165 plain-English reads on budgeting, saving, investing, debt, credit and taxes. Newest first unless you say otherwise.
They cost more than building it yourself, and they are still the right answer for most people. On $500 a month over thirty years the difference is $55,068, and here is who should pay it.
The transfer should land the day after payday, not the day before the next one. The same $300 a month, moved on two different dates, differs by $875 over a year.
The rule is quoted everywhere and tested nowhere. Run against what US households actually spend, only the top fifth of earners can keep needs under 50%, and the bottom fifth spends 81.6% there.
For most people holding the same index, no. On $100,000 over five years in a taxable account the tax difference is $312.46, which is about $62 a year. Here are the three cases where it genuinely does matter.
Every dollar gets a job before the month starts. The six steps, the mid-month reconciliation nobody mentions, and roughly how long the first one takes.
There is a rate above which paying the debt wins and below which investing does, and it sits exactly at the return you expect. Three households, $500 a month, ten years, and three different answers.
It is one phone call, it takes about eleven minutes, and on a $9,000 balance a five-point cut is worth $824.69. Here are the three numbers to have ready and the words to say.
A $6,000 balance at 24.99% paid at the minimum takes 254 months and costs $11,360.48 in interest, which is nearly twice what you borrowed. The formula is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
The avalanche saves more money. The snowball gets finished more often. On four real balances that difference is $552.79 and one month, and here is when $552.79 is worth paying.
Most category lists are too fine to survive February. Here are the sixteen that hold, what belongs in each, and the four that are missing from almost every budget that failed.
0.85% sounds like nothing, and for the first year it is: about $19. Over thirty years of $400 a month it is $70,624, which is more than fourteen years of the contributions themselves.
Total market, international, bonds. What each one is doing, what the ratio changes on $50,000 in a bad year, and why a fourth fund usually adds cost rather than diversification.
One short email each week: a money move worth making, a number worth checking, and a trap worth dodging.