Category: Personal Finance

Learn about a variety of personal finance topics, including budgeting, saving, credit, debt, taxes, insurance, retirement and more

More, Personal Finance

Where Is Inflation Going and What Are You Doing to Fight Inflation?

To fight inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised short-term interest rates by half a percentage point. The Fed will also likely be raising rates a half-point at its next two meetings after that. It is trying to avoid the risk that consumers’ and businesses’ expectations of large price increases could become baked into price and wage decisions, creating a self-fulfilling inflation spiral.

Man running after money flying away representing how to fight inflation

That has happened before and when it does, it’s a disaster and it just proves that things can actually get even worse for you and your wallet. None of us has a crystal ball, but it does seem that the Fed has been wandering around with blinders on for a long time and their new strategy smells a lot like panic in the year zero or in this case the year 2022. So where does that leave all of us right now?

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Saving & Investing

What to Do If You Don’t Have Enough Money to Invest Right Now

I am not quite sure how many times I have heard it said: “A penny saved is really truly a penny earned.” Old Ben Franklin was so right back then when he said it and the truth is it hasn’t changed in all those years. What that actually means is this: If you sit around and moan and groan that you just don’t have enough, earn enough, save enough or just can’t do what you want to do to try to build your wealth, there is a way you can at least start.

Hands holding soil and money sprout representing what to do if you don’t have enough money to invest

Taking small steps will get you to your goal and even better, those small steps can lead you to being an investor where you can actually make your current income earn a lifetime additional stream of it! So follow my advice today and stop saying “I don’t have enough money to invest!”

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Personal Finance

Rising Interest Rates Are Going to Burn You If You’re Not Prepared

If you are getting nervous about your money, inflation, and rising interest rates these days you are no different than most people. There has been so much discussion about all of it on the news and on the net that you’d have to be living in a cave or independently wealthy not to be nervous. So hearing and reading about all of it like I do every day is not helping me sleep at night…and I am not sure what will.

Sign saying “Higher Rates Ahead” representing rising interest rates

The numbers indicate right now that money is about to take a ride in the near term and this isn’t the kind of ride that will calm your nerves. With inflation peaking (maybe) and interest rates about to explode, what is one to do to feel good about the economic news?

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Budgeting, Frugality, Income & Career, Money Mindset

Dash for More Cash: Ways to Get Cash in 2022

Right about now after seeing prices going nowhere but up, you more than likely have money on the brain. Even if you saw some kind of pay increase this year already, it is disappearing as you shop and I don’t mean just for those big expensive things. I’m talking food, clothing, and shelter along with every kind of energy you can name including the biggie, gasoline. So you are probably looking for ways to get cash.

Hand presenting hundred dollar bills representing ways to get cash

The “dash for cash” I’m taking about isn’t a new idea. It’s always out there and is a driving force in your motivation to build wealth. But during times like these, it becomes more than motivation, more like an obsession. So, yeah, you always want more, but the big question is how can you get more money now in 2022?

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Saving & Investing

Make At Least 8% on Your Money Over the Next 12 Months…Guaranteed!

This is one subject I never get tired of writing about. It’s the “how do I get a huge interest rate on my money” deal. I know you may think I am making this up, but I’m not. Even though I have written about this subject several times before, I am truly amazed that there are still multi-millions who don’t pay any attention or just don’t believe it. Do you think that I would tell you about making 8% plus on your money and take no risk just as a joke here? The time has never been better to do it and it is the silver lining right now in the inflation picture!

Money clip with $100s representing money made with series I US savings bonds

High Inflation Has One Good Result

Given the high inflation numbers reported this week with the Consumer Price Index rising 8.5% over the last 12 months, you might think that any interaction with the U.S. Treasury would not be a way to protect and grow your money right now. That thinking is waaaaaaaaaaay wrong. In fact, using the Treasury is as good as gold. That is because there is a little something called Series I US Savings Bonds. Everyone can buy and take advantage of these, and get a rate of interest that hasn’t been seen in almost…forever! You can lock it in, sit back, and see your money really grow no matter what the final inflation numbers wind up being for 2022!

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More, Personal Finance

Is the Next Economic Recession Coming in 2022?

If you just look at the surface, things are not looking rosy right now in the U.S. economy. Sure, employment is higher that it has been in years and salaries are actually climbing, but does that make a solid economy all on its own? There is a bit more to it all than that and when you dig just slightly beneath the surface, you may be afraid of what you will see. Is the next economic recession just waiting in the wings here in 2022?

Businessman looking worried due to economic recession

What Defines an Economic Recession?

A recession is a real decline in economic activity that lasts for months or more commonly even years. Experts declare a recession when a nation’s economy experiences negative gross domestic product (GDP), rising levels of unemployment, falling retail sales, and contracting measures of income and manufacturing for an extended period of time. Those are the standard golden rules of economic recession that have been around for as long as people have been defining it.

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Home, Retirement

Believe Me, You Should Never Have a Mortgage When You Retire

You know how I often say you can learn from life and sometimes you learn from the mistakes you make? Guilty here! One of my biggest bungles was and is the fact that in my 70s, I still have a mortgage on my home. Now in my defense (and of course I will defend myself), there are a few good reasons why this has happened. But my advice is to try as damned hard as you can to never let it happen to you the way it happened to me. No mortgage when you retire!

Condos representing not having a mortgage when you retire

Let’s Start at the End First?

I am going to assume you grew up and lived either in a house that your parents owned or wishing and hoping you had one. After all, it’s the American Dream to be a homeowner and has been since the days of the covered wagon and the westward expansion. In other words, people wanted to own something, a little piece of land that was all theirs. That tradition became the American Dream and despite all of the complications and costly price tags it still does exist today.

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Saving & Investing

Talking with Chaster Johnson from StockTeamUp on Defensive Investing in a Volatile Market

No matter what age you are, it seems you can always learn something new and that is a wonderful experience. For me, it’s been a pretty interesting ride these past eight years of blogging. I’ve gotten to meet some of the most intelligent, driven young people who are creating exciting new pathways to become successful themselves and yet also making financial literacy education a priority.

Man in front of volatile stock market chart representing the need for defensive investing

But financial literacy isn’t stressed as it should be. Overall it is a real need for young people to master early in life. It helps them to meet all the financial challenges they will have to deal with to build financial security in their lives.

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