According to the American Research Group Inc., the average American intends to spend $992 this holiday season. For some, this could end up breaking the bank if they’re not careful. With all of the pressure to spend during the holidays, it’s easy to go into debt. If you want to avoid debt this season, here are a few tips to survive the holidays debt-free.

Make a budget

Review your monthly budget and determine what you can truly afford this season. Don’t stretch yourself too thin and allow some wiggle room for unexpected expenses.

While it’s true that saving for college is easier the earlier you start, all hope is not lost if you waited a few years to get started. Despite the rising cost of a four-year degree, it’s still an important asset for climbing the career ladder in most professional settings.

Paying for college is a financial goal for many parents but with an 18-year savings timeframe, it can easily fall by the wayside. Many people get so wrapped up in the day-to-day realities of getting the bills paid that they don’t get serious about college savings until their children’s preteen or teen years.

This post was last updated on January 15, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

When it comes to making investment decisions, sometimes our emotions take over for common sense. While we usually rely on our knowledge and experience to point us in the right direction, investing doesn’t always work that way.

Have you ever been afraid to log into your bank account or check your credit card balances? If you’re losing sleep over your personal finances, you’re not alone. According to a Bankrate survey, 36 percent of Americans are losing sleep over money troubles.

While money anxiety can be more common than we realize, it’s important to address it sooner rather than later. Ignoring your finances will hurt you in the long run, even if it feels better to bury your head in the sand right now. Money troubles never go away unless you take charge of your situation and address them head-on.

Budgeting and saving money are closely related because budgeting is the most effective tool people use to save money. And no, budgeting isn’t just about tightening the belt and spending less. It’s about putting your money to work for you so that you prioritize and spend on the things that are most important.

So today I will be sharing with you some of the most effective tips that you can use to be successful when it comes to budgeting and saving money.

If you’re approaching retirement and looking for ways to beef up your monthly income, there are many strategies to consider. You could pick up part-time work or start a side hustle like tutoring or delivering groceries. Or, you could just rent out your home or part of your home for cash and travel the world.

If you think that final suggestion is intriguing, you’re not alone. Thanks to technology brought to use by companies like Airbnb and VRBO.com, it’s more common than ever for senior citizens or anyone approaching retirement to use their home as an income-producing asset so they can do…well….whatever they want.

With student loan debt, it can seem like your payments will last forever. But, there are ways to make paying off your student loans much easier. Whether you’re in the thick of paying them off, considering taking out student loans, or somewhere in the middle, knowing the right strategies to use will save you a lot of money and stress when it comes to paying off your student loans faster.

As the second highest consumer debt, the average student loan balance tops $37,000 for the Class of 2016. If most of your paycheck goes to pay student loans because you haven’t yet met your earning potential, you can feel trapped.  There is hope, and you can get rid of your debt faster by upgrading your student loan repayment options.

By now, you’ve probably heard of the FIRE movement. FIRE, which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early, is everywhere. As a matter of fact, there is even a new movie coming out called Playing With Fire. The film itself documents a young family’s journey into the FIRE subculture as they look for a way to cut down time spent working versus time spent with their family.

Financial freedom is a term used loosely, along with financial independence, and while they are very similar, they aren’t quite the same. The difference? Financial freedom allows you to completely walk away from your career without owing anyone a thing.

Check out our Ultimate Health Savings Account Guide Infographic. We think it's pretty awesome and sums up the true power of an HSA. For more information, check out our Ultimate Guide to Health Savings Accounts.

Are you familiar with a Health Savings Account (HSA)? If you’re like most people, you’ve heard the term but you’re probably not sure what it is or if it makes sense for you.

If that’s the case, then it’s your lucky day because we’re going to dig into exactly what a Health Savings Account is and, most importantly, why I absolutely love them. So with that, let’s check out a few statistics that just might surprise you.

This post was last updated on January 15, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

When entering the job market out of college, the concept of retirement seems like a lifetime away. Most people can't even fathom thinking about retirement which leaves neglected and unleveraged retirement accounts.

This post was last updated on January 15, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

Congratulations! You’ve worked for decades to prepare for retirement and now you’re there, or almost there, ready to start what can be the most enjoyable phase of your life. Very likely, you’ve got plans to travel, see family and friends and maybe even revisit hobbies you’ve neglected for decades.

Do you have a 529 plan? Do you work with a financial advisor? Do you have a 529 plan that’s managed directly through your financial advisor?

If you answered yes to the first question, then that’s perfectly fine. If you answered yes to the second question, that’s great as well. However, if you answered yes to the third question, well, that’s where I tend to differ from a lot of financial advisors… and yes, that’s coming from a financial advisor.

Did you know that real estate has produced more wealth than any other industry in the history of time? Retail real estate alone has produced an average annual return of 10.8% over the past two decades, according to data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Index.

However, as with any other business, property investing isn’t without its pitfalls. If not wisely planned, the cost of the property investment can quickly override the profits.

In today’s day and age of the internet, you can find just about anything in no time. Looking for a restaurant nearby? Go to the internet. Need a place to get a haircut? Go to the internet. Looking for background information on a financial advisor? Yep, go to the internet.

It amazes me how we found things before we had the internet. I guess we just asked for referrals from our friends, looked things up in the phone book or drove around until we found out what we were looking for…the indignity.

So, how many different companies have been at in your working career? If you’re like most people today, you’ve probably switched jobs at least a couple times. It seems like some people can switch every six months while others can stay for years.

Regardless, it’s extremely rare to see someone who stays with the same employer for life. Things have certainly changed from the baby boomer generation.

This post was last updated on January 15, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs. 

For many of us, our 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan is our primary vehicle for retirement savings. A 401(k) is a defined contribution plan meaning that our retirement benefit is determined primarily by the amount that we save and how we invest those savings. However, there is a maximum 401k contribution limit that we will cover.

Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to reality. For many – hopefully, not you – it means paying off all the debts you racked up from your extremely generous giving. Let’s just hope you had already budgeted for it and you were merely using your credit card to get the free rewards.

Regardless of whether you have debt or not, sometimes, unknowns pop up in our lives where we need to get access to money. If you don’t have it sitting in a savings account – which I’m sure you do if you’re an avid reader of this blog – you have to find it somewhere.

Let’s face it; saving for your children’s college is quite the challenge. However, just as challenging is actually finding the right spot to send them off to college. There are so many choices with only so much money you can realistically spend without you and your child completely being indebted for the rest of your lives.

Sounds like a real pleasant experience, doesn’t it? Well, for most parents, it can really be a gigantic pain to find the right college for their children. Today, though, I’m going to explain how to make it a much more comfortable experience where everyone will understand and be happy.

With the Equifax date breach being announced just over a month ago, credit reports and credit scores were actually an important topic of conversation for a change. However, a month in this day and age can seem like years ago.

Now that it is almost considered old news, we’re back to our normal everyday lives and, believe it or not, that’s not thinking about our credit reports or even our credit scores. That has become old news and we’ve now moved on to the next headline.