The Federal Reserve Board announced last week that they would not be raising interest rates. All eyes seem to be on them when they meet to discuss the economy and what to do about interest rates, so it must be important. After all, the announcement sent stock soaring (though only briefly). But what interest rate is it that we’re really talking about here, and how would a rate hike affect the average consumer like you and I?
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Renting a new apartment can be quite expensive. Aside from rent itself, there are lots of miscellaneous expenses you might not have thought about. One of the biggest is the security deposit, as almost all landlords ask for that lump sum upfront. Basically, if you damage something, it gets deducted from your deposit. The good news is that you can get it back when you move out…if you’re careful about it.
A security deposit can sometimes be up to two times your monthly rent. It’s not a small number but many tenants don’t take it seriously enough, since most just assume they’ll get it back at the end of their lease if nothing catastrophic happens. Some landlords, though, will nitpick at everything and try to keep as much of the security deposit as they can. Follow these tips to make sure you get all of your security deposit back:
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Don’t you hate having to deal with spare change? It ends up in the car, in your pockets, on the dryer — anywhere except where it can be useful. Maybe you’ve combated this by designating a jar that collects all your spare change, but it still has to be converted into cash before spending or saving it. Now that debit card usage is more common, many banks offer the equivalent of the change jar for their customers in the form of ‘round up’ checking accounts. Any transactions between $.50 and $1 are rounded up to the next value, and the ‘change’ is automatically transferred to a linked savings account.
At first glance, this electronic version of saving change seems like a wise idea. While it’s better than not saving at all, the notoriously low rate of return on ordinary (as opposed to high yield) savings accounts with your bank means you’re better off investing it. But how can you easily invest such ‘spare change’? What if you’ve never invested and have no idea where to start? Acorns, a start-up investment app, might be your answer.
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Many teenagers and college-aged individuals look at college without realizing just how much the weight loans can carry. Most will think that mom and dad should be responsible, while others will just take out loans to get what they want. Here are two important things you and your teen need to talk about when it comes to college costs.
What Is the Real Cost of College?
Do you know the real cost of college? More importantly, do you know the long-term affects of college costs? My parents did not prepare me for college costs, and they even encouraged me to take out hefty loans. Thankfully I did not. In fact, I graduated five years ago and having zero college debt has been amazing. Of course, I went to a modest state school, had to commute an hour daily, and had to work horrible hours at Starbucks to fit it into my schedule. I hated every single second of it, but the struggle turned out amazingly for me.
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I’ve thought about getting rid of satellite TV and just streaming all of my entertainment for years. I don’t watch much TV to begin with, and it’s usually after the show airs when I do turn on the tube. However, because my husband enjoys live sports, we’ve always had satellite TV — including NFL Sunday Ticket.
Now that my family structure is changing, I’m rethinking many of my expenses and restructuring my cash flow (as well as restructuring my life). One of the first things to go, I decided, was the satellite TV. On top of that, we also had a cable package that included TV and Internet. The TV portion seems superfluous until you realize that the point was so that it would be easier to access live sports online when traveling. (And because at the time of signing up for the package, the cable company gave a monthly discount so good the cost of the package was less than Internet alone.)
I will always need Internet access because of the nature of my work, but there’s no reason to pay for TV as well. So I went ahead and got rid of these services. Unfortunately, because I thought my life was going to be stable for the next two years, I signed contracts, and that meant early termination fees.
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While some of us may actually like living with roommates, many do so out of sheer necessity. For many young 20-somethings still trying to figure out this thing called life, having a roommate is the only way to afford living on your own. Living expenses can add up and splitting the cost with a roommate or two can help lessen the load tremendously. However, it doesn’t come without challenges.
My first experience living with roommates with during college. I had moved off campus and rented a big house with 5 other people. While it was fun, it was definitely difficult at times with the mix of personalities. One thing that was always a sore subject was money. Who paid for what and how much exactly? Managing money with roommates can be challenging, especially if you have differing financial mindsets. Here are 5 tips to help you successfully manage money with roommates:
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