So you’re behind this month due to unexpected expenses. What’s your course of action? If you’re like many Americans, you may see about the possibility of putting extra hours at your job or adding a second job to extend your income. While it’s time-honored and effective for short-term situations, there’s a serious flaw in the concept. Whether your main job is salaried or hourly, you’re essentially selling your time. Certainly, your knowledge and expertise has value, but that may be … Read more →

If you own a home, you should have homeowner’s insurance, and if you have a mortgage on that home, your lender likely insists upon it. Insurance is one of those things that you may scramble for at the last minute when your home purchase is closing, or it may be something you renew without thought each year. There are things you need to know, however, to ensure you’re not caught short-handed when it comes to coverage. Today we’ll take a … Read more →

The Treasury Department released new income tax withholding tables in January, with updates to reflect the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which eliminated personal exemptions, raised standard deductions and cut individual income taxes. These changes may affect your take-home pay as early as February 2018. However, the IRS is still working on updates to form W-4, that you complete to instruct your employer how much tax to withhold from your earnings. If you’re withholding too much, you can expect a … Read more →

Buying your first home is an exciting time, when you’re making the biggest transaction of your financial life. It’s hard to stay emotionally detached from a home purchase, and many people before you have spent more than necessary, blinded by the attraction of that “perfect place.” When you’re not familiar with the home buying process, it’s easy to overlook, forget, or just plain not know about all the costs involved. Not only are you looking at the bottom line cost … Read more →

Saving money on insurance has a warm place in many people’s wallet, since it’s a purchase we hope not to use anyway. When you’re looking for auto insurance, for example, apples-and-oranges comparisons are difficult and confusing for most, who deal with the intricacies of insurance policies perhaps once a year, if that. So on the surface, using an insurance comparison website sounds like a great idea. Enter your information and have your needs shopped with companies who, in theory, compete … Read more →

When you talk to an insurance agent, it might be easy sometimes to get the feeling that, if you haven’t bought life insurance by the time you’re 25, you’ve waited too long, it won’t be affordable, and you may not qualify. You’re caught in the sale close, the pressure that’s often exerted to get your money today. It makes sense, the longer an issuer collects your premiums, the more your payout is offset by earnings. However, from your point of … Read more →

While at time of publication, summer still has a couple weeks left, so it’s not typically a point where taxes are a hot topic. Yet for 25% of the taxpayers out there, a little bit of paperwork outside of tax season can save them money. There’s no question that taking standard deduction amounts on your return is convenient. It’s a simple calculation and it’s often a larger figure than you’d earn by saving receipts for eligible expenses, which many of … Read more →

As summer starts to wind down, the usual onslaught of back-to-school marketing is in full swing. And for many parents, this may lead to nervous stomachs from worry that they didn’t do enough to provide for their kids’ educations. Even if you got a late start putting money away, there are a few things to consider before the first day of college. Two Plus Two Post-secondary education is always a bit of a gamble. It’s not high school, and the … Read more →