Savings and Investing

Let's be honest: saving and investing may be necessary, but they often can feel like a [blank] . Both become a lot more rewarding, however, when you think of them as more than just spreading your money across different investment categories, such as stocks and bonds, to [blank] a seemingly far-off, no-guarantee future. Benz encourages everyone to focus on what she calls your "time on earth" allocation. That is, think about what is important to you and what you really want to spend more of your time doing -- not just in retirement but today and in the foreseeable future. Setting up your finances to support that goal can [blank] saving and investing from fulfilling an obligation to create a financial freedom fund for yourself. Here are three key ways to get started: Figure out how you are [blank] your income is between spending and investing. "How are you deploying your income stream? "Are you making smart decisions to deploy that capital across your financial opportunities?" Benz said.