Does your company have 401k? Do you know if the company matches contributions? If so, do you know what the match is? Or more specifically, what the terms of the match are? Where I work, the majority of the six folks I talked to did not know what our company match was, or what is [...]
I’ve surfed into Lending Club’s website before and recently started hearing ads for in on the local radio station. It was formed in 1999 but is new to me. On the radio, it sounds like it could be a scam, or at the very least another credit card consolidation company. But it’s not. Instead, it’s [...]
IRA. 401k. Boring topics? Maybe. Topics you should be familiar with? I think so. On a per working adult level, the government offers two separate programs which currently offer a way for working adults to save up to $21,500 per year* ($43,000/yr for married couples). These retirement accounts share a common benefit in that each [...]
When we began looking for our first house, we noticed that the soon-to-be acquisition was deemed as an investment to some. For example, our FHA counselor, our realtor, countless web pages — they all referred to the purchasing of our first home as an investment. And this all sounded well and good, but we really [...]
If you found a hundred dollar bill, what would you do with it? Would you spend it differently if you received it as a tip, a bonus, or a gift? Would you spend it wisely or frivolously? If you were given ten one hundred dollar bills, would you follow a similar spending/saving pattern with it? [...]
A few weeks ago, I was having a wonderful discussion with my wife about how in addition to improving our financial health, we’ve also stepped up our physical health game. We agreed that there might very well be some correlation between physical health and financial health. This has certainly been our experience — for instance, [...]
Just perusing the CNN Money 101 series and in lesson 1 came across this wonderful example: To put the power of compounding on your side, you have to start early. Suppose there are two siblings who both invest in Individual Retirement Accounts earning 8% a year. The sister starts at age 20, and for the [...]
Recently I have been using a couple of different retirement calculators to help give me an idea of how much I will need to save for retirement. There are tons out there, but the I have favored two: Fidelity’s and Wells Fargo’s — I need to be authenticated for the Wells calculator to work. Each [...]
A couple of weeks ago I saw a ten dollar bill for the first time in months — I witnessed a friend pay a debt back to another friend. At that moment I realized how long it had been since I personally held a bill like that in my wallet. The ten actually looked strange [...]
We’ll be celebrating our third anniversary in our house this June. We financed our home with a traditional 30 year mortgage at 6% and then refinanced within a year to obtain 5% rate on an FHA loan. So we have a little over 28 years left if we continue to repay as scheduled. Meanwhile, after refining and scrutinizing our budget, [...]