Personal Finance

Personal finance & investing tips in language you can understand!

Putting money to work

We created this site to help with your basic, everyday personal finance needs … written in simple language even beginners can understand. But you’ll also find tips more experienced folks will find useful. Saving money tips. Managing money tips. Investing money tips. Even DIY tips around the house.

A good place to start

It helps to begin by reviewing a few basic money & finance terms. You might also find it useful to brush up on available investment options — and which ones make the most sense for you. And that includes ones that offer the level of risk and return you feel [Continue]

Why Do Banks Pay So Little Interest on Savings?

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Perhaps a better question than why banks pay so little on savings is "Why do so many people keep savings at such low rates?" I think the simplest answer is "Because it's so easy and safe." But mostly nowadays that answer is that people just don't … [Continue]

Opportunity Cost Examples: What Is Opportunity Cost?

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In simplest terms, opportunity cost is about lost value that comes from making one decision over another. Usually it's about monetary loss, but there are opportunity cost examples that involve emotional or other types of personal loss.While we … [Continue]

Are You Wasting Money On Too Many Subscriptions?

I recently gave up my subscription to Max (HBO) even though they have a lot of great programs. I mean it was only $9.99 a month with ads. That's not much, right? Well, not when you already have too many subscriptions.And not when you're trying to … [Continue]

Banking Basics 101: Answers to Your Banking Questions

A friend recently asked me some pretty basic banking questions. Part of me was surprised, but I realized that a lot of people don't know much about banks. Mostly she wanted to know what to do with some money she saved. But she also worried about not … [Continue]

Credit 101: How To Make Credit Work For You

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So what exactly is credit? Credit lets us make a promise to pay in the future for something we really want, but can't quite afford to pay for now. It's a gateway from wanting to actually having. But how do you make credit work for you without it … [Continue]

12 Basic Financial Terms

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Ah ... financial market language. All those terms you hear finance folks toss around as if they actually meant something. Well, of course they do. Once you get clued into the lingo.I was raised in a small town with very little exposure to any … [Continue]

How Banks Make Money From Your Savings Accounts

While it's easy to rant and rave about how banks make money, I'd like to rant and rave a bit about how investors handle THEIR money. You do have choices for what to do with your "liquid" (easy to access without stock market worries) money. But I know … [Continue]

Why Does My Mutual Fund Pay a Dividend?

A friend of mine wrote to ask me why the value of his stock mutual fund is higher than the simple difference between what he paid for it a few weeks ago and the current price that he sees listed now. So I said the difference is the dividend.He … [Continue]

Why Invest? The Stock Market Is So Unreliable!

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First let's be clear. The stock market really IS unreliable. At least at any given moment. And for some people that alone is enough reason to stay far away from investing in stocks. Or anything other than tucking it away … [Continue]

Why Saving Money NOW Matters!

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Years ago I worked with a woman who didn't believe that saving money now matters. She had fabulous clothes. Designer furniture. Treated herself to dinner out most nights. And … [Continue]

Should You Ever Borrow Money From Family?

Borrow money from family? Not something everyone would call a smart thing to do. But people do it all the time ... and I hear a good number of them manage to survive (mostly) unscathed.Unfortunately, that's not true for everyone. Things can go … [Continue]

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