Get smart with your money
Today’s top story: What to buy (and skip) in September. Also in the news: How to choose an airline credit card, how to help parents pay off college debt, and why the average American saves less than 5%.
What to Buy (and Skip) in September
Need a new mattress?
How to Choose an Airline Credit Card
Maximizing your miles.
Ask Brianna: How Do I Help My Parents Pay Off College Debt?
Contributing to the costs.
Average American saves less than 5%. How do you stack up?
How much do you save?
Today’s top story: 5 back-to-college lessons on building credit. Also in the news: Focus on just one thing in order to retire early, 4 salary negotiation tactics that actually work, and what you need to know before switching to a cheaper phone plan.
5 Back-to-College Lessons on Building Credit
Preparing for a solid future.
To Retire Early, Focus on Just One Thing
Save like mad.
4 Salary Negotiation Tactics That Really Worked
How to get what you’re worth.
What You Need to Know Before Switching to a Cheaper Phone Plan
There will be changes.
Today’s top story: The average American saves less than 5%. Also in the news: Strategies for lowering your closing costs, how to make money with YouTube, and should credit card perks coax you to go steady with a bank?
Average American Saves Less Than 5%
See how you stack up.
Strategies for Lowering Your Closing Costs
Saving as much as you can.
How to Make Money With YouTube
Monetizing your cat videos.
Should credit card perks coax you to go steady with a bank?
A one-sided love affair?
Your neighbor pulls up in a sweet new ride. Your co-worker announces she’s taking yet another trip abroad. Your best friend upgrades to a bigger house in a better area of town.
You’re pretty sure these people don’t make a lot more than you do.
So how are they able to spend that kind of money?
Maybe they’re up to their ears in debt, or they’re trust fund babies, or they’ll never be able to retire. Or maybe they’ve figured out the secret to money, which is: You can have anything you want. You just can’t have everything.
The new car, that house and that exotic trip are the shiny end results of a series of decisions hidden below the surface. What we don’t see, typically, are the trade-offs – or their consequences.
In my latest for the Associated Press, why you need to focus on your own finances instead of counting other people’s money.
Gary Sidder set up Roth IRAs for his sons when they turned 13. Each year, the Littleton, Colorado, certified financial planner and his wife, Francie Steinzeig, a school psychologist, contributed an amount equal to whatever the two boys earned cutting lawns, shoveling snow and doing odd jobs. As the sons’ earnings increased, so did the parental contributions.
“Initially we started with $400, and now we do $5,500 for each,” the annual maximum allowable contribution, says Sidder, whose sons are 32 and 27. “Now that their accounts are worth more than $100,000 and $65,000, respectively, they do see the value of saving and starting early.”
Even if no further contributions are made, both sons could see their accounts top $1 million by retirement age, assuming conservative 7 percent average annual returns.
In my latest for the Associated Press, how setting up your kids with an IRA could pay off big dividends for their future.
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!