Investing
Rebalancing: How Often Is Enough?
Once a year, or when a holding drifts five points from target. More often costs tax and attention, and buys almost nothing over thirty years.
6 min read
The library
166 plain-English reads on budgeting, saving, investing, debt, credit and taxes. Newest first unless you say otherwise.
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Banking
CD Ladders, Explained
A ladder buys the longer rate while keeping a rung maturing every year. On the rates available now it earns nothing over a good savings account, and here is the arithmetic that shows when it would.
6 min read
Editor's pick
Saving
How Much Should You Have Saved by 30, 40 and 50?
The salary-multiple rules assume a career shape most people do not have. Here they are anyway, beside what people at each age actually hold.
6 min read
Budgeting
Envelopes and Cash Stuffing: What the Method Is Actually Doing
The method works, and not for the reason its advocates give. Understanding the actual mechanism tells you which categories to use it on and which to leave alone.
6 min read
RetirementGuide
What to Do With an Old 401(k)
Four options, and the default of leaving it is rarely the best one. The fee comparison that decides it, and the rollover mistake that triggers a tax bill.
6 min read
CreditGuide
Disputing an Error on Your Credit Report
You have a legal right to an investigation within 30 days. The letter that gets results, what to enclose, and the step where most disputes quietly fail.
7 min read
Investing
Asset Allocation by Age: The Table and Its Limits
"110 minus your age" is a starting point that ignores the two things that actually matter: when you need the money, and what you did last time it fell 30%.
6 min read
Saving
Saving for a House Deposit
The deposit is not the number you need. Closing costs, reserves and a move-in buffer add more than half again to it at 10% down, and that is where buyers get caught.
6 min read
RetirementGuide
Roth or Traditional: The Decision Rule
It is one comparison: your marginal rate now against your expected rate in retirement. Everything else is a tiebreak, and at equal rates the two are identical to the dollar.
7 min read
Banking
The Checking Account Float, and Why It Broke Your Budget
Your balance and your available balance are different numbers, and the gap is where overdraft fees live. Why a gas pump can hold $175 of your money for five days.
6 min read
Banking
Is Money in an Online Bank Safe?
If it carries FDIC insurance, yes, and identically to a branch. The real risks are different ones, and the app on your phone may not be a bank at all.
6 min read
BankingGuide
FDIC Insurance Limits, Explained
$250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category. The third clause is the one that matters, and it is how a couple insures $780,000 at a single institution without opening anything new.
6 min read
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