Jill’s Journal

An educational blog from SWMG Financial Advisor Jill Carr for new investors about the fundamentals of investing and finance.

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Insurance / Retirement / Taxes / Life Changes / Borrowing & Credit / Investing / Budgeting

LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Welcome to Pride Month! June was chosen for LGBTQ+ Pride Month to memorialize the Stonewall Riots which took place in June 1969. If you don’t know about the riots, Drunk History put together a great ...

Can You Afford A Pet?

We adopted some cats a couple of years ago. As of this month, they are three years old, which apparently in cat years is 28 in human years. Little did we know the expenses coming for one cat, who is ...

Excess 529 Funds?

So, you were a #ResponsibleAdult and you planned for your child’s future with a 529 plan. They were attending school and you withdrew funds to pay for their tuition and room and board. Then, the ...

529 savings Piggy bank beside calculator savings for college

College Funding Part 2

In my last post, I started to explain the different ways that parents (or whomever) can save money for college. This post covers 4 additional ways. Again, here is a handy dandy chart: Like Traditional ...

College Funding Part 1

May is “529” month (get it- 5/29? It’s a complete dad joke). I will be talking about college funding. Do you have a child or grandchild that will someday attend college? Great, now go back in time and ...

A home with itemized deductions as a tax plan

Should I take the standard deduction or itemize my deductions this tax season?

It is tax time. Normally, we would have our taxes filed by now, but this year we have an extension. But I am not thinking about taxes, I am thinking about summer, which I am going to tie into taxes on ...

sticky note reminding readers of do it yourself investing

DIY Investing

I heard a great analogy the other day. It has to do with oil changes in your car. If you wanted to, you could figure out how to do an oil change and save yourself some money. However, you might get ...

Hand turns dice and changes the word Trust to Truth.

Hidden Costs of No-Cost Trading

Last year, Charles Schwab announced that they were reducing trading fees to zero, and Ameritrade, E*TRADE and Fidelity shortly followed. Hooray, free trades! For consumers of these companies, however, ...

8 Smart, Adulty things you can do with your Tax Refund/Stimulus check

So, you are getting a tax refund. What do you do with it? It’s still COVID times, so many people don’t want to eat out or travel, and you probably shouldn’t just blow it, so here are some things to ...

Meet Jill Carr

SWMG financial advisor Jill Carr loves supporting her clients in growing their financial literacy and understanding of wealth management. In that same spirit, her blog Jill’s Journal is aimed at providing newer investors with answers to common finance and investing questions.

Read Jill's Full Bio

Michigan

5206 Gateway Centre, Suite 300
Flint, MI 48507
Phone: 810.732.7411
Fax: 810.732.8190
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"Leave Nothing
To Chance."

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712 S. Oregon Avenue
Tampa, FL 33606
Phone: 813.251.1879
Fax: 813.251.1716
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