Author Archive
At one point or another, it’s happened to nearly all of us: For one reason or another, we spent more than our available checking account balance. And most likely, we wound up paying an overdraft [...]
March 12th, 2010. Topics: Banking, Buyer Beware, Checking Accounts. Read More »
We first published “How Much House Can You Afford” over a year ago, but we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the subject recently. In fact, we’ve also been getting a lot of people [...]
March 5th, 2010. Topics: Home Buying, Mortgages. Read More »
Want to save thousands on your taxes? Consider buying a home. Without a doubt, the home mortgage interest deduction is a major perk of home ownership: the mortgage interest you pay on your home reduces [...]
March 5th, 2010. Topics: Tax Preparation. Read More »
Pop quiz: Do you know how much cash you have in all of your bank accounts, right now? How long would you take to determine how much you spent on groceries and how much you [...]
March 3rd, 2010. Topics: Financial Organization, Personal Development. Read More »
You’ve probably heard it from a dozen different personal finance gurus, including Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman: You need an emergency fund! But what exactly is an emergency fund?
An emergency fund is nothing more than [...]
March 1st, 2010. Topics: Emergency Fund, Savings Accounts. Read More »
Shopping for a mortgage can be intimidating. There are thousands of mortgage lenders and hundreds of ways lenders can tweak home loans to distort their real costs. You’re also facing the excitement of buying a [...]
February 26th, 2010. Topics: Banking, Home Buying, Mortgages. Read More »
The CARD Act—a set of new regulations designed to limit credit card trickery—went into effect this week even though Congress proposed the act over a year ago. Since then, there’s been a lot of talk [...]
February 23rd, 2010. Topics: Buyer Beware, Credit Cards. Read More »
Last week, a long-time reader e-mailed a superb question: If you must choose, should you save first for retirement or save for a down payment on your first home?
Obviously, both are important. The younger you [...]
February 22nd, 2010. Topics: Home Buying, Retirement, The Stock Market. Read More »
Do you have a credit card that raised your interest rate within the last year? You’re not alone. Credit card companies raised nearly everybody’s APRs because as of this month, the CARD Act prohibits them [...]
February 12th, 2010. . Read More »
So, you want some answers.
On priorities: I’m 25. What should my financial priority be?
On saving: How much should I be saving if I earn $45k?
On spending: Can I afford that vacation next summer?
In three years [...]
January 25th, 2010. Topics: Personal Development, Wealth Building. Read More »
