Archive for 'Financial Planning' Category

By Georgie Miller

Are student loans the next housing bubble? They're certainly making headlines right now. The U.S. Senate recently failed to advance two bills aimed at preventing interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans from doubling on July 1.

But the current debate is over the interest rate on new loans, so only students who are still in school and actively borrowing will be affected by the outcome. As someone who's already paying her student loans, I often want to ask, "What about me?"

If you too are no longer in school and have student loans to pay back, here's an abridged guide to successfully tackling your student loan debt.

1. Understand your obligations

While you may not have fully grasped this when you were signing the dotted line as a freshmen (no judgment: I certainly didn't!), student loans aren't like other types of debt.

By Holly Johnson

We've all been there. Your dryer breaks down. Your car needs new brakes. You finally have to replace your leaky roof. These are just a few of the common costs that can appear out of nowhere to drain your wallet. So what are you supposed to do when these unwelcome surprises occur?

You can't predict the future and there's no way to safeguard yourself against the many external factors that cause emergencies. However, there is one fool-proof way to prepare for a lifetime of unexpected expenses: start an emergency fund.

We've talked recently about what an emergency fund is and why it's important to have one. But if you haven't done it before, creating an emergency fund can seem like a challenging endeavor. Try using these five tips to get started.

1. Identify regular saving opportunities

In order to free up cash to divert to your emergency fund, you may need to cut some of your expenses (assuming you can't find a new way to make extra money).

By Georgie Miller

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 1.7 million students will graduate from college this year. Graduation season is one of my favorite times of year. It reminds me of a time when the future was full of possibility.

However, there are some things about life and money that I wish I had known before entering the "real world."

1. Don't pigeonhole yourself

When I started looking at job ads, I was worried because I didn't see any that specified my major. However, I've been working happily for five years in a job with no explicit connection to my degree.

By Libby Kane, LearnVest

This article comes from our partner LearnVest.

Just before the Enron scandal broke, the company's CEO immediately put his money into annuities—in his wife's name.

Why? Because those assets are creditor-protected, so they can't be seized (in this case, by the government).

This is just one example of many—remember the 14% tax rate Mitt Romney paid on his $13 million income?—illustrating how extremely wealthy people get the most from their money. And most of them do it legally.

Much of their success comes from knowing where to find loopholes in the financial system—"hacks," if you will. While we would never recommend any illegal or dishonest money moves (seriously, don't break the law!), there are a handful of legal personal finance hacks that are available to all of us—like these seven incredibly useful, low-profile tricks.

By Tim Sullivan

According to a 2012 survey by CareerBuilder.com, two in five American households are living paycheck to paycheck. We could blame this on the state of the economy or the scarcity of jobs, but in reality, saving money often has more to do with psychology than it does with external factors.

In order to save money, you have to take in more money than you spend. If you've struggled to save in the past, you must adopt one or both of the startegies below to finally build your savings account to what it should be. Which option will you choose?

1. Cut your spending

Years ago, I started saving because of a banking error. I forgot to endorse a check before putting it in my account. The next day, I went about buying groceries, lunch, and a coffee, not knowing my bank had taken the money out of my account and sent the check back to my address for endorsement. After $105 in overdraft fees ($35 for each purchase), I was cursing the bank. Why didn't they simply reject my card!? After all, I didn't need that coffee.

After I paid the bank off and put my ego back together, I realized that month, I had made $105 available to pay off those overdraft fees.

By Justin Boyle

I was over at the house of some friends a couple of weeks ago when an interesting subject came up: What happens with your credit accounts when you die? Can your unpaid credit card bills affect you or your family once you've departed this mortal coil?

The answer, it turns out, is complicated. It depends on the amount of your debt, the status of your estate, the contracts you have with your credit companies and a few other factors that might surprise you.

Your debt is your own

Typically, your spouse, relatives and descendants cannot be held liable for the debt that you racked up in life, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In other words, your credit history follows you to the grave, and no credit company or collections agency has the right to force your debt on anyone else.

Credit companies do have the right, though, to attempt to recoup what they're owed.