Get smart with your money
Today’s top story: How to have healthy finances. Also in the news: Credit cards to pack for your road trip, learning about a Solo 401(k), and ten ridiculously easy ways to save $300 a month.
Want Healthy Finances? Start Here
Getting your finances in shape.
Credit Card Perks to Pack for Your Road Trip
Getting the biggest bang for your buck.
What Is a Solo 401(k)?
A retirement plan for the self-employed.
10 ridiculously easy ways to save $300 a month
You can do it!
Today’s top story: How much you should spend on a wedding gift. Also in the news: How health insurers are fighting opioid addiction, why new homeowners should plan for additional expenses, and how o turn your used electronics into cash.
How Much Should You Spend on a Wedding Gift?
Answering the age-old question.
How Health Insurers Are Fighting Opioid Addiction
The human and financial costs.
Budgeting for New Homeowners: Plan for Additional Expenses
Expect the unexpected.
How to Turn Your Used Electronics Into Cash
Don’t let them just collect dust.
Today’s top story: How teachers can ace retirement without Social Security. Also in the news: Why credit cards are serving big restaurant rewards, making sure your spending personality matches your credit cards, and the one mistake that can cost millennials millions.
Teachers: Here’s How to Ace Retirement Without Social Security
It varies from state to state.
Why Credit Cards Are Serving Big Restaurant Rewards
Everyone has to eat.
Does your spending personality match your credit cards?
Make sure you’re earning rewards you’ll actually use.
This one mistake can cost millennials millions
Stop avoiding the stock market.
Today’s top story: How financing a vacation with a credit card could ruin your fun. Also in the news: How immigrants can plan a comfortable retirement, how one immigrant started her financial journey in the U.S., and what to do if your defined benefit pension plan is frozen.
How Financing a Vacation with Credit Cards Could Ruin Your Fun
When the bill comes due.
How Immigrants Can Plan a Comfortable Retirement
Discovering which benefits you’re entitled to.
How One Immigrant Started Her Financial Journey in the U.S.
Studying personal finance is key.
Retirement: What to do if your defined benefit pension plan is frozen
Time for a back-up plan.
Today’s top story: How to keep an eye on your college kid’s spending. Also in the news: How to help your kid get a credit card in college, what you need to know about stock splits, and the 10 things every non-finance person needs to know about finance.
How to Keep an Eye on Your College Kid’s Spending
Making sure they don’t go nuts.
How to Help Your Kid Get a Credit Card in College
Finding the best way to help.
Stock Splits: What They Are, How They Affect Your Portfolio
What you need to know.
10 Things Every Non-Finance Person Should Know About Finance
Learning the essentials.
Daniel Montville knew a debt consolidation loan wouldn’t solve his financial problems, but the hospice nurse hoped it would give him some breathing room. He had already filed for bankruptcy once, in 2005, and was determined not to do it again.
Montville took out the loan in 2015, but within a year he had fallen behind on its payments and on the payday loans he got to help his daughter, a single mother with four children. The payday lenders all but cleaned out his checking account each time a paycheck landed, leaving little money for necessities. Then his daughter lost her job, and the $5,000 tax refund she had promised to him as repayment went instead to supporting her kids.
“That’s when I wised up and realized this was a no-win situation,” says Montville, 49, of Parma, Ohio. Montville is now repaying his creditors under a five-year Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan.
In my latest for the Associated Press, learn why debt consolidation isn’t always the best idea.