The Financial Literacy Crisis
Imagine driving a car without a basic understanding of the rules of the road or even how to operate it. Scary thought. Here’s another scary circumstance – one that is all too real. Many Americans are making financial decisions with minimal financial knowledge of investing, budgeting, and credit. The TIAA Institute conducted a survey on […]
A Cheat Sheet for Sending Your Kid to College
College marks a great milestone in a child’s life. It may be the first time he or she will live away from home. Dropping off your child at college may be an experience loaded with emotions, so here are a few tips for a smoother transition. Accept that the Parent-Child Dynamic Has Changed Your child […]
Weighing the Benefits of Prepaid Debit Cards
Many Americans use some sort of prepaid debit card, for a wide variety of reasons. Some prefer them for their versatility and the ability to use them for everything from paying bills to spending money at retailers. They are also popular among the 5.9 million American households that, for whatever reason, do not hold a […]
A Penny Saved is Two Pennies Earned
The famous saying from Poor Richard’s Almanack is frequently misquoted. It was published by founder Benjamin Franklin in 1737: “A penny saved is two pence clear.” Finding ways to manage expenses is one of the cornerstones of a sound financial strategy. Here are some simple and inexpensive energy-saving tips that may help you save money. […]
What to Look for in Personal Finance Apps
Mobile applications have become ubiquitous. While many of these apps are games and social media platforms, an increasing number have been developed to help individuals with their personal finances. Which leads to an interesting question: what should you look for in a personal finance app? Category One of the first things to consider is what […]
Your Emergency Fund: How Much Is Enough?
Have you ever had one of those months? The water heater stops heating, the dishwasher stops washing, and your family ends up on a first-name basis with the nurse at urgent care. Then, as you’re driving to work, you see smoke coming from under your hood. Bad things happen to the best of us, and […]
Pay Yourself First
Each month, you settle down to pay bills. You pay your mortgage lender. You pay the electric company. You pay the trash collector. But do you pay yourself? One of the most basic tenets of sound investing involves the simple habit of “paying yourself first” – in other words, making your first payment of each […]
U.S. Personal Savings Rate
The U.S. personal saving rate stood at 3.4 percent at the end of 2022, down from the 7.5 rate at the end of 2021.The personal saving rate is the federal government’s estimate of what percent of their incomes U.S. households are saving. But market watchers and economists are mixed on what can be learned from […]
How Income Taxes Work
The Internal Revenue Service estimates that taxpayers and businesses spend about 8 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements. To put this into perspective, if all this work were done by a single company, it would need about four million full-time employees and be one of the largest industries in the U.S.1 As complex […]
9 Facts About Retirement
Retirement can have many meanings. For some, it will be a time to travel and spend time with family members. For others, it will be a time to start a new business or begin a charitable endeavor. Regardless of what approach you intend to take, here are nine things about retirement that might surprise you. […]