There are some jobs in your life that you can handle by yourself, and others that you leave to the pros. For instance, you probably do simple car repairs yourself, such as changing a headlight or an air filter, but take the car to a mechanic for big jobs.When it comes to your finances, though, it can be trickier to figure out which jobs are DIY. You know you can handle simple tasks like paying your bills, but what about doing your taxes or making a will? Are these jobs you need to hire a professional for?Even when you're sure you need help with your finances, it's not that obvious … [Read more...]
Amy Livingston
Net Neutrality Explained – What It Is and Why Internet Regulation Matters
A few months ago, two salespeople showed up at my door trying to persuade me to switch my Internet service to Verizon. When I declined, explaining that I didn't want to support Verizon because of its position on net neutrality, their response was, "What's that?"This reaction is fairly common. Even though net neutrality - also known as the open Internet - has been in the news a lot lately, most Americans still don't know what it is. According to CNBC, a poll taken in November 2017, shortly after the FCC announced its plans to scrap net neutrality rules, found that only 46% of Americans said … [Read more...]
6 Ways to Build Credit Without a Credit Card
Millennials tend to be much more skittish about credit cards than previous generations. A 2016 Bankrate survey found that 33% of people under 30 had a credit card at all, compared to 55% of people aged 30 to 49 and 62% of those aged 50 to 65. These younger folks prefer to pay for their purchases with debit cards, mobile payment apps, or good old-fashioned cash.If you're one of these cautious Millennials, these habits are helping you in one way: You're much less likely than previous generations to get in over your head with credit card debt. The big downside is that avoiding credit cards … [Read more...]
How Feeling Poor Hurts You – and How to Stop It
Which would you rather be: a multimillionaire whose friends and neighbors are all billionaires, or a worker making $10 an hour in a neighborhood where most people are scraping by on minimum wage?Speaking strictly in dollar terms, you'd have to say the first person is better off. But there's a good chance the second one is a lot happier with their lot in life. Although they're not making much money, they're better off than everyone else they know, and so they feel rich. By contrast, the first person, who is rich by most people's standards, is likely to feel poor because everyone they know … [Read more...]
6 Types of Unexpected Expenses and How to Plan for Them
As the writer and cartoonist Allen Saunders once said, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans."Personal finance is a perfect example. You can sit down and make a budget that covers all your regular expenses - housing, food, transportation - right down to the last penny. But real life has a way of getting in the way. Your water heater bursts, or a taxi sideswipes your car, or your puppy swallows a rubber band, and all of a sudden your budget is out the window.There's no way to predict when disasters like these will strike - but there are ways to prepare for them. … [Read more...]
8 Things You Should Always Buy Online
The Internet has completely changed the way we shop. A 2016 survey by UPS found that just over half of all purchases in the U.S. are now made online rather than in stores. Internet shopping offers convenience, a wider selection, and a chance to compare products and prices easily across different retailers. And, because online stores have lower overhead than brick-and-mortar stores, you can often find better deals online.However, online shopping has its downsides too. For one, you can't physically examine, feel, or try on the product the way you can in a store. Once you click the "buy" … [Read more...]
8 Things You Should Never Buy Online
There's a lot to be said for shopping online. The Internet is basically the biggest shopping mall the world has ever seen, with every product you could ever imagine available for sale - and it's open round the clock. You can compare prices easily, search for coupon codes, and have your purchases delivered straight to your door, all without having to leave your own living room. And for many products, you can find much better prices online, as well.However, there are some products that experts say just aren't worth buying online - no matter how good the price. Some of these are big-ticket … [Read more...]
5 Benefits of Baking Your Own Bread at Home and How to Get Started
For most of our married life, my husband and I haven't bought any bread from the store. We'll occasionally grab a loaf of something if it looks especially tasty, or if it's on sale for a really good price, but in general, my husband bakes all our bread. He used a bread machine until it broke around five years ago, and ever since then, he's done it the old-fashioned way: kneading the dough by hand.Over the years, we've learned that home-baked bread is a great way to cut your grocery bill. Our homemade bread costs us about half as much per loaf as we'd pay at the store, and it's tastier and … [Read more...]
What Is Slow Food – Join the Movement for Healthy Meals on a Budget
It's no secret that Americans eat a lot of fast food. In 2014, Britain's Daily Mail reported that the average American eats fast food twice a week, spending a total of $1,200 a year. That's a big problem for our budgets as well as our waistlines. And fast food isn't exactly the most satisfying choice, either - physically or emotionally.Unfortunately, for a lot of Americans, it's also a habit that is hard to break. According to the Daily Mail article, many Americans rely on fast food because it fits into a busy schedule; because it's easy to eat in front of the TV; or simply because they're … [Read more...]
What “True Cost to Own” Means and Why It Matters for Big Purchases
If you've ever purchased a new car, you've probably come across "true cost to own" calculators, such as this one at Edmunds. These tools help you figure out how much the car will cost you to buy and keep over several years. They factor in costs like gas, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and depreciation - the amount of value the car loses over time. Once you know all this, you can understand the true cost of ownership for that car - not just the sticker price.However, people don't often calculate the true cost to own with other kinds of purchases. For instance, when you buy a refrigerator, … [Read more...]
What Is a Living Wage? – Minimum Income for Basic Needs Above Poverty
For several years, lawmakers on the left have been pushing to increase the federal minimum wage. They claim that the current rate, $7.25 an hour, is simply too little for a family to get by on. To stress this point, several politicians and other public figures took part in the Live the Wage Challenge in 2014, living for one week on minimum wage to show just how difficult it is.These efforts have met with little success in Washington, but there's been a lot more movement at the state and local levels. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports that more than half of all U.S. states have … [Read more...]
