Stashing some cash in savings account used to be the monetary equivalent of stuffing money in a mattress. Those days are over. In 2018, high-yielding savings accounts outperformed the stock market for the first time in over a decade. As a result of rising interest rates, savings rates — the annual percentage yield banks pay consumers on […]
Though many of us aren’t tax-focused this early on in the year, it never hurts to get educated about all things filing-related. Unfortunately, a large number of Americans are failing in that regard, or so found a recent GOBankingRates survey. Here are three specific tax facts filers need to wise up on. 1. The standard deduction […]
Your child may be expecting a raise soon. Children between the ages of 4 and 14 years old got an average of $471 a year or $9.06 per week in allowance in 2018, up 3.7% on the year before, according to a sampling of more than 30,000 kids by chore-tracking app RoosterMoney. (That’s higher than roughly […]
Most financial to-do lists focus on what you need to get done by Dec. 31, but there’s also a brief window early in the new year to save yourself some significant cash. Here are three tasks to consider doing now: 1. Avoid tax penalties. If you live in a high-tax area, have a bunch of children […]
Squirrel away more money. Among the one-third of Americans making 2019 financial New Year’s resolutions, 48 percent plan to save more, according to a Fidelity Investments survey. If you’re among those aspiring savers, read on for concrete ways to reach your savings goals. Identify your goals. It’s hard to start saving money if you don’t know why you’re saving […]
This is the time of year when resolutions are made and broken. And topping the list of resolutions for many of us is figuring out our finances. “They look at where they are, they realize that often there’s a gap between where they are today and where they know they need to be and decide […]
Let’s be honest: New Year’s resolutions often don’t work. The main reasons resolutions are abandoned is because they’re overly complicated or people don’t see tangible results when they hope to. This goes for financial resolutions, too. Fidelity Investments’ annual New Year Financial Resolutions Study found that one-third of Americans plan to make a financial resolution […]
Millions of Americans want to do a better job of saving for retirement. An individual retirement account, or IRA, can be a great way to not only build a retirement nest egg, but to save money on your taxes as well. Contributing the maximum allowable amount to your IRA in 2019 would be a great […]
If you haven’t made retirement savings a priority, now is a great time to start catching up. That’s because retirement plan contribution limits have been pushed higher for 2019. The IRS has increased the amount employees can sock away in their 401(k) plans in 2019 to $19,000. That’s up from $18,500 in 2018. That limit […]
Living on a fixed income is difficult, but for millions of people on Social Security, the monthly benefits they get make up the vast majority of the money coming in during retirement. Fortunately, during most years, Social Security payments go up modestly to make up for increases in living costs. However, even those regular boosts aren’t […]
The recent volatility in the stock market can make older investors feel vulnerable. Here are some strategies to make sure your money lasts as long as you do. You’ve heard it before: When the markets become erratic, or seem poised for a prolonged downturn, the best thing you can do is nothing at all. But […]
For millennials, retirement may be more of a challenge than for prior generations. They are almost certain to live longer than their parents, so their money will have to last longer and clear more hurdles along the way. For starters, no one really knows what Social Security is going to look like in 30 or […]
