On the pages that follow, you'll find advice specifically tailored for four categories of singles. - Jackie Porter, How to Achieve Lifestyle Goals through Freelancing, with Miranda Marquit, How Personal Finance Differs for the LGBTQ+ Community, w/ John and David Auten-Schneider, How To Get Fit and Spend Less at the Same Time, with Martin Dasko, How to Give Your Finances a Fighting Chance, with Doug Allan, Bitcoin Investing Made Easy, with Mitchell Demeter, How to Make Money With Niche Websites, with Spencer Haws, The Benefits of Downsizing at Retirement, with Vivien Sharon, Turn Your Struggles Into Stepping Stones, with Karl Staib, Growing Up Financially Independent, with Doug Nordman and Carol Pittner, 2020: The Year in Review, with Rob Carrick, You need to think about an emergency fund as a single person, Singles are expected to care for their aging parents more often, Many single women lack confidence in their personal finances, One of the keys to managing finances is being able to stay organized, There aren’t a lot of tax credits available to singles, Questions to ask a prospective financial planner. I do this marketing campaign where I talk about how I’d rather go shopping than deal with my retirement or finances which is the opposite of what you want to do if you’re trying to really address those issues. A will. Focus on rebuilding that three- to six-month cushion of living expenses. Even if it’s not paper now, you’re getting emails from everywhere and there are all the different things you have to stay on top of. Own real estate jointly and the government assumes you each own half, regardless of what each of you actually contributed. If you’re thinking (as a single person) that you’re not making enough, that might be a way to kill two birds with one stone. Leiter asked one friend to be the executor of his will, another to accept power of attorney for health decisions. Jackie: I would say, first and foremost, single women who become what I call in my book, “single by choice or chance,” women who become suddenly single actually suffer more financially than women who expected to be single. And it’s not just about rate of return. This is well documented where women sign on the dotted line just to get it over with without ever doing the math because they don’t understand how important the math is and have never had to lean into the math. Or you could be someone who starts a business on the side like a side hustle. Create a List of Monthly Expenses. Don Bishop, 48, is now single for the third time. The stats show it’s definitely more expensive to be on your own. In most cases, this entity is the government. Unless you have hundreds of thousands in assets, you can probably do the paperwork on your home computer with WillMaker from Nolo ($39.95). Look for one that adjusts for inflation and pays out if you're unable to work in your own occupation, not just if you're unable to work at all. Jackie: No, it doesn’t. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. Especially because of the isolation factor. But then you kind of have to try to find a little silver lining too. They just put money toward it. You can find the show notes for this episode at maplemoney.com/115. Our sponsor, Wealthsimple, believes financial independence should be available to anyone. And your partner should have their account as well. You are your debt repayment plan. And titles like Buying a Home When You're Single and Money Power for Singles are popping up on Amazon.com. Side hustles are great for helping create new tax deductions. According to Jackie, women are 3-5 times more likely to end up in poverty after a divorce, a sobering reality. Once you see a friend or family member succumb to cancer or slip a disk and have to stop working, it spurs you to take care of your own needs, from insurance to estate planning. Whether you've gone through a costly divorce or the illness of a spouse, chances are your resources are no longer what they once were. It’s dealing with bills that were associated with the expenses of the office. It definitely means sitting down with a matrimonial or estate-planning attorney so that you don't have to worry about your kids' and your own financial security down the road. "I was afraid of what I'd see," she admits. As always, thanks for listening. Tom: Yes. But it seems sometimes it goes the other direction. I take that day to sort of go through all of my banking stuff. We already know that that can be true, right? I remember buying lots of secondhand clothes. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/patron?s=t. Beyond that, it’s more tax planning. Even if you can't put away $600 a month the way Conquest does, compounding will work in your favor. By sharing expenses such as rent, food, and utilities, they can spend less than two single people who live alone.The annual Consumer Expenditure Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics supports this theory. No dog. Solot and Miller have also named each other beneficiary of their retirement accounts. Jackie: Oh, yes. Every dollar you make should be accounted for, and you need to have a clear understanding of where that money is going and how you can allocate money to fund your financial goals. Otherwise, you need six months'. The earlier you start looking into these things, the more options you have. You're different in the eyes of your company benefits department, in the eyes of insurance companies and in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service. If you lost any insurance coverage as a result of a divorce, shop for a new policy now. I made sure my kids were taken care of if something happened to me. Maybe I’m putting too much on these life events, but what makes someone think they’re doing it for a different reason? And like many singles, whether gay or straight, he knew he might never find a partner with whom to share his entire life. But if you're too cavalier, you miss out on financial opportunities that come around only once in a lifetime. If people are waiting for a milestone—I think you kind of have to make that decision. Divorce is one of the most stressful scenarios you can go through in life. If you want your partner to inherit your assets, you must say so in your will. Invest additional money through a bank or brokerage firm. What I love about that book—and I know I’m biased, is it’s different stories about women and how they become single and what you can learn for them. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. To help answer this question, I invited Jackie Porter onto the show this week. Historically, singles rented while their married counterparts bought. "I think I have the night off and then my boy has band practice--he plays the trombone--and after band is jazz band." Like an Education IRA, the money grows tax-free until it's withdrawn, but the maximum annual contribution is much higher: $10,000 vs. the Education IRA's $500. So at the end of the day, if that’s the case, you need to make the decision to deal with it. And as a single person, you’re most likely to be asked to do the caregiving for an aging parent because people just assume you’ve got time. Jackie is an award-winning financial planner, best-selling author, and speaker who has helped thousands of clients grow their net worth, build a fortress around their finances and keep more of their cash in their pocket. Limited partnerships and limited-liability companies may also be an option. If you are someone who had never given to a charity before, there is something called “super tax credit for a new donor to a charity” so that might be something to investigate. I like this idea of a single, friendly way instead of saying, “Oh yeah, let’s just have a date night,” because it doesn’t apply to everybody. If you’re dealing with a financial professional, you need to feel like you can talk to that person about things you’re really concerned about where money is concerned. We’re in a low-interest rate time with the economy sputtering a little bit. And that’s actually how I approach it when I’m dealing with couples. That doesn't happen with domestic partners. You’ve never really understood the importance of leaning it to the numbers, into the math, you could find yourself in a very precarious financial situation at the end of all of that because you didn’t expect to be in that situation. Because an owner of a single-member LLC does not take a salary or wages, your ownerâs draw is your compensation. Income earned by single people is taxed at a higher percentage than the income of married people filing jointly with a similar tax table. This is even more important when one spouse has been paying the bills and managing the household budget alone. Now you’re dealing with kids who might be caught up in the whole negotiation, they’re stressed out, you’re stressed out, and you might be dealing with a spouse who is, really reticent on giving you what you’re thinking (or your lawyer is saying) is a fair settlement. Tom: Yeah, that’s a problem across the board. This is the time to do that. He had to. It's also unwise, Warner adds, to cosign a loan or get a joint credit card unless you're ready, willing and able to pay the entire amount.