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 losing any money in the process. Most people […]
Putting money to work
We created this site to help with your personal finance needs … in simple language even beginners can understand. But also tips more experienced folks might find useful. Saving. Managing. Investing. Even DIY tips around the house. A good place to start It helps to understand finance & financial terms, along with investment options that […]
12 Basic Financial Terms
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 market except the supermarket. But I did love following the […]
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 that not everyone fully gets that. So […]
How To Help Your Kids Understand Money
One of the best things my mother did for me early on (and there were many) was to open up a bank account for me. If you help your kids understand money at a young age, they will have a better chance becoming comfortable with it. When I was young, banks actually gave you a […]
A Simple Guide To Bonds & Bond Terms
Most people have little if any understanding of bonds, and so they wind up investing in stocks and stock funds and pretty much anything else. But bonds are a major type of investment, so I created this handy-dandy guide to bonds to help you increase your investment IQ! What exactly are bonds? Imagine you lend […]
Present Value: Understanding Value of Money Today
One of the best examples I know to help explain the “value of money today” concept comes from Popeye. As his pal Wimpy tells us quite often: “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” So Wimpy gets his burger today, but you have to wait until Tuesday to get paid back your money, […]