#financial-independence

#financial-independence

When I turned 15, like all my friends, I wanted to get a job at a café to earn money. But my father pushed me to start my company young, and it's the reason I'm now financially independent at 20. I started selling origami butterfly artwork, a skill I picked up from a school trip to Japan and honed during the COVID-19 lockdown. I started selling them at markets in Melbourne when I was 16.

When I was 10, my dad had a midlife crisis, and, without warning the family, he quit his job to "find himself." My parents had three kids plus a baby, and my mom hadn't been in the workforce for years. It was financially devastating. She ended up divorcing him eventually, but it was bad. Now I'm getting married, and this childhood experience, along with something particular in my husband's past, have led me to make a certain request of my fiancé.

Mom worked for almost two decades after her divorce, but could not financially make up for the years she spent as a housewife. The low-paying jobs she had while married - cleaner, waitress, and such - counteracted her higher income as an administrative assistant. She ended up grossing $575.00 a month from social security, despite the fact that she could have drawn against my father's social security allotment for more than double that amount.

All I had really secured was a safety net. My family would be fine whether I worked or not, but we wouldn't necessarily thrive

A new JPMorgan Wealth Management study found most of the women set to inherit roughly $9 trillion over the coming decades are not counting on it to meet their financial goals. Nearly three in four women report they're already on track to achieve their milestones independently, signaling a shift in their financial confidence. While many plan to invest their inheritances, JPMorgan notes women are increasingly active wealth builders in their own right-an evolution that could reshape both markets and household economics as the broader "Great Wealth Transfer" unfolds.

One of the most important lessons in financial independence is to allocate your money in such a way that it continues to work for you. Pick investments that keep growing your money without you having to do anything. A Redditor recently shared that they funded a dream trip through dividends, and many were happy to learn about it.

The S&P 500 has delivered an average annual return of approximately 10.33% since 1957, serving as a benchmark for many investors.

In her early career, Louisa May Alcott began with the title 'Success' for a novel but shifted focus to labor, culminating in the book 'Work: A Story of Experience.'

"If anybody thinks it would be a good idea for the Fed to become another agency in the government subject to the president, they're making a huge mistake," GOP North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said. He expressed deep concern that firing Powell would undermine the Fed's independence and negatively impact the economy, particularly affecting everyday Americans who rely on stable financial conditions.

A trust is a legal arrangement where assets are managed by a trustee for the benefit of a beneficiary. They are popular estate planning tools to ensure financial security, control asset distribution, and potentially reduce taxes.

We often associate wealth with what we see - flashy cars, big houses, luxury holidays. But the truth is, real wealth is often invisible.

'One of the biggest issues people have is that they are ashamed of their financial lives. They feel that they've made poor financial decisions and dread confronting these uncomfortable realities.'

For many young adults, waiting for the perfect time to launch could mean missing the best time. The longer they delay, the more they risk falling behind.