If you’ve got kids just coming out of college or starting out in their adult life, how many times have you had this conversation? Kid: I think I want to buy a new TV, but I don’t have any cash. Parent: You should save up for that. Kid: That’s OK, I have a credit card. Parent: What’s the interest rate on that card? Kid: Huh? Parent: The interest rate. What is…
The month of February is marked by many milestones – Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras, and for me it’s time for another annual chore that I loathe every year. Tax time. Yes, it’s time to sit down and figure out and file my federal and state income taxes. I am one of the many folks who does their own (as well as the rest of my family’s), so at this time of year, I put out my shingle and start pestering…
As you may or may not know, I’m retiring from the world of work at the end of this year (just 338 days to go at the publishing of this blog entry – not that I’m counting or anything). It’s a funny thing, the reactions I get when I tell people this fact. First, they always look me up and down and quizzically ask, “how old are you?” When I tell them I’ll be fifty-seven at the end of this…
You can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine these days and NOT see some article about the economy, interest rates, or some other force that may impact your home finances. Many of us have learned about personal finance the hard way (me included) – through trial and error. I’m still amazed that we don’t teach the basic concepts of personal finance to high school students before we unleash them into the wide, wide world of credit cards, home and car…
My brother recently turned me onto a podcast where they interviewed an author by the name of Bill Perkins, who was sharing ideas from his latest book ‘Die with Zero’. To summarize, the author theorizes that in order to get the maximum fulfillment out of life, we need to prioritize and allocate our lives based upon three different buckets: time, money, and health. Building off of the inevitability that our time on Earth is finite – his gauge is approximately…
You’ve probably seen all of the news headlines – “U.S. Credit Card Debt Hits All-Time High”, “Most Americans Can’t Afford Retirement”, “Many Families Living Paycheck to Paycheck”. Different stories, but all based upon a common theme. Most people don’t know anything about personal finance. Now when I say “don’t know anything”, I’m not exaggerating. If you think I’m lying, take my little quiz below. See where I’m going? If you could answer even half of the questions above, you’re miles…
You can’t watch the news or surf the internet without someone eventually talking about the newest financial buzzword – cryptocurrency. You’ve probably heard of some of the bigger names (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, etc.), but what exactly are they? How do they work? Most importantly – should you invest in them? First, let’s take a look at what cryptocurrency actually is. Well, to put it in the simplest of terms, it’s a form of digital currency (usually tokens) that can be…