Debt Payoff
Payday Loan Alternatives That Cost Far Less to Borrow
A typical two-week payday loan charges $15 per $100 borrowed, equaling nearly 400% APR. Seven alternatives ranked by speed, approval odds, and real cost.
8 min read
The library
13 plain-English reads on budgeting, saving, investing, debt, credit and taxes. Newest first unless you say otherwise.
EverythingBudgetingSavingInvestingDebt PayoffBankingCreditTaxesRetirementCollege SavingsPassive IncomeMoney FoundationsEveryday SpendingInsuranceSocial Security & MedicareHousing & RentingStudent LoansMoney MindsetSide IncomeCareer & SalaryFinancial IndependenceEstate PlanningFamily FinancesLife EventsSmall BusinessFraud & Consumer ProtectionHealthcare CostsTravel & RewardsCars & TransportInflation & the EconomyMoney ToolsGiving
Banking
How to Stop Paying Bank Fees
Six retail bank fees drain hundreds of dollars from household accounts every year. Here is how to waive them, opt out of overdrafts, and use the exact script that wins refunds.
6 min read
Banking
Treasury Bills vs a Savings Account
Treasury bill interest is exempt from state income tax, which is worth nothing in Texas and a good deal in California. The comparison, done properly, at three state rates.
5 min read
Banking
Credit Union vs Bank
A credit union is owned by its members, which changes where the profit goes. What that is worth in a year, and where a bank genuinely wins.
6 min read
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
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
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
Editor's pick
BankingGuide
High-Yield Savings vs CDs vs Money Market
Three accounts, one question: how soon do you need it, and what does waiting pay? On $20,000 the spread between the best and worst place to put it is $774 a year.
7 min read
Saving
Automating Savings So Willpower Is Not Involved
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.
8 min read
Saving
Where to Keep Your Emergency Fund
The account has one job: be there in a day and not lose value. What that rules out, what the yield is worth on $15,000, and why a CD you break at month five nets $64.
7 min read
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