SoFi Blog

There comes a turning point in every renter’s life, where that neighborhood you loved when you moved in just doesn’t feel right anymore. It happens—sometimes the community surrounding your home changes, and isn’t quite as sweet as when you first moved in. But more often than not, as life goes on, careers advance, families grow, and finances improve, it’s less about the neighborhood transforming, and more about your own priorities shifting for what you want out of an area.

While you may have once reveled in the fact that your neighborhood boasted plenty of hotspots just outside your front door, you may now yearn for a quieter, more family-focused locale so that you can start your own. Better yet, as your career has blossomed—along with your salary—it may be time to upgrade to a larger place with more of your “wish-list” items in an area, where you’ll be surrounded by up-and-comers just like you. After all, home buying isn’t just about falling in love with a house, securing a mortgage, and making that square footage your own; it’s also about finding the perfect neighborhood that works for you today and tomorrow.

If it’s time to assess whether you’ve outgrown your neighborhood, here are the questions to ask yourself:

There’s no doubt that your squad makes your life better. Your friends pick you up when you’re down, celebrate your milestone moments, and hang out with you just because you rock in between. But beyond providing awesome support—and lots of laughs—several studies reveal that your friends can also influence your financial achievements, career performance and opportunities, and general life success.

Here are five ways, according to science, that your friends can help you get more out of work and life:

It’s not exactly news that millennials are marrying later than the generations before them. But to give you a sense of just how differently they approach the tradition from their parents, in 1962, nearly 60% of 18- to 30-year-olds were married. Today, just 20% of people in that same age range have tied the knot. As such, they’re older than their predecessors were, too—whereas the average woman in the ’70s was barely 20 when she walked up the aisle, today she’s over 27.

Waiting to be more mature and financially stable before marrying is not a bad thing, and could help to explain another trend on the rise among this age group. Before saying, “I do,” millennials are asking for prenups, in larger numbers than before. In fact, just over 50% of matrimonial lawyers attest that the number of millennials requesting prenuptial agreements is on the rise.

Far and away, money issues are the leading cause of stress in relationships. It makes sense when you consider that nearly 13 million Americans withhold financial information—including bank accounts and credit cards—from the people they love.

Obviously, that’s not exactly a healthy way to engage in a relationship. That’s why, instead of allowing money issues to balloon into financial infidelity, or to become even a minor source of tension between you and your partner, it’s important to talk about how the two of you plan to manage your money as a couple.

SoFi members Jennifer Nichols and Anthony Latta learned over time what it takes to successfully combine their individual financial lives with that of their partner’s through trial-and-error in their own relationships. Here’s their advice for merging money in a relationship, from what works well to what definitely doesn’t.

The plan, Jonathan recalls, was straightforward: Marry his fiancée, get away for a honeymoon, and get down to the business of starting a family.

“My wife was 39 and I’d just turned 40,” he says. “We wanted to have kids, and we also knew time wasn’t necessarily on our side.”

The wedding and honeymoon were beautiful. But soon after their return—and after several months of trying to conceive without success—they started to worry, and decided to see a doctor. “We figured she would tell us everything was fine, but then she ordered tests.”

The news wasn’t good: He and his wife were infertile. They might still have children, their doctor told them, but not without medical assistance. “Becoming parents would require a special procedure,” Jonathan says. “And it was going to cost us a lot of money.”