Know Your Blogger Series
During these weekly features, we are hoping to provide a way for you to interact and learn more about different blogs in the personal finance space.
Below, you can read more about the story behind Financial IQ by Susie Q, learn about the author, and learn personal finance tips from Financial IQ by Susie Q to help you improve your financial situation.
A big thanks for Financial IQ by Susie Q for this interview! Now, we will turn it over to the author for this interview.
Tell us about Financial IQ by Susie Q
What makes you and your blog unique?
What does “being good with your personal finances” mean to you?
To me, being good with your personal finances means:
- Paying all of your expenses as they come due.
- Having a plan to pay off any debt.
- Having a vision and an implemented plan to meet your long-term financial goals (e.g., a house, a big vacation, college for your kids, retirement).
- Understanding all of your financial decisions and their risks.
What are some habits you practice to keep your personal finances in order?
- Monitor my investments no less often than monthly.
- Have a long-term plan for my retirement spending that shows the average annual return on investments needed to meet my goals.
- Balance my checkbook every month to the penny
- Discuss our finances and investment choices regularly with my husband.
- Have a good idea where we are spending our money, though I don’t monitor in detail.
- Pay all our bills in full on time.
What are your three articles people should read to get to know you and your message better on your site?
These posts cover examples of the range of topics covered on my site.
For someone looking to improve their financial situation, what’s your best advice?
My advice is to figure out where you are with your finances, identify your goals and find a path to get there. Eventually, I think people should create a financial plan, which looks at:
- A list of your financial goals
- You’ll want to identify your three to five most important financial goals.
- A list of your current assets
- Assets that a company can sell and turn into cash within a year and liabilities (debts)
- Your budget
- A plan showing targets for income and expenses over a fixed time period, such as a month or a year.
- Your savings and investment strategies to help you attain your goals, including
- Short-term savings
- Designated savings
- Retirement savings
- Desired use of debt, including re-payment of current debt
- Your giving goals
- Risk
- The possibility that something bad will happen. management strategy, i.e., types and amounts of insurance to buy
- Understanding of your income tax situation
- What you want to have happen to you and your assets
- The value of things the company owns and amounts it is owed when you become incapacitated or die and related documents
In your opinion, what’s better? Renting a place or buying a house to live?
What are your favorite personal finance books?
- One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
- Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
What is your favorite investment class and why? (stocks, private business, bonds, real estate, crypto, precious metals, etc.)
Do you have any financial mistakes you’d like to share, and how have you grown from these mistakes to improve your personal finances?
What’s a non-money related interest you have and what do you love about it?
How You Can Contact Financial IQ by Susie Q for More Information
Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you, Financial IQ by Susie Q, for providing us with some great personal finance tips!