One of the things that many people wonder about is what accounts to invest in first. There are so many choices now, with online brokerages making it easy to open trading accounts. However, before you begin investing a great deal in a regular investment account, it’s a good idea to take stock of your tax advantaged options. Retirement accounts offer chances for you to reduce your tax liability while you save for the future, so money you want saved for long term should go there first.
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Mainstreet.com put together an interesting chart, detailing the top 10 states with the most millionaires. It’s ranked by percentage, and the results show that you will most likely meet a millionaire in Hawaii.
Reading these are always fun, so first, here are the numbers.
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Having an air conditioner can significantly increase your utility costs during the summer. Gone are the days of opening windows and putting up with the heat. Homes are usually built with central air incorporated unless you are fortunate enough to live in a cool and dry climate year round. If you want to save some money and still enjoy your air conditioner, here are some ideas.
Window Mounted Units
Contrary to popular opinion, bigger is not always better when it comes to air conditioning. Figure out the square footage of the room before you purchase, but take into consideration higher than normal ceilings and the amount of sunlight that enters from windows. A larger unit takes more energy to power.
If you have a fan in the room, use it even when the air conditioner is on. The fan helps circulate air in the room, cooling it more efficiently. Additionally, moving air feels cooler than still air, so you can get away with a higher temperature and still feel comfortable.
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Are you in debt but have never thought about paying it off faster by reducing your debt obligations? You should…
I am still on the edge about whether or not to do balance transfers. I have three credit card that have a total balance of $2037.84. I am wanting to it off completely within 6-8 months. My annual APR’S are 20.24%, 10.25%, and 22.90%.
I have no doubt that I will be able to pay off within 8 months and I always pay my cards on time.
I just can’t figure out how much I would pay for the transfer fee (whether it was 3% or 5%) and how much I would actually save with 0% interest on balance transfers.
Though the precise calculation needs a fair bit of specifics that aren’t provided here, we can make some assumptions and still make this exercise worth while. We will assume that the total balance is spread out on the three cards and therefore having an annual APR of 17.80% with a rough monthly interest rate of 1.48% (I know this isn’t technically correct, but this is adequate for making the point). We will further assume that Danielle, the reader, is going to pay an equal amount for 8 straight months to pay off the entire balance.
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While reviewing Sallie Mae Bank’s online savings account, I realized how little the actual company behind the web interface mattered to me. I know, I know, the importance of choosing the place to store the majority of my liquid savings is critical. But when every company’s offering is just done through “software”, which for the most part, is the same, what other features could tip the scale?
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I knew baby Sara was smart, but when she started teaching me personal finance concepts…
Many of the kids and money articles discuss how we can teach our children money matters, but let’s turn the table this time. Since baby Sara’s birth a week ago, she already reminded me of many principles that you and I can both benefit from. Here they are.
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