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The Hidden Cost of Pets
It’s time for a confession: I am an animal hoarder. After decades of pet ownership, I am now extremely qualified to share with you just how expensive these companions can be and how you can factor that into your decision making process on whether you are ready for the responsibility on a financial level.
Life Insurance 101
Oh, life insurance… No one likes to talk about it, and who can blame them. It’s not exactly a “sexy” topic. That being said, it’s definitely something worth talking about. Here are the basics you should know if you’re considering buying life insurance.
Saving for College: What You Need to Know About 529 Plans
If you’re looking into saving for your child’s college education, you may have heard of 529 college savings plans. But what are these plans, what are the benefits, and are they the right options for you and your family? Here’s what you need to know in a nutshell.
Paying Off Your Auto Loan Early
If you “own” a car, you may be all too familiar with the reality of an auto loan and the bite it takes out of your monthly budget. Here are some tips on when you should pay your auto loan off early and what you need to know if you do.
The Surprising Cost of Lunch
Depending on your situation, you may be scraping by on raman everyday or you may have an opportunity to take yourself out for a decent lunch during the workday.Lunch is an opportunity to save money. Let’s look at just what that workday lunch might be costing you and how you can curb your lunch spending.
Why I Don’t Have an “Extreme Money Story”
In the age of blogging, it seems that the most outrageous or awe-inspiring stories often make their way to the top of the news, and for good reason. We want to feel inspired to do better. The problem comes when trying to live your life as others do if it’s not what fits you or your lifestyle best.
Four Reasons the Cost of Your Mortgage May Change
Whether you own a home already or are planning to purchase one in the future, there are a few things you should know about your monthly mortgage payment and its potential to fluctuate.
How to Turn Your Financial Goals into To Dos
If you’ve already spent the time to sit down and write out your financial goals for the near-term and long-term you’re already ahead of most people. But, once you’ve developed those goals, how do you move forward? How do you take those goals and break them down into a manageable “To Do” list?
How the IRS Reviews Your Tax Return: Should You Be Worried?
With the deadline to file your taxes officially looming we spend some time explaining the process the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses to review your return. As dry as taxes may seem, it’s always a good thing to understand what the IRS is looking for and how they go about reviewing your return.
How To Recover From a Money Blunder
We don’t always make “the right” decisions with our money. Whether your blunder took the form of debt or you just generally didn’t get the value out of a purchase, here are some steps you can take to recover from these mistakes so they don’t follow you into the next phase of your financial life.
Fighting The Impulse to Keep Up With the Joneses
"Keeping up with the Joneses" can be an expensive and never-ending pursuit, so how do you fight this impulse to allow yourself to spend money on the things that will make you happiest instead of just competing with your friends and neighbors?
Family Finances: Are Your Loved Ones a Liability?
Every family seems to have one crazy uncle pushing his pyramid scheme at family dinners, but what happens when those closest to you are struggling with money? Do you open your wallet and help? Most of us don’t have tons of spare funds sitting around to get our siblings or even our parents out of a jam, so what’s the best way to deal with this?
Why Overthinking Your Investment Strategy is Costing You
We all feel the pull to “beat the market” and to ensure that our investments are performing at an acceptable level, so often we wait for the perfect moment to invest or that shining stock that you can sell for 10 times what you bought it for. These are all good things to strive for, but for most of us, this opportunism can really hurt us.
Making Money Mantras Work for Your Finances
You may already use mantras in other aspects of your life, but have you ever incorporated them into your financial life? Here are some steps you can take to find the right mantra.
Should You Factor Social Security into Your Retirement Planning?
As a millennial, I’ve always heard that Social Security income will be a thing of the past by the time we reach retirement age. The ultimate question is whether you should factor these benefits into your future income or assume that the social security system as we know it will have disintegrated by the time we come to retirement age. Here are the basics to consider.