CARES Act Retirement Account Withdrawal Rules: Should You Take Part?
This has been a year like no other. A pandemic has engulfed the world. Unemployment rates in the United States have jumped to the highest they’ve been since the Great Depression. Continues after Advertisement The United States government recently passed…
Do I Have To Spend The Money On The Stimulus Debit Card?
Millions of Americans received an automatic deposit into their bank account as part of the CARES Act last month. This infusion of cash gave them the ability to pay bills, buy groceries, or simply save money. However, some Americans were…
Important Lessons To Learn From The Coronavirus Pandemic
I grew up watching my grandma wash used plastic baggies and tin foil so that she could use them again. She didn’t see the point of using them once and throwing them away. She lived through the Great Depression, and…
What To Do With Leftover FSA Money In 2020
Do you have a FSA (Flexible Spending Account) through your employer? If you do, you know that you’re allowed to set aside a certain portion of your income, pre-tax, to pay medical bills and childcare costs. You also likely know…
Why Most Money Challenges Don’t Work And What Does
Here we are, at the beginning of another new year. One of the major New Year’s resolutions that many people make, behind losing weight and quitting smoking, is saving more money. Continues after Advertisement To that end, you’ll likely find…
Should Married Couples Have Joint Bank Accounts? (2023 update)
Today, I want to revisit a common (but always interesting) discussion, covering “Should married couples or those in a long-term relationship have joint or separate accounts?” I say “revisit” because I brought up this topic over a year and a…
How We’re Handling A Sudden Loss Of Income
In the United States many individuals are currently out of work because the government considers their job or business non-essential, or impossible to carry out while maintaining social distancing. My husband works for a local university and has been home…
Pros and Cons of Car Title Loans
Car title loans are a convenient way to borrow money quickly. They provide a lump sum of cash based on the value of your vehicle, and you can use it for whatever financial need you may have. Car title debt…
How to Negotiate Dental Costs (2023 update)
Let me be blunt about negotiating dental costs. I’m no master negotiator. Of course, the title of this essay isn’t “Negotiation Tips for Masters”! Over the last few years though, I have slowly picked up a few tips and tricks…
Keeping Your Financial Information Secure Online
With the rise of online banking, it’s important to ensure the security of your financial accounts. Online banking offers many benefits, including convenience, flexibility, and access to a wider range of financial services. However, it also exposes you to the…
Watch Out for Interest-Only Home Loans
Now that the economy has picked up some, the housing market is recovering a little, and memories of the financial crisis are fading, some lenders are re-introducing a few “creative” financing methods. It’s possible to get an interest-only mortgage again, or get a loan with a low, low rate at the beginning. An interest-only loan is tempting because the borrower only pays the interest each month. This state of affairs can last from five to 10 years. When you only pay …
Why I’d Rather Pay $10,000 to Unload My House Than Become a Landlord
There are people out there who are made to be landlords. They like the idea of having someone else pay the mortgage on a home or apartment building and enjoying the ability to build equity on the property without using their own money. Once the property is paid off, the monthly rent is income (offset by the cost of taxes, insurance, and keeping the property up). I totally get why some people love the idea of getting into real estate and renting out property. I even get why many people who, upon moving, decide that they would rather rent out the old home than sell it. I am not one of those people. I am getting ready to move across the country, and…
What Do You Do With Your Savings?
One of the basic pieces of advice that we are often given about money is to save more. But where do you put that money? And what should you do with it? Create Goals for Your Savings While saving money just to save money does make sense in some ways, the reality is that few of us are willing to keep doing something “just because.” As a result, it makes sense to carefully consider your desired outcomes and figure out what you hope to accomplish with the money you are saving. First off, really think about what you hope to have happen…
Who Do You Trust For Money Advice?
For many of us, it’s difficult to know what to do when it comes to our finances. There are so many decisions to make. While the basic “live within your means” advice can apply, the reality is that there is more to money management than making sure that your expenses are smaller than your income. What do you do to save for retirement? What’s the best course of action when trying to pay down debt? There’s a lot to think about, and it makes sense to carefully consider who you will trust for money advice. Who Can You Turn To? One of the …
3 Signs You Need Help with Your Debt
One of the most difficult issues to overcome is debt. If you have a lot of debt, it can be difficult to move forward with your finances. The interest payments suck away your disposable income, and once you are stuck in the cycle, it can take serious effort to get out. In some cases, you might even need help dealing with your debt. You can get help from a legitimate counselor with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, or get help from a fee-only financial planner. Here are 3 signs that you might need to seek professional help with your debt: 1. You Only Have Enough for Minimum Payments When you only have…
How To Avoid Falling Into A Bad Credit Score
Building good credit is a years-long process, while destroying credit only takes a few bad decisions. With this in mind, it’s important for new credit users to avoid the many mistakes which lead to bad credit scores. Too often it seems inexperienced credit cardholders underestimate the ease through which bad credit can be acquired. For these folks – the young ones especially – we thought it necessary to highlight the five best ways to avoid a bad credit score: Maintain A Healthy Debt-To-Income Ratio Credit score criteria includes something called the debt-to-income ratio. Basically it’s all your monthly debt payments added up and compared to your gross monthly income. If the …
Ways To Pay For College Without Breaking The Bank
Going to college can be stressful in so many ways. If you are just getting out of high school, you are being pushed into the real world on your own. Your responsibilities just increased ten-fold. You now have to get yourself to class everyday, do your homework, study for tests, and maybe even work. As if that is not enough, you also have to worry about how you are going to pay for college. If you don’t have money saved up to pay for tuition, you are basically on your own trying to find out how to pay for it. Luckily, you have quite a few options. College is far from cheap, but if you are wise you can pay for it without …
How To Recover After Bankruptcy
For the most part, bankruptcy should be the action of last resort when it comes to your money issues. However, there are times when bankruptcy really is the last option you have left. If you have experienced a long-term employment problem, or if you have had a medical problem that causes you financial distress, bankruptcy might be your last option. Once you have filed for bankruptcy, however, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of your financial life…
Is A Zero Based Budget Right For You?
One of the budgeting techniques that has gained some popularity in recent years is the zero based budget. In this budget, you make sure that every dollar is accounted for at the beginning of the month. You look at what you expect to get in terms of a paycheck, and then use every penny to pay bills, or accomplish your goals. As part of your budget, you decide what will go to debt reduction, or to building an emergency fund, or to your retirement account. You can also put money toward a vacation or some other goal, on top of …
Should You Sell Unwanted Gifts?
Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan.One of our readers shared the following story and question with me, and gave me permission to share it here:I’m trying to downsize and get rid of my crap to pay off my debt. I also don’t like clutter so I want to get rid of my stuff so my family of 3 can comfortably fit into 1100 square feet. But my father-in-law is the king of crap, and gives us stuff we’ll never use and never need. I have 2 hammocks (and live in an apartment), a circular saw, tons of memorabilia from our …
4 Personal-Finance Lessons From NASCAR
Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan.For those of you who didn’t spend Sunday watching the Daytona 500 – and bemoaning its 6.5-hour rain delay and multiple 8-car-plus crashes – well… you have my sympathy. (And my apologies, because you probably aren’t going to like today’s post if you’re not a NASCAR fan!)I’ve been an auto-racing fan since high school. I grew up going to local dirt tracks, and a NASCAR race was the first professional sporting event…
You Don’t Need That MBA Degree: Continuing Thoughts on Higher Education
This is a guest post by Mariana Zanetti, who earned her MBA degree from one of Europe’s top business schools and has more than 12 years of international marketing experience in three countries. She is the author of The MBA Bubble and shared this post in response to an earlier Man Vs. Debt post by Joan titled Do You Really Need That Master’s Degree? When my Harvard MBA colleague told me that I should pursue a “top” MBA program twelve years ago, I did not doubt it. “Don’t worry,” he said. …
Taxing Decisions: Joan’s Mid-March Financial Update
Image courtesy of our friend PT of PT Money (www.ptmoney.com) Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan.Tax season is hitting full-force here in the US! Our taxes have been done since early February, thanks to my own OCD record-keeping and our accountant’s desire to get us in and out as early as possible each year, what with our 80 streams of income and all that.But after a couple years of paying in some hefty figures around this time of year thanks to self-employment taxes and some other strangeness, this year, we are getting refunds from both state …
The Great Pile of Unread Books
Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan.I love to read.It doesn’t really matter what it is – barring anything else handy, I’d happily read the back of a cereal box at breakfast – but since I was about 3 years old, I’ve rarely been without a pile of books in progress.In January, I set a goal on Goodreads to finish 75 books this year. I started out great – averaging almost a book a day.But life happens, and the books piled up into the stack you see above, unfinished and, in most cases, not even started!The mental drain of being “behind”Here’s the problem: I …