Saving and Investing

In the years since the Great Recession, we have seen the average savings rates of Americans rise. And that’s a good sign. Savings are a good indicator of the financial well-being of the country. For individuals, saving money means you are spending less than you are making. And that’s the best way to build wealth… Read More

While many of us don’t often think about life expectancy as a personal finance or economic issue, the two are closely linked. For example, depending on how long someone expects to live, he or she can calculate how much money they need to save for retirement. And a new report from the New York Times… Read More

For a long time, the most prominent financial analysts and advisers told Americans that the best investment they could make was buying a home. Now, almost ten years after the collapse of the US Housing Market that triggered the Great Recession, that prevailing advice has changed. David A. Levine, writing his column for the New… Read More

We all know that we should be saving money, but many of us wonder how much money we should actually be socking away. The answer? At least 20%. So say the personal finance experts at Finance Explained, who put together this video for Mashable. That 20% should be divided among three different categories of savings… Read More

Traditionally, housing was viewed as one of the safest, smartest investments average Americans can make. Then came the spectacular collapse of the housing marketing, and the overall economy in 2007-2008. Now, when financial experts talk about housing, they can’t seem to agree on whether buying a home is a smart investment or not. But what… Read More

One common piece of personal finance advice, readily available from sources as reputable as a recent article featured on the NY Times, is to max out your retirement savings account. For those people lucky enough to be offered a 401k plan by their employer, this can seem like the obvious choice. The problem is, for… Read More

Do you know how much you are paying in fees in your 401k plan? Most people don’t. If you’re lucky enough to be enrolled in a company-sponsored 401k retirement plan, you might want to ask how much the fees are. A recent study of plans from a number of different companies found that the average… Read More

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

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

A popular way to invest your money, for those people cautious about picking stocks or putting too much of their money in one place, are index funds. Index funds are passive funds, as opposed to actively managed mutual funds, whose performances are closely tied to the performance of a given index. Indexes are groups of… Read More