Personal Finance Advice

I have a friend who has reached financial independence at the relatively young age of thirty-eight. He is completely debt free, having paid off his modest mortgage several years ago and owing nothing else. He has enough money invested to live quite comfortably, if modestly, from the earnings those investments produce. In other words, he [...]

Dear Mr. Cheap, You know exactly who you are so I don’t feel a need to name you. While I know that you think that you are being sly and saving yourself a lot of money, let me say that your true nature shows through loud and clear. This would not be an issue except [...]

“I want the toys and I want them now.” It sounds like something a toddler would say, doesn’t it? Yet this is what I hear nowadays from many people in their 20s and 30s indirectly through their spending habits. “I want toys and conveniences and I don’t want to have to wait for them.” When [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky Before reverse mortgages, pensioners wishing to tap into home equity were presented with two options: either sell the house or get a home equity loan. But since their humble beginnings in the late ’80s, reverse mortgages provided seniors with an additional tool for accessing home equity. The [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Yesterday, as I washed two coffee mugs that my aunt gave me, I said unexpectedly to myself, “These will be among my final things.” An image flashed before me. I saw myself, old and shrunken, seated at a little table surrounded by the few belongings worth keeping through the years; a lifetime of journals, my [...]

By David John Marotta If your credit card minimum payment was $10 and you repaid it every month for 15 1/2 years with an accruing interest of 15.9%, a $1,000 purchase would end up costing $2,250. Every time you use your credit card to pay for something you risk it being marked up two and [...]

By David John Marotta Putting all of your retirement eggs in one basket is easy to carry, but risky. Most workers are putting all their retirement assets in the basket of their employer’s retirement plan. They are depending on one employer and two dozen eggs (funds) to hatch and maintain their lifestyle, independence and dignity [...]

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. — Robert Heinlein Have you ever felt trapped or enslaved by your own financial situation and/or spending habits? Anyone who’s had any financial hardships or made a later-regretted impulse buy knows what I’m talking [...]

By David John Marotta The image of the starving artist has prevailed too long. At the July 24-29 San Diego Comic-Con there were tens of thousands of people working in the arts. Of the 650 hours of events and presentations, only one hour was devoted to financial planning for artists. Here are the financial essentials [...]

When people think about saving money or personal finances in general, they usually don’t think beyond their paycheck. There are a number of additional ways your employer can help you save and create wealth beyond payday. Here are ten ways (in no particular order) your company may be able to help increase your bottom line. [...]

When people ask me what was the best decision I made when I decided to create this website, they are often surprised when I tell them that it was my decision to quit watching TV. There is no doubt that TV costs people far more financially than they believe. For most people, TV is a [...]

I personally deal mostly with taxes in my professional capacity of an accountant. However, I have also come across a lot of the ins-and-outs when it comes to 401(k) plans as I used to audit 401(k) plans for large companies, and currently am involved in the setup, administration of, and accounting for 401(k) plans for [...]

NOTE: It appears that while the process described in this article originally worked, Fidelity has closed the loophole and you now need the minimums you described to open the account. Most people have the impression that in order to open a retirement account, you need to do a lot of research, have a large sum [...]

When it comes to where to invest your money, a lot of people get overwhelmed with all the options that are available. A lot depends on your individual circumstances and what the money is to be used for in the future. The following reader had such a question: My dilemma is a simple one: I [...]

Something has been bugging me about IRAs lately. Most of the time I read an article or discussion about Traditional IRAs, as opposed to ROTH IRAs, I see that it is a pretty common assumption that income tax rates will be lower when one retires. Every time I see any mention of tax rates most [...]

It’s not often when I receive an e-mail about personal finance that is quite different from the majority that I have received before. That was the case with this e-mail which came in from a reader about what she should do with her husband and money: I have a problem. To most people it doesn’t [...]

Here’s a question. You don’t have a whole lot of money and I want you to save more. So I create a plan where for every dollar you save, I will take away $2.60 worth of benefits from you. How likely are you to want to save money? That is exactly what a new study [...]