Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
by: Hazzard
Last week I was invited to attend a financial event at the local baseball stadium. A friend of mine has been a client of a major investment/insurance company for years and was encouraged to bring a couple friends to this small event. (There were about 70 people total) I’m normally not very interested to attend speaking engagements like this but because it was at the
by: Hazzard
I’ve recently found myself surpassing some financial milestones that I never thought I’d see. Our retirement accounts are at levels that I used to just dream about when I was first starting out. Never underestimate the power of consistent contributions and compound interest, that’s for sure. As I was sitting here looking over the numbers I started to wonder why I’d always thought these milestones
by: Hazzard
Lately I’ve been somewhat obsessed with the idea of tiny houses. I stumbled on to a Youtube channel that shows lots of different examples of people living in a smaller footprint. In this day and age, we are living in much larger houses than ever. During the economic downturn, I started to read about how builders were starting to build smaller houses to keep costs
by: Hazzard
I don’t know if I should admit this or not, but I’ve been spending too much time on Reddit lately. If you aren’t familiar with Reddit, it’s a website that sucks you in and never lets you leave. Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic but the reality is that there is SO much content on Reddit that it’s hard to walk away from it. If
This is a GREAT movie to watch. It’s an interesting view in to the very rich people in society. I believe you can also find it on Netflix:
Well, it’s been a crazy and hectic summer around our house. We decided to make it even more hectic by refinancing our house as well. I mentioned it previously but now it’s finally complete. I’m still shaking my head at how much documentation they required from us. We have a credit score in the 800’s, have been at the same jobs for many years and
I turned 40 last year and, while the milestone was a little hard to swallow, I think I’m finally finding my “40’s groove”. It’s amazing how fast life happens. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in a college dorm room with only a few dollars in my checking account thinking about whether I had enough for a takeout pizza and a six pack
If you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to check your retirement accounts to ensure they are balanced appropriately and that you are contributing as much as you can. The maximum contribution amount for 2012 is $17,000 and if you’re 50 or older, you can contribute up to $22,500 to your retirement account. I have tried to keep our contributions maxed
Have you seen this great website for “America Saves Week”? It has a ton of great information about saving and I especially liked reading about people who have started saving and overcome their financial problems. Here are some great highlights of the site: Saver Stories: http://www.americasavesweek.org/read-savers-stories Assess Your Savings Progress: http://www.americasavesweek.org/assess-your-savings-progress Are You Saving Enough for Your Retirement: http://www.choosetosave.org/ballpark/ Mortgage Payoff Calculator:
In what is becoming a very commons occurrence in the US, Bank of America announced that it will be freezing it’s pension plans for existing employees starting in July. This means that worker’s pensions will only pay out whatever they’ve accrued until July. After July, Bank of America will start adding an additional 2-3% to their 401K matching for workers. http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/23/news/companies/bank_of_america_pension/ I have to admit,