Spring has sprung and, after a holiday lull, wedding season is in full swing. Planning your big day is exciting, but it can quickly get overwhelming—and expensive. To avoid headaches and unpleasant financial surprises, it’s important to assess your wedding budget before doing anything else. Here are five things to keep in mind when planning [...]
Q: My ex-husband is deceased, and we had two sons together. They are 34 and 35. His sister asked me to handle his estate and to help the boys with it. He has a house with an insurance policy that will pay for the mortgage for one year. We’ve applied for that, but he is [...]
Is your family itching to go somewhere for spring break while you’d like to keep your wallet from overheating? Here are some ideas for saving money on your trip: 1. Get off the beaten path. If at all possible, avoid traveling to typical spring break destinations. Not only will your family be surrounded by partying [...]
This post was written by guest blogger Teri Cettina. You have fond memories of a road trip your family took as a kid, so now you’re treating (torturing?) your clan to something similar. Good move: A driving vacation can be significantly cheaper than a trip requiring air travel. However, it’s easy to lose track of [...]
This post was written by guest blogger Teri Cettina. The so-called lazy days of summer aren’t quite that laid-back for working parents of young children. Summer means no school for the kids for three full months—and instead, a complex patchwork of childcare or different summer camps. All this extra care can get expensive if you’re [...]
It’s important to teach your children how to budget wisely while they are still young, but how can you teach them to save money if they don’t have any? Allowance is one way that you can provide your children with money of their own to manage while you help them to learn by doing. Setting [...]
As a small business owner, hiring your children to work for your business may save you money when filing taxes. It might sound too good to be true, but if you handle the situation properly and file the right paperwork, you may be able to write off nearly half of their wages on your business’s taxes. [...]
Thinking about co-buying your home? Before buying a home with another family member, consider problems that can occur. Q: My husband, sister, and I are buying a home. My sister would like to pay one-third of the cost of the house and we’d finance the rest of the purchase. My husband and I would pay [...]
When wondering how to plan for the future financially, always remember to spend less than you earn and pay down your debt. Q: My wife and I have been married more than 30 years, but we don’t have any kids. In our adult lifetimes we have owned 11 homes in the United States and United [...]
Many well-meaning parents simply add their teen drivers to their existing insurance policy. The parents then focus more on driving lessons for their teens than on insurance alternatives. But given young drivers’ learning curve, families may want to find a mileage-based policy that offers savings, solid coverage, and the ability to improve their children’s road skills, [...]
