Category: Finance

Interest rates have been rising rapidly in recent months, and you may be pleasantly surprised to see how much. If you’re currently holding your money in a bank that’s paying 0.0-something percent on your balance, you need to seriously investigate the alternatives. In this guide, we’re going to provide 11 of the best online banks, […]

Although the choice between leasing or buying a car has plenty of financial implications, money isn’t the only factor that goes into this decision. In fact, this choice is often based on a person’s tolerance for risk, and how often they prefer to switch cars.  If you want to own a car outright — and […]

Getting a new car is one of the better feelings in life, I’ll admit. But, it’s also one of the biggest financial transactions most people make. Get a good deal, and you’ll save a ton of money over the life of the car. Strike a bad deal, and it can haunt you for years.  It […]

Before I started writing in the personal finance space, I spent nearly 8 years working alongside my husband in a funeral home. My husband Greg worked as a mortician, and I was the Director of Family Services. I learned so much about living and dying during my years in the mortuary business, but there’s one […]

Thinking about converting your retirement account to a Roth IRA? It’s easy to see why the Roth IRA is so incredibly popular. Contributions to a Roth IRA are made with income that has already been taxed, meaning there’s no initial tax benefit, but the money you have in a Roth grows tax-free over time. Roth […]

Financial bloggers often portray the traditional IRA vs. the 401(k) plan as a debate, as if one plan is better than the other. In truth, they’re very different plans, and they fill very different needs. If you can, you should plan to have both. This is especially true if your 401(k) plan is fairly restrictive. […]

What was once an edgy new market full of interesting, unfamiliar names – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – and promises of high financial returns has now become better known for its scandals and potential for large, unexpected losses. While the consequences for the leaders of disgraced crypto firms like Terra and FTX remain […]

The concept of a family trust—also known as a revocable living trust—isn’t very well understood by many people. The differences between a trust and a simple will, for instance, are frequently confused. While it’s somewhat more time consuming—and therefore, more expensive—to have a family trust prepared than a will, there are significant benefits of the […]

As a financial planner, I get a lot of concerned questions from my clients regarding their investments. One recently asked me: What exactly happens if the brokerage firm I’m custodied with goes out of business? This is a great question because many people don’t know their investments have protection in the first place, or they’re […]

One of the issues that many people have been concerned with during this recession is what happens when a bank is seized by the FDIC. This is a matter of concern because the recession saw quite a few bank closings, and there are still hundreds of banks still on the FDIC watch list for potential […]