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The back half of the year is a great time to reevaluate your financial goals, especially before the holiday season kicks into full gear. Are you on track to reach the goals you set for yourself back in January? What new goals have you set your sights on for 2025 and beyond?

We recommend setting up different sinking funds for your various short-term money goals, and thanks to Betterment, it’s never been easier. With Betterment’s high-yield cash account, your savings can earn nearly 11x the national average**. (Yes, you read that right.) And bonus, you can feel super secure with up to $2M in FDIC† insurance with Betterment’s program banks.

New customers get up to 5.00% variable APY* with a qualifying deposit (terms apply) for 3-months, and then the standard base rate afterwards (currently 4.50%). Start making your money hustle with Betterment today. Click here to sign up in minutes.

*The national average savings account interest rate is reported by the FDIC (as of 9/16/24) as the average annual percentage yield (APY) for savings accounts with deposits under $100,000.

**Base annual percentage yield (variable) is 4.50% as of 9/20/24. 5.00% APY reflects a .50% boost available as a special offer with qualifying deposit. Terms apply. Cash Reserve is only available to clients of Betterment LLC, which is not a bank, and cash transfers to program banks are conducted through clients’ brokerage accounts at Betterment Securities.

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Ask A Financial Advisor Every week Kellen Thayer of Advisor.com will be answering a personal finance question from the TFD community. If you have a question you'd like him to answer, email us at hello@thefinancialdiet.com!

Welcome to our new weekly series, Ask A Financial Advisor with Kellen Thayer of Advisor.com! Dozens of members of the TFD community love and trust Advisor to help them on financial journeys. Get $500 off your first year with Advisor by signing up through TFD! Click here to take our short quiz and schedule a FREE consultation call with Advisor today and never make another financial decision alone!

Q: In a financial emergency in your 20s, would you recommend dipping into your retirement account?

A: Dipping into your retirement account should be an absolute last resort in a financial emergency, especially when you’re in your 20s. Here’s why: Retirement accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs are designed to help you build long-term wealth, and withdrawing early from these accounts comes with significant penalties.

If you take money out of your retirement account before the age of 59 ½, you’ll typically face a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of paying income taxes on the amount. This means you could lose a sizable chunk of your withdrawal to taxes and penalties, leaving you with far less than you expected.

Additionally, taking money from your retirement account interrupts the power of compounding interest, which is critical in your 20s. The earlier you start saving, the more time your money has to grow. A small withdrawal today can mean tens of thousands of dollars less in retirement, which could significantly impact your financial security down the road.

Instead, it’s important to explore other options first. An emergency fund should always be your first line of defense. If you don’t have one yet, consider starting one as soon as possible—aim for 3-6 months of living expenses in a high-yield savings account. If you’re in immediate need, you could consider a personal loan, selling assets, or cutting non-essential expenses before tapping into retirement funds.

If you find yourself without any alternatives, consult with a financial advisor before making a withdrawal. Sometimes, hardship withdrawals are an option without the early withdrawal penalty, but it’s important to understand all the long-term impacts before making a decision.

Get $500 off your first year with Advisor by signing up through TFD! Click here to take our short quiz and schedule a FREE consultation call with Advisor today and never make another financial decision alone!

Advisor.com provides clients with a top notch advising team for a fixed, flat annual fee. Their team of advisors work for you, not commissions, and help you to achieve your smart financial goals through planning, investing, and more.

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About Kellen Thayer Kellen has dedicated his career to helping clients achieve their financial goals through comprehensive financial planning and wealth management. He holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining Advisor Wealth Management, Kellen worked as an investment advisor at Goldman Sachs partnering with clients with $25mm plus in investable assets and later advised high-net-worth clients at Raymond James. His expertise spans a wide range of financial strategies, always with a focus on empowering clients from all backgrounds to build and sustain their wealth.

By Chelsea Fagan

Yesterday, we ran the first video in our six-week YouTube series, The Grown Woman's Guide To Life. It's something we've been wanting to do for a while, both in celebration of our tenth year as a business (!), and my 35th year on this planet (!). We're doing this series in partnership with Advisor, in part because working with a good financial advisor was a major turning point in my 30-something finances, and because I'm a big believer in their transparent, flat-fee model. But we're also doing it to explore what it means to gracefully navigate your thirties regardless of where you are financially, with content that's accessible to all income levels.

So in celebration of this new series, I wanted to kick us off with an open letter to my 25-year-old self!

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Hi Chelsea,

I see you just wrote a blog post about being bad with money, and I'm really proud of you. I know that money has been a source of shame and anxiety for your entire life, and I know that being honest about things like your debt or your arrest was really difficult. I want you to know that this -- the part where you admit where you are, take accountability without shame, and commit to making better choices -- is the hardest part.

Once you do this, you'll no longer be awoken in the middle of the night by stress about your mounting debt, or dodge collection calls, or wince every time you swipe your debit card and pray that it goes through. You'll no longer avoid looking at your accounts, and even though they will sometimes be painful to see in detail, they will at least no longer be the unknown boogeyman waiting to derail your plans.
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I know that you're still struggling with some friendships that don't make you feel great about yourself -- that's okay. Our twenties are in many ways the last vestiges of our teenage selves, and even for logistical reasons we are often still shaking off the person we were in those days. Part of your financial struggle was being around people who made you feel insecure and unworthy, and spending to try and impress or keep up with them.

As you move through this new decade, you will learn that some relationships need to fade away in order to leave space for the person you need to become -- and the people you'll want around you when you become her. When deciding the friendships to foster, ask yourself: do I feel safe around this person, loved and accepted, encouraged to be my best and most authentic self? Then ask yourself: am I doing the same for them, am I giving them love and support and healthy encouragement? If the answer is no on either front, this is a clear sign that this may not be the right person for you long term.

This is also the time in your life to embrace accountability. Not all self-respect comes from self-discipline, but a lot of it does, and the confidence you need to live the life you want will come from being accountable to yourself and others. That means making small progress each day, seeing through your goals, showing up for yourself and others even when you don't want to, and treating your body and mind with respect. It doesn't mean you can't let loose sometimes, it just means the arc of your life needs to bend towards a person who can be counted on: for yourself more than anyone else.

Your life partner is the most precious thing you have: honor and cherish him, and remember that you are always on the same team. Together, you'll be force multipliers, and accomplish so much more than you ever could have separately, but only if you consistently put each other first. As you move through young adulthood, you'll naturally gravitate towards other couples who embody a healthy and mutually empowering dynamic: lean into this. Learn from the couples you admire just as much as the individuals, and strengthen your own marriage by emulating what you love about them.

I know that you struggle so much to be in the present, and to enjoy what you have. You want so many things you can't yet attain, and I know that's what's driven you to horrible financial and personal consequences in the past. This will always be a struggle to some extent, because you're an ambitious person by nature. Your taste and your passion will always slightly exceed your ability, but understand that this is natural, and that true creativity and fulfillment come from harnessing that differential. You can aspire to things beyond what you have, as long as you can still be grateful for your current life, and aware of how much your present is the wildest dream of your past. Practice expression without acquisition, aspiration without self-deprecation, and eagerness without impatience.

You always say that eldest daughters are the unpaid interns of the world, and I can't tell you how true that is. By nature, we take on so many roles beyond the major ones cut out for us, and we feel that every outcome is a reflection of our own performance. In the coming decade, you will experience many professional and personal struggles, and your job will be discerning which ones are of your own design. Learning to say "no" to certain things, to not take on certain burdens that aren't yours, to release the actions or opinions of certain people, will be crucial to your growth. As an eldest daughter and business owner, your strength will be in delegating, and releasing. Do what you can, but trust in others to run the race alongside you.

Things will get better, and in your thirties you will finally start to feel like the person you always had in your head. At 35, things are just starting to get really good, and I promise that you will feel younger today than you did at your age. Remember that the day you stop evolving and learning is the day you start truly aging, and the more you can fill your life with curiosity, the more youthful you will feel. Throw in financial stability, and the world will become a sandbox, a place to always be building and invite friends to build alongside you. I have faith in your ability to blow these ten years out of the water, just as I have faith in my ability to do the same for the next ten.

We've got this. You've got this.

— Chelsea

What I'm Loving Each week, we’re asking a different TFD team member to share what they’ve watched, read, purchased, and otherwise loved lately. Today we're hearing from Jane!

I recently discovered Ferkos Fine Jewelry through their Etsy shop and have become a big fan! I particularly love their selection of dainty 14k solid gold rings as everyday pieces to mix and match with bolder fashion jewelry. Everything is quite reasonably priced considering it’s all solid gold. And these are pieces you can wear for a really long time.

I downloaded Nibble on a whim last week and have been pleasantly surprised with my experience so far! Nibble is the self-proclaimed ‘duolingo of everything’ and I have been using it to learn more about art and art history to be a better museum / gallery go-er. I’m sure a lot of nuance gets missed in the bite-sized lesson format, but I’m not expecting to gain a masters degree level of knowledge. It’s also nice to have a distraction on your phone that feels productive.

This harvest salad recipe has been saved on my TikTok for weeks and I am so glad I finally made it! It is SO good and very meal-prep friendly as it holds up very well in the fridge. I love the recipe as written, but it’s also infinitely riffable. I’m excited to play around with different roasted vegetable and spice blend combinations, swap the quinoa for lentils and the peptias for tamari almonds.. The list goes on.

📢Last night we premiered the first episode of a very special 6-part capsule series, The Grown Woman’s Guide To Life, hosted by Chelsea! This series is all about navigating your 30s with style and grace — financially and otherwise. In the premiere episode, The 10 Dos and Don'ts of Turning 30, Chelsea covers her dos and don'ts of everything from friendships to career to money.

💸Join us TOMORROW, October 22nd for Your End-Of-Year Financial Plan, this month's Society workshop hosted by Holly. Tune in at 6:30pm et (with replay available after)! This workshop is dedicated to helping you get your financial life in order before the end of the year. From budgeting for holiday shopping to planning for tax season, set yourself up financially for a successful new year and beyond. Join The Society at our $4.99 or up tiers to get access!

🪞Chelsea recently shared a 3-part newsletter series breaking down her bedroom mini-makeover! She covers everything from the planning process to final result, including the budget break down. You can access this mini-series, as well as her complete collection of weekly newsletters, by joining The Society at TFD at the Premium tier here.

🎥If you haven't done so already, please watch our September video essay, What Happened To The Male Breadwinner? over on YouTube! Every view helps us! And a reminder that $4.99 and up members of the Society at TFD get access to the ad-free, extended director's cut :) Our next video, Why Nothing We Buy Feels Good Anymore (working title) drops NEXT Tuesday, October 29th!

🧑‍🍳Grab Chelsea's new Cook At Home Guidebook — an updated version of Chelsea's 30 Day Cook At Home Challenge from February. In this 27-page guide, she's sharing updates for how the original challenge impacted her spending and eating habits over the last 8 months, along with her fall recipe staples and resources. Join The Society Premium tier for access!

The Society at TFD is our members-only community with access available on both YouTube and Patreon. Joining The Society is the best way to directly support TFD! The Society offers the exact same things on both platforms, so choose whichever one you prefer!

We offer 3 tier options:

The Society at TFD Lite: $2.99/month

• Monthly office hours with Chelsea to chat and get your personal questions answered
• Access to our monthly book club hosted by TFD Creative Director, Holly
• Illustrated tech backgrounds every month
• Access to Society Discord

The Society at TFD: $4.99/month — includes everything in the $2.99 tier plus:

• Monthly ad-free extended director's cut videos from Chelsea
• Exclusive members-only events and workshops
• Complete post archive (including exclusive members-only videos of Chelsea ranting on different topics)

The Society Premium: $9.99/month — includes everything from the previous tiers plus:

• Weekly newsletter from Chelsea
• Monthly multi-page workbook/guidebook on a different topic each month
• Members-only capsule podcasts