From seeing birthday vacations to Mexico or weekly spa visits on social media, it’s easy to feel like you should spend your money on life’s luxuries. But if you have plans to pay off your debts or build up your savings, the need for financial limits is crucial to reaching your goals. The latest financial trend taking over TikTok is “loud budgeting,” the no-shame approach to discussing financial boundaries and personal financial limits. As “loud budgeting” gains momentum, its bold approach to financial management becomes increasingly recognized and supported by financial experts due to the data on American spending in recent years. According to a November survey of 2,098 adults conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Credit Karma, 69% of Americans reported having financial regrets in 2023. Additionally, 53% stated that their financial situation deteriorated last year, with 31% expressing regret over not saving enough money and 22% lamenting excessive spending. The numbers show that...

By this point, the economic effects of the coronavirus aren’t news. If anything, there’s been so much coverage surrounding the topic that it’s hard to ascertain the right thing to do. From job loss to quarantine retail therapy, you may feel like your financial life has been in a tailspin since March. So we put together this post offering several simple steps to help you navigate the coronavirus outbreak and the havoc it may have wreaked on your personal finances. 1. Cut spending When lockdown first went into effect, many of us thought we’d be spending dramatically less — after all, quarantine means we can’t blow our paychecks (or blow off steam) at the local bar or take a luxurious vacation. And while certain types of spending are down, others have risen — including money spent on video streaming, food delivery, gaming, and alcohol, according to a New York Times analysis of data from Earnest Research . If you find yourself with less disposable income these days, it’s important to...

Philadelphia’s FIS Group agreed to acquire Piedmont Investment Advisors LLC, a 21-person firm based in Durham, NC. With the acquisition, FIS will have a combined $10 billion in assets, making it one of the biggest U.S. African American-owned investment companies. Employees from both groups will keep their jobs. According to The Philly Inquirer , FIS says it manages $5.6 billion in “innovative portfolio solutions across the global public equity spectrum through entrepreneurial managers worldwide,” and Piedmont expects to manage $4.7 billion in “active, passive, and structured beta equity and core fixed-income management.” Most of the clients that FIS deals with are governments, and the same can be said of Piedmont. The money management industry can be hard to break into, especially for minorities. But many are still pushing to encourage government agencies to be more inclusive by hiring minority and women-owned firms to diversify the field. The merging of FIS and Piedmont makes for a...