You’ve reached a point where you don’t have to use credit cards anymore. Your home is paid off. You don’t have other outstanding debts. You must be an excellent credit risk, right?
As strange as it sounds, creditors do consider you a risk when you’ve become “credit-retired.” If you haven’t been using credit for some
Investing & Retiring
A stable income is critical to a comfortable retirement – as is limiting the amount of that income that you give to Uncle Sam. Maximizing retirement income and minimizing taxes requires advance planning – as illustrated in these seven tips.
1. Use a Roth IRA Because Roth IRAs are funded with post-tax dollars, they are
Your checking account is a tempting target for thieves. You must stay alert for the many varieties of checking account scams – but first, you must be able to recognize a scam when you see one. Have you ever been targeted by any of the scams below?
Free Prizes – This scam usually starts with
Never mind what’s in your wallet – what’s in your savings account?
A savings account is your buffer against unexpected expenses. Without sufficient savings, you’ll probably rely on credit to handle financial setbacks – exposing you to interest charges at best and a potential debt spiral at worst.
According to a new study from ValuePenguin,
What will you do with your tax refund? We hope you have something fun in mind, but a new survey suggests that you might use it to pay bills instead.
The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) recently released baseline survey results for their U.S. Financial Health Pulse, a study designed to assess and track
You don’t have any financial issues to hide from your partner … do you? According to a new survey from CreditCards.com, almost 1 in 5 of us does.
The survey found that 19% of Americans have at least one financial account that they hide from their spouse or live-in partner – either banking or credit
Debt is a major barrier to financial well-being among Americans. While we tend to think of debt as an issue affecting young and middle-aged people, the truth is that senior citizens carry debt, too. Among seniors approaching retirement, debt can be an obstacle to maximizing savings. Retirees living on a reduced income may find debt
Survey Suggests Economic Overconfidence If the economy is so great and unemployment is so low, why do so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck? And why don’t we seem to care?
The February PYMNTS.com Financial Invisibles Report attempts to answer these questions, noting, “For three consecutive quarters, consumers have been optimistic about their financial futures
Valentine’s Day may be one of the few times per year that you go out and buy fresh flowers, but that is no excuse for rookie mistakes. The gift of flowers is a reminder that you are thinking of someone and February 14 is an excellent opportunity to send this message. Make that gesture count
Do you plan to “retire in place” and stay in your current area, or are you interested in retiring in a different state? In either case, you may want to consult an annual study by WalletHub if retirement is imminent.
The study ranked all 50 states using 41 statistical metrics that were weighted and grouped
By Amy Beardsley
You are given the option of “debit or credit” when making purchases with your debit card. As it turns out, there’s a lot more to consider before swiping your debit card to pay for that next purchase. Although debit cards may look like credit cards, they don’t function like credit cards. When
Did Santa bring you more gift cards this holiday season? Do you have a pile of partially used gift cards with small remaining balances? You can redeem them as part of a larger balance, but if you don’t regularly shop at that merchant, that may not be practical.
Many consumers forget about partially
By Andrea Woroch
There’s nothing more rewarding than starting your own business. Opening the front door of a shop for the first time, launching a new product or watching your problem-solving solution take flight can be life altering. However, regardless of your business idea or efficiency of execution, there’s one certainty – it won’t be
The Shutdown’s Housing Market Woes It’s a great time to buy a home, and you’re ready. You’ve saved up a suitable down payment, found a home, and settled on a lender. As an added bonus, interest rates are at their lowest point in the last nine months – despite the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.
Your Christmas gift from the Federal Reserve is here. Surprise! It’s another 0.25% hike in the Federal Funds rate. Sure, you’ve already gotten this same gift three other times in 2018, and nine times since late 2015 – but what else would you expect to receive from the Fed?
Interest rate hikes from the Fed
A good 401(k) plan can be an attractive selling point for businesses looking to hire the best and brightest. However, smaller businesses may have a hard time establishing a 401(k) plan capable of competing for the attention of potential employees.
Few small businesses have the resources to carry out 401(k) administrative tasks, and the smaller
Are you finding it difficult to open a new bank account due to a previous mismanaged account? Your bridges with your bank may not have burned down completely. Get back into your bank’s good graces with a second chance checking account.
Fresh Start, Second Chance Checking Account According to an FDIC National Survey, as of
You’ve just become eligible for Social Security benefits. Are you going to apply for them now, wait until your full retirement age, or delay benefits as long as you possibly can? What if circumstances change, and you determine you would be better off waiting for benefits after filing?
You may be in luck. According to
Life can be hard without a checking account. It becomes more difficult to pay your bills and handle daily money transfers without resorting to handling cash and dealing with check-cashing outlets that can take a significant cut of your funds. Unfortunately, you can be denied a checking account for a negative association with one of
You’ve kept your will updated regularly to make sure your assets are distributed according to your wishes upon death. Have you done the same thing with your beneficiary designations? If not, your wishes may not be carried out as you expect.
A will covers the destination of most assets upon your death. However, assets that
Does your wallet take a bigger hit during the holiday season? If so, you aren’t alone. According to a recent study by LendingTree, more consumers fall behind on their bills in December than in any other month.
LendingTree reviewed anonymized credit report data from October 2017 through September 2018 and broke down the percentages of
Many people are reconsidering their budget to prevent holiday overspending over the next few months. If you are one of these people, good for you – but why stop there? This is a great time to look further ahead and tackle your 2019 budget.
Lay out your calendar, spreadsheet, or whatever method you use and
Our prior article, 5 Steps To Be Your Own Mogul – Part 1, covers the first three steps to manage your finances like a business. Below we present the final two steps.
4. Forecasting
If you have performed the budget exercise and broken your expenses out into categories, you can start to highlight areas
Why not take some financial pointers from the business world and apply them to your personal finances? Whether you are a party of one or a family of four, it pays to be fiscally agile. Some of the longest financial plays in the business world today are small businesses that perennially stay afloat and drive
By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm
It’s a constant struggle to stay afloat financially on disability income. Many disabled persons have credit card debt they can’t pay, often incurred before they were disabled. What can disabled persons do about telephone calls and letters from collectors? What happens if you are sued? As
By Roshni Chowdhry, head of customer experience at SafetyNet
Being laid off is not something most people plan for. Even though unemployment is low right now, some industries (including retail) have seen several layoffs in recent months. The bad news is that nobody is fully immune to layoffs. The good news? It’s possible to survive
The holidays are upon us. For those of us feeling a financial pinch, this can be a time of stress and worry rather than one of happiness and caring. We hope that this article will remind you how to do more with less and how to stick to a budget for gift-giving. As for the
By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm
Federal law protects Social Security and retirement incomes from garnishment by almost all collectors. But what about the IRS and student loan debts? The IRS and public student loan lenders can and occasionally will garnish 15% of a senior’s Social Security income. There is much information
The ability to save money is one of the many skills one must learn in order to become financially successful, and one of the most difficult. Moody’s Analytics analyzed different demographics and determined that savings rates increase as we age.
Sadly, according to their data, only one age group saves between ten and fifteen percent
What happens to your financial accounts when you pass away? They will be passed along to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated for that account – but what happens when your beneficiaries are out-of-date? For example, what if your beneficiary passes away before you do? How about an old account where you named your children as
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