Finance

Daydreaming about retirement is easy, but saving for it, however, takes time and effort — and is something a lot of Americans struggle with - but there are strategies that can help make the process easier. Here are 20 ways to pad your bank account before it's time to retire.

The Wall Street Journal writes that "many US states have been slow to improve their finances nine years into the economic expansion raising a risk they won't be prepared when another downturn hits, making them susceptible to big spending cuts that make the next recession worse".

The U.S. is surprisingly low in disposable household income and rather high in income inequality. [In fact,] it is not too much of a stretch to say that the U.S. is now divided into two nations, not entirely separate but increasingly unequal.

Here's some good news for anyone behind on retirement savings: Being a smart saver isn't difficult. There's no magic secret to getting it right. Once you understand the rules of the game, you'll know exactly what you need to do to manage your money wisely as you navigate through life. Here are 5 standard practices that every retirement-savvy saver lives by. Let them inspire and guide you during your own phase of accumulating wealth.

When we talk about investing, we frequently talk about stocks as they are likely to make up a the bulk of your investment portfolio during the majority of your investing years but bonds can be a helpful part of your investment mix at any age, and it's important to understand how they work — even if you don't own many of them right now. This article examines bonds and why we should pay close attention to them these days.

So, you don't want to pay full price for anything you buy and why should you? These days, you have so many ways to get around that pesky price on the tag, and with the latest apps and websites on your side, you can save big with very little effort. Here are 28 ways to get out of paying what's on the sticker.

You need to keep your emergency fund in a safe place that gives you easy access to your money but the problem is that traditional savings accounts — the most obvious place to stash emergency fund dollars — pay so little interest. Your money will sit in a savings account safely, but it won't earn you anything, either. This is where T-bills, or Treasury bills, can help.

Why should blue chip stocks be your starting point when creating a diversified portfolio and what exactly defines blue chip stocks? In this post, I...answer those questions and more.

Waiting a few months or years to receive your Social Security retirement benefit would increase the amount that you eventually receive and this would have a huge impact on your total lifetime benefits. Conversely, taking your benefit early would result in a reduced payment based on how early you do so. Here are the details to help you decide what to do.

You hear a lot about how great a Roth IRA is for saving for your retirement - after all, who wouldn’t want their money to grow tax-free and be able to withdraw it tax-free too - but there are some additional benefits to investing in a Roth IRA that exceeds just saving for retirement...[and this article] highlights 4...