Personal Finance

If you started making twice the amount of money that you do today, how would your spending habits change? Consider if the tables were turned, and you instead were reduced to half of your current income. Where would you likely make cuts to spending? The reality is that the money you have coming in has big implications on how expenses get prioritized – and so it’s interesting to see how people in different income brackets allocate what they have.

In the old days, if you wanted to figure out how you were doing financially, you had to sit down with a pen, paper, and a calculator and do some math but, as technology has advanced and more people took an interest in their finances, more and more financial calculators began to pop up. Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands of financial calculators for you to choose. As great as this sounds, though, not all financial calculators are created equal. Many have shortcomings that could lead you down the wrong path. Today I am going to show you what to look for in financial calculators so that you can choose the one that best fits your needs.

In this article I highlight 10 ways to pay off your house early. You can pick out the one that suits you best, or find a way to combine multiple tips to pay off your mortgage in as little as half the time! Imagine not having a mortgage payment any longer. What would that enable you to do?...What are you waiting for?

While most people understand that their credit score is the key to getting approved for a loan, not all realize that having a high credit score also improves their finances because it can save you money. The higher your credit score, the lower the interest rate you will qualify for, thus saving you money over the life of your loans. This post guides you through your credit score, from everything that determines it, what helps and hurts a score, what leads to bad credit, how to check your score, and most importantly, how to improve your credit score fast.

If you want to experience financial independence or live the life of your dreams, you are going to have to avoid going into debt. Put simply, when you are in debt, you are working for someone else and, as a result, you can never reach your goal of financial independence... The key, then, is to avoid debt altogether and this post outlines ways to avoid debt so that you can make sure your money is working for you and not working against you.

Debt plagues millions of Americans every day. It is such a common problem that many of us don't even think twice about what we owe, or how we landed in such a predicament. The simplest explanation is that debt happens when you spend more than you earn but it's not actually that simple when real life steps in. Unexpected events and bad planning...can leave you facing big debt that may take years to pay off. By understanding some of the main causes of debt, we can make better financial decisions in avoiding it. Let's take a look at some of the worst offenders.

According to the just-released latest quarterly household debt and credit report by the NY Fed, Americans' debt rose to a new record high in the fourth quarter on the back of an increase in virtually every form of debt: from mortgage, to auto, student and credit card debt (although HELOCs posted a tiny decline). With interest rates on household credit rapidly rising, and with no savings to fall back on, this is a recipe for disaster.

Do you have what it takes to pay off your debts and become comfortable financially or perhaps even rich, even VERY rich? You probably do but don't know exactly what to do or think your situation is just too dire to possibly turn around. Read the following articles for some encouragement, financial advice and ideas on how to make considerably more income, pay off your debts and possibly even become that millionaire you've always wanted to be but didn't know how to accomplish.

Robo-advisors are all the rage right now and many passive investors are choosing to invest with them. Who exactly are they? Well, this article explains exactly who they are, and how you can use them.

The first rule of personal finance is never carry a credit card balance. It’s another one of those simple to understand yet difficult to execute money management concepts for a large swath of the population.