Will a raise hurt my taxes? And other financial misconceptions
Can a raise actually hurt you financially? What’s wrong with a big tax return?
Can a raise actually hurt you financially? What’s wrong with a big tax return?
Figuring out how to pay for college can be overwhelming. From federal loans to private lenders, here’s what you need to know to find the best student loans.
The post The Best Student Loans of 2023 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Mortgage rates hit 5 month lows last week but quickly jumped to the highest levels in more than a month this week. While last week’s strong jobs report certainly served as a catalyst, there’s more to the story. Fortunately, the story is fairly simple. It began in October when rates hit decades-long highs and finally began … [Read more…]
It’s both fascinating and useful to calculate the value of your time. Financial freedom gives you options and flexibility. But without time, that means nothing. Time is a precious resource that we should spend wisely.
Knowing the value of your time is helpful for a variety of reasons:
If you’re a freelancer, it can help you decide on gigs.
Data indicates that mortgage rates have less of an impact on housing sales than we may believe. Other factors are likely to do with the explosive price increases of the last two years, especially as those relate to average household incomes.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointees voted unanimously to reduce payments to homes and businesses that go solar.
Paying less for this can dramatically improve your retirement.
This week, Kim and I hired a contractor for what we hope will be the last major project on the “country cottage” we bought last summer. We’re replacing our rotting back deck and installing a hot tub. It’s an expensive (and extensive) project.
The cost hurts all the more because we’ve already poured nearly $100,000 into performing needed repairs on this property. (In fact, as you may remember, we considered forgoing the deck replacement altogether.)
Budgeting for this job led me to reflect on the costs of owning a home. Like my colleague J.L. Collins (who believes a house is a terrible investment), I refuse to join to the cult of of homeownership. Yes, I own a home — and have for 24 out of the past 25 years — but I’m under no illusion that this is a smart financial move. Kim and I want to own an acre of land in the country, which is why we bought this place. We didn’t buy it because we think it’ll make us wealthy. (It seems to be having the opposite effect!)
Today, both for entertainment and catharsis, I want to spend some time talking about the high costs of homeownership. And lest you believe the stories below simply prove that I’m a fool with money, I want to point out that my experiences seem typical. Everyone I talk to about homeownership has similar tales to tell. I’ll bet you do too!
One of the biggest concepts in behavioral economics these days is the role that âchoiceâ plays in our financial lives. Sounds obvious, but itâs the simple idea that we have a finite amount of money, so we need to choose wisely how we spend it if we want to live a life that we consider
The post MintFamily with Beth Kobliner: Live, and Let Live…Spend, and Let Spend: What Does Living the Good Life Mean to You? appeared first on MintLife Blog.
In my recent post, “Why investing can be better than paying down debt,” Dianecy’s comment raised a question faced by many: What do you do about investing when you have student loans?
It is quite the dilemma, actually, because the best time to start funding your retirement is when you’re still in your 20s. And as anyone who has been reading Get Rich Slowly for more than, say, 10 seconds would know, few things impede your progress toward getting rich (at any speed) like debt.
The reason is simple: A dollar can be spent only once — either for another person’s benefit or for yours. So it follows that repaying debt benefits the bank; investing those same dollars in a CD or index fund, on the other hand, benefits you and your future.