Your credit score can determine whether you can buy a car, get certain jobs or rent an apartment. It’s a big deal. And so is this: Credit scores for many Americans are about to change — even if they don’t do anything. The changes will be extensive. About 40 million Americans are likely to see […]
Housing may be the key to bigger savings. Earlier this week, a Reddit post — from a 48-year-old woman claiming to be a millionaire despite having only low-paying jobs until about age 30 — went viral, and in it she details some extreme frugality. She says she saves tea bags so she can make multiple […]
If you put your money in the right places, it can grow substantially over time, thanks to the power of compound interest. It could even double, while you don’t have to do a thing. Want to figure out just how fast your money could grow? The “Rule of 72” approximates how many years it will […]
How does your saving for retirement compare to nest eggs built by other people your age? Are your IRA and 401(k) balances bigger? Smaller? If you are an active saver, chances are that your savings for retirement are much bigger than the average American’s. Active savers — in this case, Americans who own an IRA […]
The steps to follow in order to become a millionaire are simple. Save money, regularly, over time. However, there would be many more people reaching this wealth-building milestone if it were easy. While the net worth of many hard-working Americans skyrocketed during the last decade, nearly half of all families have nothing saved for retirement. […]
Here’s a head-scratcher: Getting a raise could hurt your standard of living in retirement. That conclusion seems counterintuitive. After all, wouldn’t saving the same percentage of a larger paycheck yield more savings, and therefore a healthier retirement? Not exactly, according to new research published by Morningstar. “Raises — and how we spend them — can […]
Nearly everyone wants to save as much as possible for retirement, but doing so is a lot easier said than done. Only 28% of baby boomers think they’re doing a good job of financially preparing for retirement, according to a survey from the Insured Retirement Institute. Millions of workers are falling behind on their savings, […]
Have you and your 401(k) plan ridden this relentless bull market into glorious millionaire territory? If so, congratulations! Well done. Etc. Now here’s the bad news: “The new rule of thumb is $3 million.” That is financial planner Thomas Balcom explaining to Fortune why the long-held goal of a million bucks in retirement savings isn’t […]
Millions of retired seniors today collect Social Security, and for many, those benefits serve as their main source of income. But last year’s Trustees Report shed some unfavorable light on the state of Social Security’s finances. Specifically, it reported that the program’s trust funds are expected to run dry in 2035. As such, many working […]
Let’s face it: Saving for retirement can sometimes feel overwhelming. Money is the number one source of stress among Americans, according to a survey from Northwestern Mutual, and roughly half of survey participants admit feeling anxious, insecure, and/or fearful when it comes to their finances. When you start to feel overwhelmed by retirement preparation, it’s […]
The IRS began accepting 2019 tax returns Monday, January 27. Refunds are the biggest “paycheck” of the year for almost half of taxpayers, who often use them to pay bills or add to an emergency fund. The tax agency says most refunds will be paid within three weeks of filing. Whether it brings dread or […]
More than 40 years after rule changes started lowering the cost of trading stocks, we are now living in a perfect environment for beginning investors. No longer required to purchase stocks in 100 share bunches, investors are now able to purchase as little as one share. And most firms will allow people to open a brokerage account with a […]
