Personal Finance Blog, Your Guide to Financial Fitness
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Matt Breed
Matt Breed
You know you’re supposed to strive for five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, but healthy choices aren’t always cheap. If you cut corners to save money, you’ll end up with less nutritious foods.
Don’t waste your money on watered-down, sugary alternatives to healthy foods, and don’t get stuck with a kitchen stocked with expired produce either.
Follow these steps to stretch your food budget and keep a nutritious diet without spending too much on fresh food.
Matt Breed
Most Americans don’t use the same banking institution for all of their financial accounts.
For that reason, it’s not always easy to keep tabs on all of your loans, credit cards, retirement accounts, pension plans, brokerage accounts, and other financial tools that may be housed in many different places.
If you find that you need help managing your accounts, Yodlee MoneyCenter might have the solution.
Simply put, Yodlee is an online money management software that can help you keep track of your finances and all of your accounts – no matter where they are. It’s completely free to use, and offers multiple tools to help you manage your accounts, view transactions, make payments all from a central location, and adjust and optimize your budget.
Matt Breed
If you’ve made any big purchases in your life – including a car or a house – you know all too well the importance of having a good credit score. Or perhaps you’ve even experienced the negative effects of a bad credit score.
Unfortunately, there are far too many companies that want to charge you money to find out what your credit score is and help you improve it. While I remain steadfast in the fact that I absolutely refuse to pay for what I believe I have a right to know, these companies continue to prey on those who are unaware of the channels available to them to obtain this information.
Matt Breed
Entrepreneurship has always fascinated me. I’m amazed by the pride and sense of accomplishment that comes with building your own business, and I respect the risks that come with working for yourself. Even if your venture fails, as a business leader you still learn valuable lessons that you can use to make your next attempt more successful.
Matt Breed
When you freelance or own a business, the responsibility for managing and reducing expenses is yours alone. Therefore, you often have a plan for even the most unlikely ones.
If you are employed by someone else, however, you might assume that they have any unexpected expenses covered. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. There will be times when you have to use your own money to pay surprise, job-related costs.
As with everything, a little preparation goes a long way. Take a look at this list of five unexpected expenses and avoid being caught unaware.
Matt Breed
Ah, investing – a word that can strike fear into the hearts of even the most burly and masculine of men. A subject with such a broad and potentially confusing scope of choices, it can bewilder even the most savvy of businessmen.
Even though I consider myself well-versed in general investment information, there is a world of knowledge, terminology, and strategy that is just beyond my comprehension, and will likely always be.
So where should I, the layman, turn to when I seek competent and comprehensive stock market investment research and analysis?
Matt Breed
Sometimes “going shopping” just means running some crucial errands to get some practical household items. Other times, a shopping trip is a wasteful chance to indulge and spend too much money on frivolous luxury purchases.
For me, shopping isn’t a hobby or a fun way to spend a day – it’s a complete nightmare. But I know plenty of people who consider a shopping spree therapeutic. They get a rush from finding something new and spending money. That psychological boost can get expensive, however, and many people take it too far.
Matt Breed
January 1st has come and gone, and those New Year’s resolutions you made are now a fading memory (admit it, the number on your scale probably hasn’t budged).
But the year’s not over yet, and it’s not too late to set new goals – and actually stick to them.
Here are 5 financial goals that everyone can achieve, as long as you have a plan. If you haven’t already, check out the money moves you should make at the beginning of each year. Those will all apply here as you get started on your renewed goals.
Matt Breed
A few weeks ago, I sat in the parking lot at a local plaza watching people file in and out of one of those rent-to-own stores.
Without naming names, let’s just say that this particular store is a big one with locations throughout the country. I was astounded by how much business this place was getting.
It’s no secret that buyers end up paying far more than the sticker price at these stores. But are patrons even aware of this, and do they even care? What is it that keeps rent-to-own stores in business?
Matt Breed
Having spent far too much time away from school, last year I finally decided to return to improve my skills and make myself more marketable in the job market. My first attempt, fresh out of high school was less than impressive. I spent way too many hours playing with my friends and not nearly enough time hitting the books. It happens to lots of us, but not everyone gets the opportunity to return and has the courage to take it. That’s why I could not be happier that my employer is kind enough to offer tuition reimbursement. Without it, I’m not sure I would even be back in school at all.
Matt Breed
As you probably already know, saving for retirement is extremely important, and there are many different types of retirement accounts that you can use including the individual 401k, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, and Roth 401k. Which one you go with depends on your own unique needs and preferences, so be sure to do some research on Roth IRA vs 401k and Roth 401k.
Most of these are very easy to fund and maintain. But are you actually doing it? If not, what’s keeping you from getting the most out of these accounts?
Matt Breed
I love strange objects. The weirder the better as far as I’m concerned. Which is why I was almost giddy when I stumbled upon a Discovery Channel show called Oddities. If you’ve never seen it, Oddities profiles a couple who own a store in New York called Obscura which specializes in strange, rare, and downright crazy collectibles. The search for new inventory takes the shop’s owners and employees into the homes of other like-minded collectors, which is always fascinating.
Matt Breed
If you have children under the age of about 14, sitting them down to have an educational conversation about money management is about as useful as putting wet wood in the fireplace. If you have ever tried, you know that the most effective way to teach your children about money is to do so by example. You have to exercise restraint with purchases, explain how and why money works, why people work, how to use money as a tool, and about 500 other things to get even half of the information to stick.
Matt Breed
I don’t know about you, but I’m a big time trivia nerd. I suppose that comes from my dad, who has been playing trivia with his buddies for as long as I can remember.
Because of my quest for knowledge, I am always looking for ways to educate myself, whether it’s through traditional methods like going to college and reading books or more random ways like perusing the back of a cereal box at breakfast. Formal schooling is great for conventional learning, especially if you’re looking to find a job in one of the best career fields for the future, but education programs and books (even used college text books) can get very pricey.
Matt Breed
Your credit score is the most important factor in determining your interest rates and creditworthiness. The better your credit score, the less interest you will pay on loans and credit lines throughout your life. Having a good credit score can mean potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings on interest payments throughout your life.
The problem is, the three major credit monitoring companies who determine your score (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) arrive at that important number via an increasingly complex series of algorithms and other factors. If you can figure out exactly how the FICO score is determined, good for you. You are probably the smartest person in the world. For the rest of you, myFICO is a good resource to learn more and figure out what your credit score is.
