How Much Should I Save Each Month?
How much to save is such an important question and it can vary quite a bit depending on your age and goals. Nonetheless, there are some rules of thumb that many professionals recommend. This month we’ll take a look at some of them. A widely accepted strategy is the 50/30/20 rule. It simply states that […]
What is a Credit Card CVV?
The CVV (Card Verification Value) is a security feature for credit card transactions, typically used in online or phone purchases. It is a three- or four-digit number printed on your credit card — separate from the card number. Location: On Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards, the CVV is a three-digit number on the back of […]
Blending Finances for Couples & Newlyweds – Part 2
This is the second part of an article that talks about the three approaches available for combining your finances. Last month’s article discussed keeping finances separate and partially combining finances (hybrid approach). This month we’ll wrap up this discussion by talking about completely combing your finances and we’ll also give you some information on separating […]
Blending Finances for Couples & Newlyweds – Part 1
If you’re engaged in a committed relationship with another person, there are many things you’ll want to discuss and to find a way of dealing with them that works for both of you. I previously wrote about how you can achieve this alignment and it might be good to read that article before digging into […]
Roth 401(k) Plans
You probably know there are two commonly used types of retirement plans: Individual Retirement Plans (IRAs) and 401(k)s/403(b)s offered by employers. Further, they come with different tax treatment choices, Traditional and Roth. In short, the Traditional option is funded with pre-tax dollars and withdrawals (contributions and growth) are taxed as ordinary income. The Roth option […]
Handling the Estate of a Love One
The death of a spouse/partner, parent, child or anyone you’re close to can be very difficult. If your loved one has recently died, please accept my sympathies for your loss. Or maybe you’re just getting organized before a death occurs. In either case, I hope that this article will prove helpful to you. Unfortunately, there […]
Reasons to Delay Social Security Payments
In this article, I want to share some information on the advantages of delaying your Social Security benefits. Industry research has confirmed that most retirees benefit from delaying Social Security payments. There are, of course, reasons why people don’t do this even though it might benefit them to do so. Some simply need the money […]
Financial Health
When asked about their financial health, many people immediately think of their credit score. While that is an important component, it’s far from the whole story. As an analogy, think about going to get your physical and the doctor only takes your temperature. But what about blood pressure, cholesterol levels and so on? Yep, understanding […]
Capital Gains for Stock Sales
Capital gains represent the difference between the purchase price and the sales price of capital assets. Capital gains apply to a number of assets including: stocks, mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), bonds, real estate, cryptocurrencies, stamp and coin collections, precious metals, artwork and so forth. (More specifically, if the sales price exceeds the purchase […]
Cryptocurrency – Maybe Not
No doubt you’ve heard of cryptocurrency. A common example of it is Bitcoin which we discussed in a previous article. You may be tempted to invest in this area due to some of the amazing gains reported. I want to provide a little background on this and then explain why I don’t recommend putting your […]