Category: Financial & Investment Tips
Sometimes
Sometimes, you need to take a young child shopping, and it might throw off your list and your meal plan. But overspending by $20 doesn’t mean you’re a financial failure – it means you’re human. Photo: Quinn Dombrowski Most of the time, I have my financial house in pretty good shape. I follow my well-planned grocery list at the grocery store. I don’t spend much money on stuff I don’t need. I keep us on track with our family’s budget. I don’t spoil my children with expensive stuff or experiences. I save plenty for an early retirement and maybe for a new house in the country. I enjoy the free things in the community and in my home. I
My First Experience with UBER
My First Experience with UBER is a post from: Faithful With A Few. If you enjoy it, please subscribe to the Feed.The other day I had to pick up my car from the mechanic. After 2 days and $700, I was less than excited about the idea of calling and waiting for a taxi – there aren’t too many taxi services in our area.I reached out to my sister to see if she could give me a ride, but she was dealing with a stomach virus and was in no shape to drive. As I was just about to give up and call for a cab, my wife suggested that I give Uber a try.Uber ReviewI downloaded the app and was prompted to set
Eight Tips to Make Credit Cards Work for You, Not Against You
Stay in control of your credit cards — don’t let them control you. A credit card can be a valuable tool if you know how to use it properly. Likewise, using credit cards irresponsibly can lead to a world of hurt. If you need an example of how badly things can go, look no further than your neighbors, friends, and relatives. According to the most recent statistics, the average American household carries around $7,200 in credit card debt. Even worse, that figure tends to increase with each passing year, even as household incomes struggle to keep up with inflation. Further, a 2001 study by Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester titled “Always Leave Home Without It” surmised that individuals using credit are often willing to spend twice
How Advisors Kill Your Retirement Like The Walking Dead
Several friends have recently contacted me about their retirement accounts. They are planning to retire and want to rollover their 401k to an IRA. So far, so good. While they managed their 401k for decades, however, they are uncomfortable managing the rollover IRA. The combination of a lot of money to manage and the consequences if they get it wrong makes them squeamish about investing on their own during their golden years. So they wanted my view on the cost of hiring an investment advisor. The costs ranged from 1.5{7dabfd103aa443fce219eea47f0f346a11a54ce587a1a0cbb74f06b9f7a304ca} to 2.0{7dabfd103aa443fce219eea47f0f346a11a54ce587a1a0cbb74f06b9f7a304ca} of assets under management (called AUM in the business). Are these costs a big deal? No. They are freaking huge deal. Investment fees are always, always, always a big deal, but that’s never more true
Is Time Economy a Good Justification for Wasting Money?
When you factor in the cost of your time, is it still cheaper to make chicken alfredo at home than to order it at Olive Garden? Photo: Olive Garden The other day, I had a great conversation with a reader who wrote in to discuss why I advocate the value of maintaining your stuff, cooking at home, and other such things that require some effort but save significant money in the long run. His argument primarily revolved around the idea of time economy or opportunity cost. Basically, his idea was that it’s often worth paying others to do simple tasks for you, like maintaining your car or cooking your meal, because it saves you time. In some situations, I agree with him. Much of modern life
Our Favorite Best Buy Deals
Here’s how to find the best deals at electronics giant Best Buy. Photo: Mike Mozart Shopping for electronics and appliances is quite an undertaking. For starters, they can be incredibly expensive. And with so many competing companies and similar models, it’s hard to ever be sure that you’re making the right purchase. Best Buy, one of the leading consumer electronics companies in the United States, prides itself on being a one-stop destination for tech products, services, and solutions with a guarantee of quality and unbeatable prices. But to make sure you’re truly getting the awesome prices they tout, we’ve compiled a smart-shopping guide to racking up rewards and discounts at Best Buy. Weekly Ad This is your starting point: Best Buy’s weekly ad
Advice I Wish I Knew When I Started My First Business
I’d like to share some important tips when starting a small business inspired by the Office Depot Business Solutions Center as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars #GearLove. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I didn’t have much of an interest in becoming a business owner. I was way too involved in everything sports and I probably invested a little more than I should have in baseball cards – dang, Jose Canseco! My childhood was focused on the here and now. I mean, come on, when was the last time you asked a kid what they’re interested in and they replied: “I’d like to build a business from scratch, write articles for major publications, and
Interview with Green Dot’s Founder and CEO, Steven Streit
A listener to the Dough Roller Money Podcast recently emailed me about online security. He wanted to know whether our online financial lives—think banking, investing, credit cards, and the like—are safe. And what happens if a hacker does manage to compromise are accounts? Are just out of luck? To begin answering this question, I interviewed Steve Streit. He is the founder and CEO of Green Dot. While many know Green Dot as a prepaid company, it’s also a bank. In 2011 Green Dot became a bank holding company. As such, Steve can speak to both the prepaid card space and the banking vertical. Here’s what I learned in my interview with Steve: Not all prepaid debit cards are created equal. Some, like Green Dot, offer protections that go
How We Decided an Expensive Child Care Center Wasn’t Worth It
We all want the best for our children, but when the cost of child care averages more than $10,000 a year, you have to draw the line somewhere. And what matters most is that your son or daughter is safe, active, and in the hands of a loving caregiver — not the size of the playground or the breadth of the curriculum. Photo: mliu92 I live in Indiana, and in the Midwest, almost everything is cheap – including daycare. According to Pew Research Center, the average cost for full-time infant care in Indiana is somewhere between $6,000 and $8,999 a year. Compare that to $14,939 in New York or more than $16,000 in Massachusetts. Still, averages mean nothing when you’re shopping for daycare for your own
Get the Best Coverage by Finding the Right Life Insurance Company for YOU!
If you have people that rely on your income then life insurance HAS to be part of your financial plan. I ran into a couple who had four children. Their insurance agent had talked to them about getting a life insurance policy, but they had declined because the husband had $150,000 policy through his employer which was about one year of his salary. About a year later he was diagnosed with stage four cancer and, as a result of the treatments, ended up not being able to continue in his job. Now they have a situation where he is not able to work and if he does not recover his spouse will be left with four children and no insurance payout since the policy they did have
The Value Line: Building More Skills for a Better Life
The more skills you learn that can put you even a hair’s breadth above the ‘value line’ — the threshold where you no longer need to pay someone else for expertise but can actually offer it yourself — the better off you’ll be. Photo: Jenny Downing My father was always a “jack of all trades” kind of guy. He was an absolute stellar gardener. He was a very good small-scale commercial fisherman, able to catch hundreds of pounds of fish in a single day. He held down a fairly technical job at a factory that involved computer operation and diagnosing problems with a part picker (a machine that would pull parts out of storage bins and send them on conveyor belts to
