Personal Finance Advice

It’s time for Secret Santas all across the country. You’ll draw someone’s name, get them exactly what they ask for, and that someone will get someone else exactly what they ask for and you will eventually get what you asked for. So goes the long-lived tradition. This year, instead of the same old boring ritual [...]

We all know that we should plan for an emergency. From an early age, we’re taught to have an evacuation plan in case of fire and how to call 911 if we need help. If you live in hurricane, tornado, wildfire, or snowstorm country, you’re taught to keep a kit handy with the supplies you’ll [...]

When it comes to how much money the government keeps out of your paycheck, there are often a lot of questions. You don’t want to be giving the government a free loan of your hard earned money, but at the same time, you don’t want to owe a lot of taxes when April 15 rolls [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky Would you be willing to give a contractor a blank check and no time limit to build your dream home? Beware of doing the same thing with your finances. Without a financial plan, your investments are controlling your dreams, not the other way around. You need a [...]

My neighbors’ oldest child just left for college this fall. Watching him load his car with electronics, clothes, and “stuff,” headed for his new apartment, I started reminiscing about when I was just starting out. When I was younger, I lived a life that made others think I was poverty stricken. I didn’t live that [...]

Within the US and Canada there are over 60 dental schools which provide inexpensive dental treatment. With locations all over the US from Louisville, New York City, Ft Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Omaha, and Chapel Hill it is very likely there is a school nearby. As a dental student, I’d like to reveal some factors to [...]

With Christmas right around the corner, you should have started to make your Christmas budget as one reader is currently doing. In the process, she wonders what is the better alternative: a real Christmas tree or an artificial Christmas tree? I am trying to decide whether to purchase a real Christmas tree or an artificial [...]

By David John Marotta I don’t favor stock-picking as the best way to meet your financial goals. But even if you favor index funds, as I do, that doesn’t mean you have to use them exclusively. You have probably heard the statistic that most actively managed funds fail to beat their indexes. Here’s why. Most [...]

The forums are buzzing with new money-saving tips and tricks. “We don’t purchase these anymore,” and “we’ve done this ourselves.” “I found a new way to do this,” and “I always wondered why people would pay for that?” For some of us, these ideas are intriguing, but seem a little out of our “do-it-ourselves” reach. [...]

One basic fundraising rule is to tell potential donors what’s in it for them. It sounds strange that charities would appeal to donors’ sense of self-interest rather than to their sense of charity, but that’s what they do, albeit subtly, so as not to suggest that donors are selfish. While I believe that people can [...]

By David John Marotta As Americans try to spend less and go on a budget, this provides an opportunity to teach the next generation financial principles they may never have seen in the prosperous years they have been alive. Here are ten principles for teaching children about money: Talk about money. Every time money is [...]

The process of buying a home and securing a mortgage can be very confusing if you don’t know what you are doing. That’s why it’s always important to do your homework. Obviously researching the mortgage process and the terms is very helpful, but perhaps the most important research you can do is in your own [...]

The other day on the light rail I sat near a woman. Let’s call her Sally Jesse. Sally Jesse spun her head around every time we stopped, asked everyone around her what station we were at, and promptly swiveled around to stare at the roadmap. Then a full 3 stops before Sally Jesse made her [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky Many seniors look forward to saving on medical insurance costs by enrolling in Medicare at age sixty-five. However, navigating the Medicare system is not for the faint of heart. Medicare is an alphabet soup of plan choices. Currently Medicare is organized as parts A through D. Medicare [...]

Ah, it’s that time again. Time to begin planning yet another vacation (the sixth for this year). And time for well-meaning (I think) friends and family to ask, “How do you afford to go on so many vacations each year when we can’t even afford one? You must be putting it on credit cards or [...]

Gas prices are on the rise and have been forecasted to possibly reach $4.00 a gallon by this summer. This news sends many people into shock, but for me, it hardly makes me bat an eyelash. Granted, I don’t like spending extra money on anything, but I know that even if gas does go up [...]

By David John Marotta With the end of the year quickly approaching, how do things look? Specifically, are you on track to meet your goals? Have you measured? What gets measured is more likely to be accomplished. Computing your net worth once a year is the first and most important step toward financial security. Net [...]

When my husband and I were in the market for our first home, we were excited to take advantage of some of the first time home buyer programs we had heard so much about. After all, we were in fact first time home buyers and this would be the only time we’d be able to [...]

With the rising costs of fuel, food, and everything else, I am seeing more and more people turning to “Get Paid To” (GPT) sites in order to earn some extra spending money. But can you really make money, and what are the risks? For those not familiar with the lingo, a GPT site is one [...]

I understand the argument behind the advice of putting at least a 20% down payment on a house purchase. No one wants to pay private mortgage insurance and the idea of getting two different loans to avoid it isn’t that great either. I imagine if you are a previous homeowner and have some equity from [...]