As humans, it is in our nature to lie to ourselves. We do it without thinking about it, really. And in the world of personal finances, it has become a problem. Instead of saving for the future, we spend money today on things we don’t need. And we do this because we underestimate how much… Read More
ALL ABOUT CREDIT SCORES (AS REPORTED BY TRENT HAMM ON WWW.THESIMPLEDOLLAR.COM)
Credit scores were invented as a means of helping financial institutions trust people they were making loans to. An individual with a high credit score is more likely to pay back a loan than someone with a low score. Credit scores are managed by third-party organizations, called credit bureaus. Scores go up and down based… Read More
HIGH EARNING POOR PEOPLE (AS REPORTED BY ALLISON SCHRAGER ON WWW.QZ.COM)
Many times you see and hear about how much people make. Most articles about inequality focus on ‘income inequality’. But income is not the only, or best, measure of how people are doing financially. Just focusing on income ignores wealth, how much money people actually have to their name. And it turns out America is… Read More
CO-SIGNER BEWARE (VIA CONSUMER REPORTS ON FINANCE.YAHOO.COM)
It is quite common today for student loans to be co-signed by parents and guardians of those students who are borrowing. In fact, almost 94% of all student loan dollars in the first three quarters of 2014-15 school year were co-signed. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has some warnings for parents vouching for their… Read More
PAY OFF DEBT OR INVEST? (AS REPORTED BY WILLIAM COWIE ON WWW.GETRICHSLOWLY.ORG)
If you have debt to pay off, there will come a time when you need to answer the following question – pay off debt or invest? William Cowie, writing for Get Rich Slowly, identifies the reasons given for each of the two options. For investing, there is the power of compound interest and the time… Read More
THE RECESSION’S IMPACT ON RETIREMENT SAVINGS (AS REPORTED BY TERESA GHILARDUCCI ON WWW.THEATLANTIC.COM)
We tend not to think about the timing of market cycles when investing for retirement. We are told that, over the long term, the stock market is always up. And so, we trust that our 401ks and IRAs, invested heavily in stocks and bonds, will be large enough by the time we retire to last… Read More
THE YOUNG MAY NEVER FIND WORK (AS REPORTED BY ERIC LEVITZ ON WWW.NYMAG.COM)
The US unemployment rate is lower now than it’s been in nearly a decade. And that’s good news, for most of us. But if you just look at the top line number, you miss out on the full story. There are many communities that have not fully recovered, and may be in even worse position… Read More
FIVE PILLARS OF PERSONAL FINANCE ADVICE (AS REPORTED BY TRENT HAMM ON WWW.THESIMPLEDOLLAR.COM)
If you scour the internet, you can find a near endless assortment of personal finance blogs and articles. There’s so much information out there, from such a wide variety of sources, that trying to read it all would be a practice in futility. That’s why Trent Hamm, on his site The Simple Dollar, boiled it… Read More
LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS (AS REPORTED BY A.J. SMITH ON FINANCE.YAHOO.COM)
A very common tenet of sound financial advice is “live within your means.” Living within one’s means holds different meanings to different people. So let’s put the confusion to bed right now. Living within your means means spending less than you make. Figure out how much money you earn, after taxes, on a monthly basis…. Read More
DO NOT BLAME INDIVIDUALS FOR LACK OF SAVINGS (AS REPORTED BY TERESA GHILARDUCCI ON WWW.THEATLANTIC.COM)
Research and studies, old and new both, point to the fact that people with different personality types view money differently. Some people will naturally look to save and build wealth for the future, while others will forgo future benefits in favor of more immediate needs. And so, for some people, all the education in the… Read More