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.
If you’re really paying attention, life can be a very odd experience. Especially when it comes to money. For example, in troubled economic times, front-page newspaper stories regularly quote economists expressing concern that the personal savings rate is going up. I still vividly remember reading one such story during a recession. I had to blink […]
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. 8 reasons we have delayed (even further) getting our daughters phones (Eric Geiger). “When they get a phone, everything changes.” No such thing as enough money (Incognito Money Scribe). A beautiful post that puts much into perspective. Women may be better investors […]
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Why your estate plan needs to include digital assets like passwords and cryptocurrency (Money). You probably have more digital assets than you realize. What will happen to all of it if something happens to you? It’s time for Americans to buy less […]
There’s a new report out that says a growing but still small number of Americans are financially healthy. Working with researchers at the University of Southern California, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) administers an annual eight-question survey among a representative sample of U.S. adults, leading to what it calls the U.S. Financial Health […]
Those of us who write about money for a living can get a little carried away by some of the nitty-gritty details. That seemed to be the case in a surprisingly impassioned debate that sprang up recently over what a person’s higher priority should be—controlling spending or controlling saving. At first, it seemed kind of […]
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Robinhood hits campus, where credit card companies fear to tread (NY Times). How well does the college student in your life understand investing? If not very well, that free t-shirt may come at quite a cost. God doesn’t need your good works […]
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Child tax credit payments have begun. Should you opt out? (NY Times). It seems like free money, but it isn’t. Is it hoarding, collecting, or archiving? Keep? Toss? (Psychology Today). Oh, the complicated relationship we have with our stuff. Should I co-sign? […]
Over the years, I’ve asked readers to share some of the best financial advice they’ve ever received. Here are some of their answers. Bob said that during a pre-marriage class he and his then fiancé attended, the teacher suggested using pay raises to build an initial savings account. In Bob’s words, “I can remember how […]
Weekly roundup of interesting and helpful personal finance articles from around the web. Why having “enough” feels so elusive (Rad Reads). No easy answers here, just a good question we would all do well to ask ourselves from time to time. How a post-college gap year set me up for a million-dollar retirement (Real Simple). […]
We make lots of financial decisions every day. However, over the course of our lives, there are about 10-15 decisions that really matter. How well we navigate them will make an especially big difference in whether we struggle with money or live with financial freedom and joy. As I describe the decisions, please keep a […]
