, had clearly hoped to retain a residual link to their royal pedigrees. In addition to the Instagram account and slickly produced website, they had planned to stamp SussexRoyal on a range of products.

Losing the royal designation could theoretically diminish their earning power, though people close to the couple point out that Harry will remain a prince, sixth in the line of succession to the throne. The couple will also continue to be able to use the titles of duke and duchess of Sussex, including in their new ventures.

In Britain, use of the word royal is subject to legal limitations, the couples spokeswoman said. Even outside Britain, the duke and duchess have agreed not to use the designation. Harry and Meghan are currently living in Canada and are expected to spend part of the year in Southern California, where Meghan grew up.

On their website, Harry and Meghan asserted that Buckingham Palace had no legal right to prevent them from using royal outside Britain, but that they would do so voluntarily. They suggested that other members of the royal family who wanted to work in the private sector had been treated differently.

While there is precedent for other titled members of the Royal Family to seek employment outside of the institution, for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a 12-month review has been put in place, they wrote.

The couple said they planned to start a new nonprofit organization in the spring, which will be their primary vehicle for a range of philanthropic activities. They recently conferred with experts at Stanford University about the venture.

The couple are also hitting the lecture circuit: This month, they spoke at an event in Miami organized by J.P. Morgan.

Harry and Meghan will formally step down as working members of the royal family on March 31, the palace said this week. Their new status, under which they are allowed to retain their residence, Frogmore Cottage, on the grounds of Windsor Castle in addition to the Sussex titles, will be reviewed after a year.

The couple closed their office in Buckingham Palace, which will result in the departure of about 15 people, including their private secretary and communications secretary. Their private secretary, Fiona Mcilwham, is expected to return to the Foreign Office, where she had been a diplomat.

As part of their severance agreement, announced in January, Harry and Meghan said they would no longer accept money from the Sovereign Grant, which finances the official activities of the royal family.

They also said they would repay at least 2.4 million pounds ($3.1 million) in publicly funded renovations to Frogmore Cottage. That funding had come under sharp criticism even before they announced they wanted to switch to part-time status.

How the couple plan to finance their lifestyle still remains something of a mystery. Harry and Meghan draw an annual income from the Duchy of Cornwall, a hereditary estate owned by Prince Charles. Harry inherited several million dollars from his late mother, while before their marriage, his wife, then Meghan Markle, made a good salary as an actress in the television drama Suits.

Even as Harry and Meghan set off on their new lives, Buckingham Palace was at pains to show that the couple would continue to have a link to Britain. The palace issued a schedule of events in which they would take part.

Later this month, Prince Harry will visit a recording session with the rock star Jon Bon Jovi, who plans to re-record his hit song, Unbroken, in honor of the Invictus Games, which Harry created for wounded and ill service members. Next month, the couple will attend an awards ceremony for service members.

Harry and Meghan will also attend a performance of the Royal Marines band in Royal Albert Hall, while Meghan will mark International Womens Day on March 8, though the palace has not released details of her agenda. Harry is also expected to take part in the annual Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey on March 9.

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For Harry and Meghan, No More Royal in Their Brand - The New York Times

I implore every undergraduate and high schooler I meet to live like a student as long as they can bear it.

Remember those days? As an undergraduate, it was Weet-Bix for dinner and Carrington Blush for celebrations. My brown 1988 Mitsubishi Magna was considered luxury, saving me a hilly 5km walk to uni. House sharing was a given, not optional.

Since I was 10, Ive saved half of every dollar Ive earned. Ive done so by living cheaply. While I also had luck on my side, its part of how I could afford to buy my first property at 19 as a second-year engineering student. Without it, I doubt I could have reached financial independence at 31.

For a decade Ive been delivering financial education through my business and now my book, both called Money School. My students have a common goal: financial independence. The idea behind financial independence is you own assets like bonds, shares and property. These assets pay you an income such as coupons, dividends and rent. That income covers your living costs, so you no longer need to earn a wage unless you want to.

Your financial wealth converts you from time poor to time rich. You choose if, when, where, on what and with whom you work, giving you the final say in how you spend your days. Great news! You only need follow three rules to improve your financial health: save, buy assets and avoid bad debt.

Financial independence is desirable but not many people make it there. Often, its for reasons we cannot control but there is one thing we can avoid: comfort creep.

Were wired to spend everything we earn. Our brains want us to spend every dollar in the bank to get a hit of feel-good chemicals. For example, I rarely eat Weet-Bix for dinner these days. At 37, my expectations are higher. Food, alcohol, entertainment, car, accommodation in every aspect of my life, I want it tastier, healthier, safer, more eco-friendly and swankier than I did as a student.

Thats comfort creep spending. Your costs go up, but your happiness reverts to the same level

It will come as no surprise that my costs have risen commensurately. In some cases, thats good. Healthier food, less sugar in my wine, a more robust car: these are justifiable, even laudable, but only to a point.

Somewhere between living the poverty-stricken- student lifestyle and luxury, your spending rises to reach a perceived better quality of life without delivering a permanent benefit to your wellbeing. From that point on, youre in comfort creep territory. Its insidious.

That extra comfort is akin to a drug. It starts out sensational, like the first time you get upgraded on a flight. The legroom, cloth napkins and attentive cabin crew feel indulgent. You revel in the experience. Next time, youre back in cattle class. Economy was acceptable pre-upgrade; now its hideous. For a split second, you even consider forking out the extra dosh for a business class ticket. You need that hit of luxury each time. Anything less is deprivation.

If common sense wins the day and you resist the extra spend, I have good news: if you opt to fork out extra for every flight, it eventually stops feeling special. It becomes business as usual. Spending the extra money on business class just means youre as happy as you were in economy to start with.

Thats comfort creep spending. Your costs go up, but your happiness reverts to the same level.

As I tell my students: of all the things that affect your financial wellbeing your wages, your investment choices, what the economy is doing, your mindset, even when and where you were born comfort creep is one thing over which you have a lot of control. So, control it.

Yes, I know commerce is conspiring against you. It used to be much more difficult to part you from your hard-earned cash. Before Eftpos reached Australia in 1984, you had few spending options. There was the cash in your wallet. You could write a cheque. If you had one of those new-fangled credit cards, the cashier could take its details using a beast of a thing called an imprinter. Somewhere between a week and 21 days later, the charge would appear on your credit card statement. Which you got via snail mail.

Thirty-six years later, frictionless is the name of the transaction game. Forget wallets your cash departs via a wave of your card, phone, watch or even a ring. This is good news for the people selling you stuff because they can sell you more. They only need to grab your attention for seconds. A few clicks are all it takes for little drips of money to start leaving your account each month and landing in theirs.

And why not? you might exclaim. I deserve it. You wont get any argument from me on how worthy you are. You probably worked for your cash. Years of slogging away, every pay increase earned in sweat. I work hard so I can enjoy myself, you might say.

If you get to financial independence, youre free to choose how you spend your time

True. But unchecked comfort creep is wasteful. Youre wasting your time. You had to earn every dollar you spend. Would you work for free for hours, maybe even days or weeks? Heck no. So dont waste your time by carelessly wasting your dosh for little to no benefit.

Not sure how much comfort creep is costing you? Download last months transactions and add up any spending that fits your criteria. These transactions are a great place to start when youre looking to cut comfort creep spending.

Youre also wasting resources. Yours and ours. Youre wasting the stuff were all supposed to share. Youre using more raw materials, more energy and more human effort than you need to. If youre serious about sustainability, youll sleep better knowing youre cutting wasteful spending wherever you can.

The more you cut, the more you can save. The more you save, the more assets you can buy. The more assets you buy, the more secure your future will be. And if you get to financial independence, youre free to choose how you spend your time.

So, cut the comfort creep. Youre worth it.

Lacey Filipich is the author of Money School, out 18 February through Penguin, $29.99.

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Comfort creep: the one aspect of your financial wellbeing you can control - The Guardian

Amon and Christina Browning amassed over $2 million in just eight years. Theyre 40 and 42, have two kids and saved a chunk of their cash by hustling side income.

Those factors, plus a little creativity, were the kindling for their FIRE ingredients to crackle to life.

Amon and Christina are part of the FIRE movement, though they started saving aggressively before they really even knew what FIRE was.

People still dont really understand how you live off your portfolio in FIRE, says Amon.

The FIRE trend involves saving aggressively approximately 50% to 75% of yearly income and retiring once youve saved 25 to 40 times your annual expenses.

The Brownings credit a can-do mindset, an $800 car, side hustles and teaching themselves financial literacy so they could dub themselves what Amon calls the cubicle millionaires next door. They now live in Portugal and embrace a freer lifestyle. It involves plenty of walks, beach time, learning Portuguese and watching their two girls grow up.

Just the other day, our youngest daughter wanted to have all her friends over from school during lunchtime. For us, thats over three hours of prep time and getting all the kids lunch. That's something we would never be able to do during a regular workday, says Christina.

Amon says the couple is "able to really slow down and savor things."

FIRE, which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early, became popular among millennials during the last decade.

The Brownings didnt set out to be mega-savers. In fact, 10 years ago, they saved about 10% of their income each year and went through life like most Americans.

We were just going to work and coming home. We were just basically in the rat race. We weren't being intentional, we didn't have a plan, we were just kind of going with the flow, says Amon.

Amon says the FIRE spark ignited the day he won a service award. Hed been working for the federal government for about 10 years and he and another individual accepted a thanks for your service award. The other man had been on the job for 30 or 40 years.

They just handed the award to me like it was nothing, and that night I went home to Christina and I said, I just can't see myself at work another 30 or 40 years. What would I really have to show for it but a piece of paper? says Amon. I liked my job and I liked the people. I just felt like I was missing out on life.

Christina says she experienced mixed emotions when Amon told her he wanted to tackle financial independence: she was surprised and also loved the idea.

So I think one of the reasons why we were so successful in getting started reaching financial independence is because we worked together on trying to figure out how we could do it. The reaction was like, OK, what do we need to do to get this done? How do we work together and make this happen? she says.

The first thing the Brownings did was become more intentional about how they tracked and spent their money, says Amon.

Next, they focused on making more money, using their creative side to come up with side hustles that could generate income to invest in real estate or their investment portfolio.

There's only so much we could make each year based off of our salary alone, says Christina.

The side hustles werent the usual waitering jobs.

In the Bay Area, they did cosmetic touch-ups on homes and flipped them into attractive AirBnBs by doing the following:

The Brownings say anyone at any age can do FIRE, and here are their tips:

"And so if people arent really agreeable to the process that were going through and dont really want to hear how were going through it but just want to be negative, then we dont surround ourselves with people like that."

She suggests surrounding yourself with positive people that encourage you throughout the process.

The Brownings say theyre asked this question all the time: so, how do you get to your magical FIRE number?

They say its easy to calculate, even if its not as simple to put it into action:

The Brownings message has spread likewildfire. They have their own website and YouTube channel and live life with an eye toward financial independence for their kidstoo. In short, their money works for them instead of the other way around.

The Brownings say its never too late to tackle your FIRE number. You can start FIRE at 40 and retire at 50, or you can start at 50 and retire at 60, says Christina.

When you look at the time horizon that people are living now, they're living into their 80s and 90s and I don't think it's ever too late, she says.

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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How This California Couple Retired In Their 40s Using FIRE - Benzinga

1. To make money, you have to worry about money.

"The more time I spend thinking about money, the less time I have to think of the next great idea that can make money. Overthinking always limits creativity.

Instead, I just trust my gut. When something doesn't feel right, it's usually for a good reason, even if I can't put my finger on why. Your gut is a collection of past experiences and mine has never steered me wrong!"

Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, podcast host of "Business Unusual," and Shark on "Shark Tank."

"Don't be romantic about how you make money. Whether you're an entrepreneur or an employee, your current revenue stream isn't necessarily how you'll make money in the future.

When you climb the ranks, it's easy to lose creativity and that desire to change the status quo until you're replaced by someone who still has those things. Never let money make you comfortable. Always be innovating and thinking ahead."

Gary Vaynerchuk, founder and CEO of VaynerX; five-time New York Times bestselling author of "Crushing It!"

"Many people will tell you to invest in the stock market and let compound interest turn your paychecks into millions. The problem with that advice is that you have to work for 40 years.

Instead, invest in yourself by learning a skill you can monetize. If you're always sharpening new skills, you'll make incrementally more money. That's real compound interest. You can't save your way to wealth, but you can educate yourself there."

James Sixsmith, founder and CEO of Trade Context, co-founder of SpeedUpTrader, and former professional hockey player. Follow him on Instagram and LinkedIn.

"Companies like Blockbuster, Pets.com and MySpace were household names until they crashed. In contrast, many that Wall Street dismisses outperform the market significantly.

The right investments are the ones that genuinely interest you, whether that's Bitcoin, stocks or any other asset classes. If you talk to people, read the news and actually use the products you invest in, you'll have a better understanding of where your investments should go than the 'experts' do."

Dan Schatt, co-founder and CEO of Cred. Follow him on LinkedIn.

"An annuity salesperson convinced my client to sell his Tesla stock because of market volatility, so he gave up control and liquidity in exchange for 'security.'

But when he lost his job, he had to pay an early withdrawal fee to access his money. His $500,000 annuity was only worth $300,000, compared to the $3.2 million his stock would be worth today.

The salesperson didn't disclose that he owned stock in the annuity and was working on commission. Always question others' interests and how they align with yours. Are they getting a commission, or do they only make money when you do?"

James Daily, founding partner of Daily Law Group. Follow him on LinkedIn.

"The highest rate of return on your money is not in a house or savings account, where it will sit and get eaten by inflation. Invest in your primary asset: Yourself and your business, if you own one.

This multiplies the abilities that create your income, so you can achieve financial independence. When your money is still, it's ill. When it's flowing, it's growing."

Corrie Elieff, co-founder and chairman at YESA; founder of Cardone Canada.

"Don't let the idea of starting a business or even a side hustle intimidate you; the barrier to entry in business is lower than ever. Using tools like WordPress, PayPal and social media, you can create a website, advertise with how-to content and accept payments for free.

As long as you know how to sell and you're solving other people's problems, all you need is a little creativity and willingness to take risks and outwork everyone else."

Bedros Keuilian, founder of Fit Body Boot Camp. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

"I do my best thinking between midnight and 3 a.m., when I'm free from dinging email and text alerts. Figure out when your mind works best, capitalize on it, and don't feel bad if it's not during the standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"The world's wealthiest people didn't become successful because they were coloring inside the lines or doing what everything thinks they're 'supposed' to do."

Michelle Luchese, co-founder and chief product officer of wedding band company Manly Bands. Follow her on LinkedIn.

"Real wealth isn't just about having a lot of cold, hard cash. It's also proportionate to your happiness, health and overall quality of life.

So don't just focus on what's in your bank account. Set aside time to take care of your mind and body. Stick to doing things you're passionate about. Surround yourself with positive energy. When you do all these things, money and success will eventually follow."

David Hoffmann, co-founder and CEO of GlobalTQM, a division of the international trade company Global Regency. Follow him on LinkedIn.

The Oracles is a mastermind group of the world's leading entrepreneurs who share their success strategies to help others grow their businesses and build better lives. For more, follow The Oracles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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9 money myths we hear all the timebut can actually hold you back from getting rich - CNBC

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex took the whole world by surprise when they announced that they would seek financial independence from the British monarchy. In their announcement, they clarified that this meant giving up the part of their income that comes from the British taxpayers.

But thats not the only way the royal family as a whole makes its money. The British royal family is essentially a very wealthy landlord. Its members arent allowed to work aside from their official duties, but they can collect rent and profits from the numerous estates that are historically affiliated with them. These inherited estates form part of the Queens net worth, which, in 2019, was estimated to be about 370 million.

It also makes an income from two other massive real estate portfolios, called the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. These include castle ruins that are now tourist attractions, but also whole villages, commercial real estate, and a cricket stadium in London. These portfolios made just over 20 million each in 2019; the money from the Duchy of Lancaster goes to Queen Elizabeth, and the Cornwall income goes to Prince Charles.

The income Harry and Meghan receive from British taxpayers is where things get tricky, and it represents a sort of pact between the British public and the monarchy. The British monarchy once owned a lot of the iconic real estate that draws millions of tourists every year the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, and Buckingham Palace, to name a few.

King George III handed these properties over to the government during his rule, and in exchange, the royal family receive a percentage of the profits from these properties in taxpayer money every year. These properties are known as the Crown Estate, which has grown to be an extremely profitable portfolio that includes commercial real estate in London.

In exchange for that money, the royal family members are beholden to strict rules that dictate how they earn income and how much access they give to an aggressive press corps. They also have to follow standards to maintain the familys brand and image so they can continue to draw tourists and tourism money to the UK every year.

Because royals arent allowed to work outside of their official duties, and because a lot of the real estate the family earns income from doesnt actually belong to it, the illusion of the royal familys private wealth is greater than its actual net worth. Queen Elizabeth, the richest royal family member, is the 356th richest person in the UK, for example.

In that regard, the couples Megxit may have been a financially savvy move. Theyre able to hold on to their private inheritance and possibly also the income from the Duchies, while having the freedom to make income outside of this model by breaking free from the rules that come from taxpayer funding.

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How the British royal family makes its money - Vox.com

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Vincenco Giovannini/Wikimedia Commons

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its jobs report this month, and the numbers, again, are pretty good: the unemployment rate is at 3.6%, while the youth unemployment rate is around 8%. The numbers looked good to us. But to our winter intern, Bianca Giacobone, they seemed astonishingly low. That's because she is from Italy, where the economy has been stuck for decades. So we asked her to write about what it's like to be young and Italian these days.

Sometimes, when people ask me why on earth I left Italy, a beautiful country I'm lucky enough to call home, I drop a few numbers. Italy's youth unemployment rate the rate of people under 25 years old looking for a job and not finding it is 28.6% as of the last quarter of 2019, according to Eurostat, the European Statistical Office. By comparison, in November 2019 the Eurozone's youth unemployment rate overall was 15.6%. Here in the U.S. it's about 8%.

Perhaps more worryingly, the Italian rate of people aged 20-34 neither in employment nor in education and training, the so-called NEET rate, was 28.9% in 2018. It's the highest NEET rate in the Eurozone, which has an average of 16.5%. To put that more plainly, almost 1 in 3 Italians under 34 aren't really doing anything at all.

"The Italian economy is not growing," says Carlo Cottarelli, an Italian economist and former director of the International Monetary Fund. "The Italian per capita income is the same as it was 20 years ago. In terms of economic growth, this past decade has been the worst since 1861."

Like many economists, Cottarelli has a long list of reasons why Italy's economy is stuck, and they start with Italy's adoption of the common currency in 2002. "We didn't handle the transition to the Euro well," he says, explaining that a common rate of exchange meant Italy couldn't lower prices to compete with Germany. "Since we couldn't devalue, we lost competitiveness."

Then there are the usual suspects: excess of bureaucracy, one of the slowest civil justice processes in Europe, high levels of tax avoidance, high levels of corruption, a crippling economic division between North and South, and one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. "All these things, including an underfunded public education, condition the country's growth."

In the long term, high youth unemployment can lead to loss of skills and human capital. In the short term, youth unemployment shapes the lives of young Italians dramatically. For example, people tend to live with their parents longers 66.1% of people aged 18-34 still lived with their parents in 2018, while the percentage in United States is roughly 30%. Young Italians struggle to reach financial independence. They have children late, which contributes to Italy having one of the worst fertility rates in the world. And, then they leave, as I did.

Many Italians blame the education system, which is chronically underfunded, and favors theory over practice, leading to a very slow school-to-work transition, and to a mismatch between what young people graduate in and the skills needed to find work.

Graduating with degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) leads to better employment prospects. But my father's reminder that it would be best to study engineering fell on deaf years when I was 19 and fresh out of high school. I enrolled in the Humanities, as many other Italians before and after me.

Anecdotally, I can say that the overwhelming majority of the friends and acquaintances living back home, all over 25 years old, do not have jobs and/or are still living with their parents. And that around 20% of my small high school graduating class, me included, is now living abroad, and that five out of five of my cousins under 30 years old are not working in Italy at the moment. Friends have gone to the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, South Africa, and the United States, among many others. They're pursuing Phds, working as managers, servers, engineers, professors, chefs, and architects.

We all look longingly back at our country, wondering when and if there'll be a good moment to go back, and have a job and a career comparable to the one we can have abroad. Because, as most of the world knows, Italy is a beautiful country, where the coffee is cheap, the food is good, holidays are long, education is mostly free, and there is universal health care, despite all the economic trouble.

Davide Fikri Kamel, who comes from Corvino San Quirico, a bucolic village in the north of Italy, and works a well paid job with Amazon's digital marketing division in New York City, is used to his colleagues' surprise at his desire to leave Italy. "Every time I show pictures and videos of my village, to my coworkers and friends they're like, 'Why on earth would you move out of this dreamy, heavenly place?'" he says. "But you don't know what the struggle is, you don't know how the Italian education system is, you don't know what the job situation is."

"Some 2 million young Italians many of them educated and skilled have left Italy since 2008," says Nicola Nobile, an economist at the research and analytics consultancy Oxford Economics. That's a lot in a country with a population of about 60 million. Immigration, which could help counteract the low fertility rate, is relatively recent in Italy under 3% of Italy's population were immigrants before 2000, a number that now lingers around 10% and so far it's not well received.

"A country that cannot keep its youth is not forward looking," says Nobile. "There are more older voters than young, so politicians tend to focus their politics and economic incentives on them. It's a country for old people."

I am reminded of that every time I go back home to Milan and go for a walk. People around the streets, in bars, shops and cafes, are strikingly older than what I'm used to now that I live in New York.

I like to think I'll be back. I've written down a ten year plan. I'll work for a few years abroad, here in the United States, or somewhere in Europe, and build my career. Then, when my resume is appealing enough, I'll move back and be of use. It's a plan that comes less out of patriotic duty, and more out of a refusal to accept displacement. Yes, that's my dream, to work in the country where I grew up.

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Ciao, Italia: Why Italy's Youth are Leaving in Droves - NPR

By John Harrington, Thomas C. Frohlich and Hristina ByrnesFebruary 19, 2020 11:05 am

Tying the knot is for many people one of the most prominent milestones of adult life but not for all. While marriage provides many advantages such as tax breaks fewer Americans are choosing to get married. Those who do choose to stay single, remain single longer compared with previous generations. Many other Americans are single for other reasons.

There are more than 160 million single Americans divorced, widowed, separated, or those who have never married or approximately 51.0% of the U.S. population. Most of this group consists of people who have never been married.

To find the best city for singles in every state, 24/7 Tempo reviewed for all U.S. metro areas the percentage of the adult population that is single, the concentration of businesses such as restaurants and bars, and income levels. The best cities for singles are home to a relatively large number of unattached people, have plenty of amenities supporting social interaction, as well as a local economy that is conducive to financial independence.

Specifically, single people in these cities tend to be the majority of the adult population. The cities where this is not the case, but are still considered best for singles, are either especially affordable, or have high concentrations of social venues such as bars and restaurants. Of the 50 best cities for singles, 37 have a cost of living that is lower than the average nationwide.

Since the 1950s, the age at which people have taken their marriage vows in the United States has steadily risen. Census Bureau statistics note that the median age of first-time brides and bridegrooms hovered around 20 in the 1950s. Now, that benchmark is nearly 30 and it seems to be gradually going up. Here are the states where people marry older.

Click here to see the best city for singles in every stateClick here to see our detailed methodology

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The Best City to Be Single in Every State - 24/7 Wall St.

Digital personal finance company SoFi is partnering with Edmit which is a company that helps families make smarter financial decisions about college. Through the partnership, it will equip college-bound students and their families with the tools and resources needed to make the college selection and financial aid process easier, personalized, and transparent.

The registered SoFi members will now have complimentary access to Edmit Plus, which considers a students academic merits and family finances to provide data-driven recommendations on college affordability and return on investment. And members can enter their academic profile and receive unlimited college-comparison reports consisting of a personalized cost of attendance, including potential merit scholarships, projected monthly loan repayment amounts, and prospective post-graduation earnings based on profile and major. And this information along with other factors is also captured in an overall financial grade that allows members to easily compare schools to each other.

SoFi was created to help ease the burden of student debt that is stifling a generation in this country, said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. We believe it is imperative to understand early on the significance of taking out a responsible amount of debt for college. We are excited to partner with Edmit to help college-bound students and their families make the most informed decision on where to attend college and how to finance the journey, so that they can achieve financial independence.

Edmit is thrilled to partner with SoFi to offer their members the necessary tools and guidance needed to assist their college-bound students in making the best higher education choices possible, added Edit co-founder and CEO Nick Ducoff. With this partnership, we are committed to helping the next generation set themselves up for financial success after graduation.

Along with the addition of Edmit Plus, SoFi membership also offers benefits, including access to financial planners, complimentary career services, and networking events.

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SoFi And Edmit Partnering To Help College Students With Their Finances - Pulse 2.0