Personal Finance

The financial services provider, Primerica, created what they call a Financial Security Scorecard. The scorecard consists of five behaviors or actions that people can, and should, take in order to better secure their financial futures. The idea behind it is if people do all five things, they are more likely to grow their wealth over… Read More

You might hear financial advisors talking about emergency savings, sometimes referred to as a “rainy day fund”. This is money that you have safely tucked away in a bank that can be used as soon as you need it, for surprise expenses – health emergency, car repairs, etc. Unfortunately, for too many people in the… Read More

A lot of smart people have poured countless hours and resources into financial literacy programs over the years. Whether those programs target adults or children, the goal is to increase the financial literacy, and improve the financial habits, of those they teach. However, a 2014 paper found that interventions to improve financial literacy have almost… Read More

You may have heard the term “predatory loan” before. But do you know what it means? A predatory loan is any loan where the terms are more beneficial to the lender than the borrower. For example, they may have very high interest rates or unreasonable expectations regarding the payback schedule. And even though there are… Read More

Charles Schwab runs an annual survey to calculate their Modern Wealth Index. Essentially, they ask people to define what it takes to be wealthy in America. Answers regarding how wealthy people spend their time and how they live their life are included. Those surveyed are also asked how much money it takes to be financially… Read More

It’s been frequently reported of late that millennials, those born roughly between ’78 and ’95, are not buying homes at the same rate as previous generations. And there has been much debate offered as to the reasons for that. A new study by Bank of America finds that, counter to the popular wisdom behind this… Read More

Rich people have always been able to afford to pay for the best financial advice available. That is part of the reason why they stay rich and the rest of us struggle to get by. But even without expensive advisors, lawyers and accountants, there is some simple financial advice we can all take advantage of…. Read More

You may be surprised to hear it, but there is such a thing as too much cash. Now let me backtrack for a second, because most of you are already sounding the alarms on this post. The keyword in that first sentence is “cash”. Notice I didn’t say money. Cash, as opposed to investments, doesn’t… Read More

Rules of thumb are meant to stand as simple shortcuts for far larger, and more complex, processes and practices. The world of personal finance is rife with them. There are so many that, often, they conflict. When that happens, where do we turn? Who do we believe? Enter J. D. Roth, writing from his blog… Read More