Finance

Households should be encouraged to maintain at least a small buffer of liquid savings, even if the cash in that buffer is not being used to pay down high-interest debt. Here's why.

...Should you pay off your mortgage early either by paying extra dollars toward your loan's principal balance or by paying off the rest of your mortgage in one giant payment if you had the opportunity to do so or are there times when not paying off your mortgage early actually makes sense? Not surprisingly, it depends on a host of factors. Here is what you should look at when determining whether paying off your mortgage early is the best choice.

How prepared are you for retirement? Take a look at the following potential unpreparedness indicators. After reviewing them, if you don't see any concerns, you may, indeed, be headed down the right path toward retirement. However, if you do, it'll be far better to address them now while you're still gainfully employed.

This post provides a visualization of data* from our new True Cost of Living Tool to illustrate how the living conditions of the working class stack up across the country. It’s kind of a big deal because it lets you drill down to a specific city and search through layers of relevant information to understand exactly how much money it takes to live in any given area.

Side gigs are not exactly second jobs, because they come with a lot more flexibility and leave you in control of your hours and commitment but they can still be invaluable sources of income when you're really in a pinch. If you're ready to start bringing in some extra money, quickly, here are some great places to start.

America is facing a retirement crisis. It is a ticking time bomb and most people have their heads in the sand. The long and the short of it is that the older you get, you don’t spend less, you just spend differently - and more. The fun goes down and the healthcare costs go up.

A budget is a basic necessity, even if you do it just once, to understand where your money is flowing yet most people spend money as quickly as it comes in - like sand flowing through their fingers - [so this article takes a]...look at the latest spending breakdown of Americans to see where most of our money is going.

Below are 10 factors considered by insurance companies when establishing what you have to pay for auto insurance coverage and some suggestions (some rather outlandish) how you might be able to positively influence some of them to your financial benefit.

How much money do you really need to retire on? We’re bombarded with messages about retirement savings – that...[we] haven’t saved enough; that company pension plans are underfunded; that the Canada Pension Plan [or U.S. Social Security] won’t be able to handle the influx of boomers who are set to retire over the next 10 to 15 years. If that’s you, then you might be panicking right now. Stop! According to a new book retirees may not need as much as they’ve been led to believe.

That central banks have saved us from a financial crisis is a myth. Central banks have caused our financial crises, not saved us from them. Central banks don’t serve people, or even societies. They serve banks.