Preparing for the Worst: Evaluating Your Emergency Fund and Cash Savings
Preparing for an emergency is an important part of financial planning and of your retirement strategy. One financial or medical emergency can wipe out years of hard work and retirement planning and retirement savings without an emergency fund in place to take care of expenses. Meanwhile, keeping cash savings means that you can access what [...]
Spending Fast Can Help You Achieve Financial Health
Have you ever reached that point in a diet when you’re eating all the right things and getting regular exercise, but your weight loss plateaus anyway? Changing up the way you think about your eating habits and trying something new can jumpstart your weight loss. As we’ve talked about before, dieting techniques can be applied [...]
Great Mobile Apps to Help You Manage Your Finances
Gone are the days of paper ledgers and tallying up your cancelled checks. With smartphones, people are emailing, making dinner reservations, destroying angry birds, and impressing friends with their words. Now, with advancing technology and increased security for mobile apps, smartphone users are also managing their finances safely and conveniently from the palms of their [...]
Are Prepaid Debit Cards Good Money Management Tools?
Prepaid debit cards are popular with some parents because such cards provide the experience of paying with plastic without actually borrowing money and without the chance of overdrafting. Prepaid debit cards are touted as valuable aids in teaching teenagers about money management. However, the recent furor over some celebrity-endorsed prepaid debit cards has many re-examining [...]
Are You Paying Interest Or Saving Money?
The Two Sides of Interest: Are You Paying It or Are You Earning It? When you hear the word “interest” in a financial context, what comes to mind? Credit card interest? Mortgage interest? Paying interest is certainly a reality for many, and knowing your interest rates is an important part of any plan to pay [...]
Update Your Will For Proper Estate Planning
Good estate planning requires you to update your will to make sure your wishes are met and your heirs aren't left wondering whether your wishes were satisfied. Q: Our mother passed away quite suddenly. She had her old will out on her table as if she were going to update it. The will that we [...]