Getting Started With Savings
I recommend maintaining three distinct types of savings accounts: an emergency fund (with 3-6 months’ worth of essential living expenses), a big-ticket item replacement fund (where you save for your next vehicle or to pay for a new furnace), and a periodic bills and expenses fund (where you save each month for bills and expenses that you’ll have to pay sometime in the year, such as an annual life insurance premium or Christmas gifts). You could open 3 separate accounts. Or, I use Capital One 360, where one account can be set up with numerous sub-accounts.
Weekly list of curated personal finance articles from around the web. The five types of wealth (The Knowledge Toolkit). Some healthy new ways of thinking about what’s valuable. What is Service Line Insurance and Do I Need It? (Clark Howard). You probably get lots of pitches for this. Here’s one personal finance expert’s take on […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. Married couples who merge finances may be happier, stay together longer (Science Daily). The research is in: “Married couples who have joint bank accounts not only have better relationships, but they fight less over money and feel better about how household finances are handled.” […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. About half in U.S. worry about their money’s safety in banks. (Gallup). The banking crisis is weighing on a lot of people’s minds. See also, Is Your Money Safe? (Sound Mind Investing). You’re about to pay $300,000 for college. What’s another $3,000 in […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. Giving from the heart really matters (Eternal Perspective Ministries). I love this article. There’s something very inspiring about young kids who develop hearts of compassion and put that compassion into action. Three ways to teach your kids to save money (Kiplinger). Some good examples […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. Money can break a marriage, even getting more of it (Wall Street Journal). Money and marriage — it can get messy. No easy answers here, but it helps to talk openly about money and maintain complete financial transparency. So much to like (Humble Dollar). […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. How to tell whether your money is safe in the bank (Lifehacker). I especially like the idea of setting up a news alert to track any articles about your bank. For example, see also, 20 banks that are sitting on huge potential securities losses […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. 1 in 4 Americans would need to use a credit card to pay a $1,000 expense (MarketWatch). Having an emergency fund does wonders for keeping stress at bay. Read also, Saving money is all about the ‘why’ To become better adults, look to the […]
Weekly roundup of recommended personal finance articles from around the web. Everything you can’t have (Collaborative Fund). “Your brain doesn’t want stuff. It doesn’t even want new stuff. It wants to engage in the process and anticipation of getting new stuff.” The vehicles we choose to drive (Becoming Minimalist). Come for the Harvey Mackay quote, then stick […]
Of all the things you could do with money, parking it in a savings account isn’t likely to move the excite-o-meter. But it does have the advantage of being highly useful. So useful, in fact, that I want to encourage you to not just double down on the idea, but to triple down on it. […]
I’m fascinated with the process of life change. So many of us would like to make some changes — in our health, our relationships, our finances. And yet change seems hard. We might make progress for a while, but then we slip back into old familiar patterns. What does it take to make changes that […]
