According to Pew Charitable Trusts report, eight out of 10 Americans are in debt with the median amount owned at $67,900. Over the past 30 years, American families have taken on increasing amounts of debt. If you want to get out of debt, you have to ask yourself this question: “Why you got into debt in the first place,” says certified financial planner John Gajkowski. “Was it a one-off type of thing? Was it a medical expense you weren’t ready for? Or was it your lifestyle? If you have a $60,000 lifestyle and a job that only produces $50,000 in income, you’re always going to be in debt, so you either have to modify your lifestyle or change careers to earn the money for the lifestyle you want to create. A lot of people never come to that realization.” Debt management is a lifelong process just like weight management. You need to keep this question in mind to successfully control your personal finance.
Personal Finance
Take control of your personal finance to be wealthier and happier in life.
Free Credit Scores to Everyone From Capital One
Personal finance writer Claire Tsosie notes on Nerd Wallet: “Many credit card issuers offer free credit scores to their cardholders, but Capital One is going one better: It’s offering free credit scores to everyone. Capital One says anyone, cardholder or not, will be able to set up an account on the newly rebranded CreditWise website or go to the Apple App Store and download the mobile app for free. While many card issuers and websites offer free credit scores to their customers, Capital One is the first major bank to make free scores available to the public.” Keep in mind that CreditWise offers VantageScore, not FICO scores. It is still worth checking to monitor your credit. (nerdwallet.com)
4 Tips To Avoid Living Paycheck To Paycheck
People may end up living paycheck to paycheck for various reasons. According to CNN, 76% of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes it isn’t a lack of savings that led to the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Even high-income professionals are trapped in the cycle after covering rent, child care, food, car and toys. If you have fully deplete your checking accounts by the time their next paycheck arrives, it is time to break the cycle and get on a comfortable budget. Money Ning explains 4 tips you can use to avoid living paycheck to paycheck:
- Change your lifestyle
- Reduce discretionary spending
- Earn more money
- Stick to a strict budget
You Should Check Your Email First Thing In The Morning
We have heard over and over that it’s a bad idea to start your day by checking email. However, Dorie Clark at Harvard Business Review put up a case that you should check your email first thing in the morning. “Believing in the gospel of “doing the most important tasks first” and pushing email correspondence to the end of the day, I found that I consistently avoided answering certain messages because they required hard choices that my brain found taxing… I realized that if I finally wanted to vanquish those messages straggling at the bottom of my inbox, what I needed most wasn’t simply time to respond; it was the willpower and discernment to make good judgments and respond accordingly.” By attacking your inbox to start your stay with full energy, you can overcome the procrastination to reply important messages and go through the emails much quicker. (hbr.org)
Don’t Shame Millennials Living at Home
Michael Restiano writes on Huffington Post: “Why do we never assume that living at home means a person is saving for a house down payment, supporting one’s family, or curbing education costs, rather than ‘getting on their feet?’ How has something that is so clearly financially prudent become synonymous with failure and stagnation?” Michael urges to to stop shaming millennials living at home and that independence causing maturity is just a myth. “A 20-something living at home that goes out of his or her way to try new things is not much different than a 20-something living on her own in a big city. Except one probably relies far less on $1 pizza than the other, and perhaps has to try a bit harder to feel the necessary lack of comfort to change. Experience is attainable for either–the difference is in how hard the individual must work attain it.” (huffingtonpost.com)
Frugal Billionaire Who Founded Ikea Only Wears Used Clothes
Extreme frugality is the secret to early retirement, but to one billionaire frugality is the way of life. Frugal billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, founder of furniture chain Ikea, normally stocks up his wardrobe at flea markets to save money. “I don’t think I’m wearing anything that wasn’t bought at a flea market,” Kamprad says in an upcoming documentary for Swedish television. He also prefers cheap haircuts as he told a Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan: “Normally, I try to get my haircut when I’m in a developing country. Last time it was in Vietnam.” Kamprad, who turns 90 on March 30, said penny-pinching helped Ikea’s success. It probably also helped him to amass a net worth of more than $40 billion, according to a Bloomberg estimate. (afp.com)
5 Biggest Mistakes When Banking Online
Last year 13.1 million Americans had their identity compromised and the total financial loss stemming from identity theft amounted to $15 billion. With more online transactions there are more opportunity for criminals to steal from consumers. But you can learn to avoid critical mistakes to protect your financial information. Here are 5 biggest mistakes when banking online:
- Ignoring your accounts
- Having a standard password
- Being careless with your phone
- shunning security features
- Assuming the worst about online banking
You Won’t Be A Millionaire If You Make These Mistakes
There are many posts recently explaining how to become a millionaire already. The Practical Saver details some of the mistakes about how to not become a millionaire. Learn from these common mistakes to improve your financial well-being. Here are ten mistakes:
- Don’t understand money
- Live beyond your means
- Forget the value of compounding interest
- Don’t value education
- Avoid getting promotions or salary increases
- Don’t take advantage of employer’s matching contribution
- Buying products at full price
- Give up even before starting
- Keep up with the Joneses
- Invest in wrong investments
The More We Earn, The More Often We Drink
Not only moderate alcohol use can have important health benefits, but drinkers earn over 10 percent more money at their jobs than nondrinkers. A new survey shows that people that earns more tend to drink more often, perhaps to build relationship and contacts that result in bigger paychecks. In U.S. about 78% of those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more say they drink, compared to 45% of those with a household income of less than $30,000. Similarly, according to the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics, almost a quarter of Britons who earn over $57,000 are likely to drink at least five days a week, compare to 8% of whose who earn less than $14,200. In general, you are likely to have a drink in the past 24 hours if your household income top $75,000. Silvia Ascarelli writes: “In the U.S., richer drinkers also prefer wine over beer, but just barely. Beer is most popular with those earning between $30,000 and $74,999, according to Gallup. Wine is the preferred drink among college graduates, while those who have a high-school diploma or less prefer beer.” (marketwatch.com)
Top 10 Most Expensive Cities to Throw a Wedding
Budgeting is at the heart of personal finance and, when it comes to wedding, couple often asks “why do wedding cost so much?” Thumstack goes through 12 wedding essentials such as catering, photography, flowers, hair, makeup, cake and decoration to present the list of the most expensive cities to throw a wedding in 2016 based on thousands of price quotes provided by vendors. Here are the top 10 most expensive places you can throw a wedding in 2016 — and what you can expect to pay for essential services in those locations:
- New York, NY at $16,077
- Philadelphia, PA at $15,434
- Pittsburgh, PA at $14,287
- Baltimore, MD at $14,261
- Providence, RI at $13,990
- San Francisco, CA at $13,734
- San Jose, CA at $13,418
- Cleveland, OH at $13,416
- Washington, D.C. at $13,303
- Minneapolis, MN at $13,173
How to Avoid Lifestyle Creep
Financial planner Sammy Azzouz writes: “Why aren’t more people rich? All too frequently, sufficiently high income earners prefer to emulate the rich’s spending habits, spending more as their income grows. You can call it ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or ‘lifestyle creep’, but whatever you call it, you should avoid this pitfall.” Lifestyle creep prevent you to save early on in your career to compound it later in your investment. To avoid the trap, Mr. Azzouz explains that you should be “thoughtful about where you live” as housing is one of the main ingredient that let you falling into the lifestyle creep. Furthermore, you should control your spending and live below your means. (linkedin.com)
Finance Is Important. So Is Life
Personal finance is more personal than just finance. That’s the message in Tim Maurer’s new personal finance book, Simple Money, detailing a road map to achieve both financial and life goals. Maurer explains: “The real point of investing is not actually to make money but to have a better life and facilitate Enough.” You should not focus only on accumulating the most wealth but on your values and life goals. As respected author and investment advisor Larry Swedroe reviewed: “Tim Maurer’s new personal finance book, Simple Money, isn’t just about how to improve your financial situation for the sake of making more money. While it does contain a helpful chapter on a simple, winning investment strategy that’s virtually guaranteed to outperform the vast majority of investors (both individual and institutional), the focus of the book is ultimately about how to live a more fulfilling life.” (etf.com)
Unscrupulous Financial Advisers Prey On The Elderly and Poorly Educated
Managing personal finance successfully is becoming one of the most important area in life, and less sophisticated investors are in need of good financial advice to deal with the complexities of personal finance. But new research finds that the financial advising industry preys on the elderly and poorly educated. Often advisers don’t act in the best interest of the customers and they steer clients to inappropriate products. Bad financial advice can cost unsophisticated investors tens of thousands of dollars in loss. The study shows that “the median settlement for misconduct is $40,000, and a quarter of damages exceed $120,000.” Also, the research finds the disturbing trend that “advisers who engage in misconduct aren’t necessarily forced out of the industry. Instead, after being fired from their previous firm, they are often able to find jobs at new firms that make it a habit of hiring ethically challenged advisers.” The best way to protect against bad advise is to educate yourself about personal finance.
True Costs of A Bad Credit
Personal finance blogger Allan Liwanag writes: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a good, excellent, or even a perfect credit score? Of course, it would be. When you have a good credit, you are able to apply and get approved for loans with little to no problem at all. You are able to avail low-interest rates on credit cards, car loans, and other debts because lenders see you as a low-risk borrower. In truth, there are many benefits of having a good credit. But what if you have a bad credit? One thing I can say is that life won’t be so easy. I had my share of living a life with a bad credit. The repercussions of that bad credit score were far worse that I could have ever imagined.” With a bad credit, not only you will have difficulty in getting loans but you will also face a hard time getting a job. So beware of the true costs of a bad credit and take steps to improve your credit scores. (thepracticalsaver.com)
Financial Worries Are Linked to Stress
Michael J. O’Brien writes on Human Resource Executive Online that financial worries are linked to stress, underperformance and absentee for employees. “The research revealed that financial worries, which are strongly linked to stress, ultimately have an impact on people’s ability to perform their best work. In fact, 28% of people who are struggling with their finances admitted that it prevents them doing their best at work. In addition, higher levels of absenteeism can occur in employees with financial concerns. The survey found that people who are not worried about their finances reported they took an average of 1.9 absence days from work per year, whereas employees who are struggling financially are absent for an average of 3.5 days per year. Further, those who are struggling financially report being highly distracted on the job 12.4 days per year on average, compared to 8.6 days for those not worried about their finances. ‘Financial security is a top-of-mind issue for employees,’ said Shane Bartling, senior retirement consultant at Willis Towers Watson. Financial worries can have a negative impact on an employee’s personal and work life, and inevitably affect productivity, employee engagement and satisfaction.” (hreonline.com)
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- …
- 26
- Next Page »