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CEO & Co-founder
Andrew started his career at a Chicago hedge fund and quickly noticed a problem: the people who most needed financial guidance weren’t getting any. He co-founded Money Crashers in 2009 to fix that with free, plain-language money education. He’s been interviewed by MSNBC, CBS News, NBC News, and Fox News, and featured in Forbes and US News & World Report. Off the clock he plays ice hockey and tennis, and meditates. Andrew holds a bachelor’s in economics from Brown University.
If your income is over the Roth IRA limit, you can still fund one through the back door. Put after-tax money into a traditional IRA and convert it to a Roth, since conversions have no income limit. First move any pre-tax IRA money into a 401(k) that accepts it, or part of the conversion becomes taxable.
Before you count on a tax break, find out whether it’s a deduction or a credit. A deduction lowers the income you’re taxed on, so it saves you only the amount times your tax bracket. A credit comes off your tax bill dollar for dollar. Check every credit you qualify for before you file.
A fund takes its expense ratio out of your balance every year, whether it gains or loses. That’s the one piece of your return you can predict. Compare each fund’s ratio with an index fund covering the same market, and replace any that charge several times more inside your IRA or 401(k), where switching triggers no tax.
Dollar-cost averaging means investing the same amount on the same schedule, whatever the market does, so you never have to decide whether today is a good day to buy. Set up automatic investments from every paycheck, and keep them running through market drops, when each dollar buys more shares.
Your car insurance premium and holiday gift list aren’t surprises, but they still wreck a monthly budget because they land all at once. Give each predictable bill its own sinking fund, money saved for that bill alone. Divide the cost by the months left until it’s due, and automatically move that amount into a separate savings account each month.
According to LIMRA and Life Happens’ 2026 Insurance Barometer Study, about 92 million American adults are uninsured or underinsured. That works out to 38% of adults who say they need life insurance or need more of it than they have….
For decades, buying life insurance meant paperwork, a paramedic visit to draw blood, and weeks of waiting to learn whether you were approved and at what price. That friction became the single biggest reason people who needed coverage never got…
Set savings to move automatically the day after payday and put your bills on autopay, so each good decision gets made once instead of every month. Automating your finances beats discipline because it takes willpower out of the process. Money that leaves checking before you see it never sits there tempting you.
When you start investing from scratch, your savings rate moves your balance far more than the return you earn, so raise what you contribute before you hunt for a better fund. At a 7% return, a year’s gains don’t overtake a year’s savings until about a decade in, and then returns take over.
A zero-based budget only works if nothing is left out. List savings, debt payments, and once-a-year bills alongside rent until your take-home pay is fully assigned, then check it weekly. When you overspend one category, move money from another so the total still comes out to zero.
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