Home buyers get some relief as mortgage rates come off 7% highs
Mortgage rates are roughly double year-ago levels but have fallen from their 7% highs. That’s providing at least some relief to potential home buyers.
Mortgage rates are roughly double year-ago levels but have fallen from their 7% highs. That’s providing at least some relief to potential home buyers.
In Partnership with TransUnion. Just a few years ago, I had around $40,000 in student loan debt. I hated having my student loan debt hang over my head. I received my first bill for my student loans right after I graduated with my MBA, and it was for several hundred dollars a month for around a […]
The post How Paying Off $40,000 In Student Loan Debt Changed My Life appeared first on Making Sense Of Cents.
Creating an estate plan, writing down your last will and testaments, and identifying a healthcare proxy donât seem like a fun way to spend a weekend. However, organizing your end of life paperwork and making sure you have a plan for your finances are some of the most important tasks you can complete as an […]
The post Your Last Will and Testament appeared first on Good Financial Cents®.
College can be overwhelming for students. Paying back tuition can be a hassle, and, for most, itâs the first time theyâre financially independent. Unfortunately, the cost of college has increased more than 150% over the past 30 years, making it crucial for students to cut costs on expenses like housing, food, and entertainment. Cutting costs
The post 50 Ways to Save Money in College and Maintain a Social Life appeared first on MintLife Blog.
Everybodyâs financial situation — age, income, saving rate — is different.
But every retiree, early or late, aspiring or actual, has the same, simple investing imperative: We must preserve and grow our purchasing power in real terms in order to finance decades of future consumption.
This sounds simple (which it is) and obvious (which it isnât).
Let’s assume you’re forty years old. Every week, you buy a six-pack of your favorite microbrew for $10. You have $520 in savings that will buy you your weekly six-pack for all of 2019. Life is good.
Here, for instance, is GRS founder J.D. Roth with a $10.19 six-pack of his favorite beer, which he’s drinking while he edits this article:
Now, let’s assume that the cost of this six-pack increases by 3% annually — which is a reasonable estimate of inflation. Every year, your $520 in savings buys you 3% less beer.
In thirty years, when youâre seventy and still enjoying your suds, that six-pack that costs you $10 now will cost you $24.27, which is a $1,262 annual expense if you continue to buy a six-pack a week.
In other words, your $520 in savings has to increases by nearly 145% to $1,262 over the next thir[s]ty years to merely maintain — let alone increase — your current beer consumption.
It gets worse.
Even if everything goes according to plan and your beer money grows from $520 in 2019 to $1,262 in 2049, youâll need to sell $1,262 worth of your investments to get the cash for your beer. That will trigger a $750 taxable gain, and at a 25% federal and state tax, you’ll have to pay approximately $188 in taxes. Your beer money is now approximately $1,074. This only buys you 44 six-packs of beer in 2049, whereas you were consuming 52 six-packs in 2019.
In other words, due to inflation and the taxation of nominal gains, youâll be poorer, with a lower standard of living, thirty years from now.
This bears repeating: A 3% pre-tax return on your investments will not preserve, let alone grow, your current standard of living.
Risk and reward is the basic relationship in investing. Learn how to apply it to your financial life.
One of the nicest new trends of recent years is really the revival and rebranding of something very old: the smaller dwelling. Over the last few months, I have built just such a structure, and it has turned out to be a rather cool experience. In fact, I’m typing this article for you from within […]
Have you dreamed of starting a business of your own? For many aspiring entrepreneurs and side hustlers, that dream has become a reality by making money on Shopify. Ecommerce is a booming business â statistics show online retail sales increased by 30% in 2020, a trend that was accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting […]
The post How to Make Money on Shopify appeared first on Good Financial Cents®.
At the age of 50, I was laid off.
It was a Thursday morning in August of 2013 and it came on a conference call along with hundreds of co-workers. I had been working in one way or another since the age of 13 â babysitting, apple picking, camp counselor, journalist. It was the first time I had ever been involuntarily out of work.
Did I mention it happened while I was technically on vacation? Yep. I had to dial in to a conference call to lose my job while at the beach on Cape Cod. Oh, Corporate America.</
My thoughts on investing have shifted over the years. New ideas consistently challenge me and force me to question my assumptions. The biggest: is there skill in investing?