Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Ensuring that you have a solid retirement plan in place is crucial. Pensions are largely a thing of the past, and the future of Social Security is up in the air. So if you don’t save enough in your 401k over the course of your career, you may not get to have a retirement at all. Knowing this, I’m being conservative with my retirement planning.
Recently I learned about a phenomenon called stealth inflation. It’s a type of inflation that happens when businesses add fees to their products and services to help maintain their profit margins. Resort fees at hotels and service fees on food delivery orders are two examples of stealth inflation. It’s estimated that Americans pay $65 billion in fees every year. So learning how to spot and
Mainstream media articles lead people to believe that having a child will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – in my opinion, mostly for hype. While it’s very possible that parents could spend this amount of money on a child it’s completely unnecessary. I don’t make a lot of money. I have virtually no debt. I have managed to save an emergency fund of nearly
Many credit cards offer great perks like cash back, travel discounts, and interest-free introductory periods. For a long time, I put as many of my expenses as I could on my credit card to get rewards. But when I paid off my credit card each month, I was often surprised by the balance I’d run up. I’ve always been able to pay off my credit
Some personal finance gurus suggest that you shouldn’t clip coupons and pinch pennies if you want to save money. Instead, you should focus on increasing your earning potential to maximize your savings. However, self-made millionaires would disagree that frugality isn’t important. Many of today’s millionaires built their wealth slowly over decades by investing regularly and living below their means. And even after becoming rich, they
It’s a common perception that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is expensive. But in my experience, unhealthy habits like drinking, smoking, and eating fast food are more costly than looking after your health, both in the short and long run. Buying sodas, cigarettes, and drive-thru burgers costs more than drinking water and cooking nutritious food at home. Plus, these lifestyle choices can put you at risk
It’s a common misconception that you have to be a minimalist in order to be frugal. However, you don’t have to break the bank to try out the maximalist decor trend that’s popular on Instagram and TikTok. There are plenty of places to get affordable decor, from thrift stores to estate and garage sales. You can also flex your DIY skills and transform old furniture
Growing up, my parents didn’t teach me much about personal finance or model good money behavior. Emergencies hit our family hard because my parents didn’t have much savings despite their high household income. Since I was never exposed to concepts like budgeting and compound interest, I felt unprepared to manage my finances as a young adult. Although I don’t have kids of my own yet,
Although nearly 75% of Americans have a budget, many of us stray from our financial plans and give into overspending. About 85% of people say they deviate from their budget sometimes and make unplanned splurges. Going over your budget can make it more difficult to save money and achieve your financial goals, so it’s important to reign in your impulse spending. Here are some strategies
Behavior plays a big role in personal finance. In fact, there’s a whole field of study called behavioral finance that’s dedicated to figuring out how psychology affects our money decisions. Although we all have different personalities, there are some negative behavioral tendencies and biases humans share that influence how we approach personal finance. Here are 4 psychological principles that could be working against you if
