BUSINESS & AG LIFE
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
Millennial Money: This year, be your financial valentine
By Amrita Jayakumar
NerdWallet
Valentine’s Day: a day to
celebrate your partner or a day
to celebrate yourself. And while it
may not sound romantic, this time
of year is also an opportunity to
show your fi nances some love.
Whether you’re single or in a
relationship, build toward your
future by defi ning your goals,
budgeting for splurges and getting
started with investing.
Know your goals
Setting a goal is the fi rst step in
any kind of money decision. After
all, money is just the means to live
the life you want.
If you’re single: This is the fun
part: Grab a glass of something you
like and write down goals, whether
it’s going on a dream vacation,
buying a new car or maybe pursu-
ing the business idea you’ve been
chewing on forever. Don’t second-
guess your ideas — having them
all in front of you will help you
prioritize the goals you truly value.
ECONOMY
Continued from Page 1B
that the Dow Jones Indus-
trial Average had slipped
during Powell’s testimony,
though the Dow later
recovered. It was unclear
that Powell’s testimony had
directly affected stock prices
either way.
Asked during the hear-
ing about the tweet, Powell
gave his standard reply that
he and other Fed offi cials
are concerned only with
their mandate to serve the
economy and do not consider
outside criticism — from the
president or anyone else —
in their policy-making.
“My colleagues and I are
completely focused on using
our tools to support ... our
goals, and that is all we are
focused on,” he said.
Powell also was asked
If you’re paired up: Turn
this into a date night and work on
shared goals together, says Angela
Moore, a certifi ed fi nancial planner
at Modern Money Advisor in Miami.
Moore suggests asking each
other basic money questions over
dinner. To prevent a fi ght, stay
open to hearing your partner’s way
of doing things, she says.
She recommends open-ended
questions like:
— “What do you feel you’re really
good at with money?”
— “What do you think you can
work on?”
— “What are your dreams for the
future?”
Once you have a list of goals,
estimate how much it will cost to
achieve them and how long each
will take. Print out the list and pin
it up to track your progress.
Make a budget
Prioritizing your goals in the fi rst
step allows you to create a budget
that matches your spending to your
values. “Focus on the things that
about negative interest
rates, a policy that Trump
appeared to endorse in his
tweet as a way to further
boost the economy.
“That’s not a tool we’re look-
ing at,” he said, noting that
some research has suggested
that negative rates could hurt
banks’ profi tability.
Powell, who has made fre-
quent visits with both House
and Senate lawmakers to
understand their concerns,
faced sharp questioning from
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Califor-
nia, about a recent photo that
showed him attending a par-
ty at the Washington home of
Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon.
Porter noted that Trump’s
daughter Ivanka and son-in-
law Jared Kushner, as well
as presidential counselor Kel-
lyanne Conway, were at the
Bezos party at a time when
Trump has exerted pressure
bring you great joy,” Moore says.
The 50/30/20 budget is a good
way to divvy up your money: 50%
goes to needs like housing and
utilities, 30% goes to wants like
your coffee habit or eating out,
and 20% goes to savings and debt
repayment.
If you’re single: Knowing
what you value means you can
cut spending in other areas. At the
same time, the “wants” category
lets you stick to a realistic budget
so you don’t feel like you have to
give up on splurges.
If you’re paired up: You’re
probably aware of whether you
and your partner have different
spending and saving styles. Use
your strengths and weaknesses to
hold each other accountable to the
budget, Moore says. Spenders and
savers can draw inspiration from
each other, for example.
Whether you have separate or
combined accounts, you can agree
to each have some money to spend
as you wish (like on a Valentine’s
on the Fed, an independent
government agency, to lower
interest rates.
Powell replied he didn’t
talk with any of those people
and was mainly escorting his
son and his son’s new wife to
the party, where he intro-
duced them to former Trump
Defense Secretary James
Mattis.
Porter also pressed Powell
if he knew how costly child
care had become.
“It costs a lot,” the chair-
man said. But he said he
didn’t know specifi cally
because all his children are
grown.
Several lawmakers asked
the chairman about how the
Fed is addressing the issue
of climate change. Rep. Sean
Casten, an Illinois Democrat,
said that changing weather
patterns and rising sea
levels could threaten banks
Day treat for your partner). The
key is to have an open dialogue
about it, Moore says.
Invest in your goals
Once you know your goals and
what it will take to achieve them,
fi gure out your “investment strat-
egy.” This just means how quickly
you want your money to grow for
your goals.
A quick heads-up: Investing for
goals isn’t the same as saving for
retirement. Make sure you have
retirement savings in place fi rst;
check whether your workplace
offers a retirement account and
company match. “The most im-
portant thing is to just get started.
Time is one of the most important
factors when it comes to compound-
ing your initial contributions into
signifi cant wealth,” says Eric Rob-
erge, a certifi ed fi nancial planner at
Beyond Your Hammock in Boston.
If you’re single: Investing doesn’t
have to be scary or mysterious. Robo-
advisers have made it easy to get
started even with small amounts of
that have provided mortgag-
es to homes in coastal areas.
Powell said banks should
take that into account and
later acknowledged that
climate change could eventu-
ally infl uence Fed policy.
“As severe weather becomes
more common — and that’s
connected to climate change
— you will see those things ...
entering our supervisory prac-
tices as well as our economic
forecasting,” he said.
On interest rates, Pow-
ell said the Fed “believes
that the current stance of
monetary policy will support
continued economic growth,
a strong labor market” and
annual infl ation returning
to the committee’s 2% target
level.
As long as incoming
economic data “remains
broadly consistent with this
outlook, the current stance
money. You can answer a few ques-
tions to set your risk tolerance and
invest your money accordingly.
“When you’re just getting
started, keep it simple. Stick to
things you can understand and are
relatively safe and reliable rather
than trying to shoot for the moon,”
Roberge says.
Low-cost index funds and
exchange-traded funds are two
good options for millennials in
particular, Moore says.
If you’re paired up: How you
manage investments depends on
your equation as a couple and both
your incomes. You could invest
together equally or in proportion to
your income. One of you might also
be more inclined to organize money
matters.
“Even if one person takes the
lead, the other should check in
along the way to see how the
money’s grown,” says Rebecca
Provder, a matrimonial attorney
and partner at Moses & Singer in
New York City.
of monetary policy will likely
remain appropriate,” he said.
The chairman expressed
satisfaction with many
economic barometers, noting
that the expansion is well into
its 11th year — the longest
period of uninterrupted U.S.
growth on record. Last year,
the economy was being buffet-
ed by a global slowdown and
rising uncertainty sparked
by Trump’s trade war with
China and other nations.
Powell said that while
the “global headwinds had
intensifi ed last summer,” the
economy proved resilient.
He noted that job openings
remain plentiful and that
employers appear increas-
ingly willing to hire workers
with fewer skills and train
them.
Those developments, he
said, mean that the ben-
efi ts of a robust job market
are becoming more widely
shared, with employment
gains broad-based across
racial and ethnic groups and
levels of education.
Powell suggested the
government should capital-
ize on low borrowing rates to
put the federal budget on a
sounder footing. The Trump
administration proposed a
new budget Monday that
projects that the defi cit will
top $1 trillion this year be-
fore starting to decline. The
Congressional Budget Offi ce
sees the defi cit remaining
above $1 trillion over the
next decade.
Putting the budget on a
sustainable path while the
economy is strong, the chair-
man said, would help ensure
that policymakers would
have the room to use the
budget to help stabilize the
economy during a recession.