Budgeting is hard. Saving money can seem impossible. But it doesn’t have to be. Your money management determines how comfortably you can live your life. We talk about how nice it will be when we make more money and can do more things, but the trick to living comfortably is to budget for the money you make now – not for the money you hope to make someday. If you
Living paycheck-to-paycheck can be a real drag. All it takes is one emergency to precipitate a personal finance catastrophe, and when you’re counting on every penny to be there it can be a disaster when you’ve got to miss a couple of days of work because you’ve got to deal with an unforeseen situation. 1. Make it a Habit to Plan for the Future The best way to counteract such
Babies are expensive. The hospital bills. The diapers. The childcare. It all adds up to a lot of money, and for many families, the cost is preventative. They choose not to have a baby until they feel they can afford to do so. The trick is, while your finances might improve with age, your ability to actually have a baby decreases. So you have to find the sweet spot between
Kids are expensive. The expenses start the moment you buy your first set of diapers or schedule that first sonogram. But the expenses don’t stop coming just because your child has graduated to table food or has finished potty training. There are always costs associated with raising children, and sometimes our cash flow doesn’t always keep up with the things our children need. This is especially true for school-age children
There’s a lot to love about frugal living. But you may have questions about what it’s like to commit to true frugal living. Are you going to feel deprived? Is this a life of sacrifice? The answer to both questions is a resounding NO. Frugal living isn’t about living a life of deprivation. It’s about learning to save money and use your funds in meaningful, intelligent ways. Frugal living is
Your family likely means everything to you. But families are expensive. With more mouths to feed and bodies to clothe, you’re always facing large grocery bills and your clothing budget may seem like it’s constantly expanding. If you’re always looking for more money every month to take care of your family’s needs, you aren’t alone. Almost 80 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck, and that makes it hard
Just like you’ve always been told to eat your vegetables, you might have also been told somewhere along the line that you should go to college. There are lots of different reasons to take classes or pursue a degree, no matter how much school you’ve already had. Here are five of the best we know of. 1. You Will See ROI if You Invest in Yourself We all know it’s
Every financially responsible adult should have an emergency fund; when it’s about financial emergencies, it’s not about if they’ll happen, but when they’re going to – and the difference between sink-or-swim when something happens that requires cash could be your emergency fund. Statistics say that as much as 40% of Americans don’t have enough cash saved away to cover a $1, 000 financial emergency. If this describes you – and
A low credit score can hamper even the most fiscally prudent and honest of people. Buying a car or a home, renting an apartment, or obtaining a credit card almost always depends on the quality of the potential borrower’s credit. However, bad credit will keep those potential borrowers from obtaining most types of loans. Bad credit loans don’t necessarily mean they are bad. These loans exist because people with bad
It seems that cash is no longer king. With so many people relying on credit to make purchases these days, especially with the popularity of online shopping, we’ve definitely moved into an era where the convenience of credit reigns supreme. Unlike cash-in-hand, however, it’s all too easy to overextend ourselves when spending on credit alone. You might wonder how people end up with bad credit, and the answer is: often
