Entering retirement on a modest income requires a shift in perspective. You are moving from a phase of accumulation to one of preservation, and often, the items you spent decades acquiring become hurdles rather than help. Many of these assets carry hidden costs — insurance, maintenance and taxes — that can eat through a fixed … Read more

We recently published an article for the “super-savers“—those rare birds who worry they’re hoarding too much cash for the future. If you read that and thought, “Must be nice to have that problem,” this article is for you. The uncomfortable reality is that most Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement. They aren’t just missing their … Read more

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A homeowner spends $10,000 on a high-tech, ultra-efficient furnace, only to wonder why their heating bill still looks like a car payment. It’s a classic mistake. You can buy the most expensive heater on the planet, but if your house has the structural integrity of Swiss cheese, you’re … Read more

If you’ve walked down the snack aisle lately, you’ve probably felt like you needed a small personal loan just to buy a bag of Doritos. We’ve been grumbling about it for years, and it seems the folks in the corporate suites finally heard us. Or, more likely, they saw their sales numbers tanking and realized … Read more

I’m a CPA and personal finance writer with more than 30 years of experience, which includes writing dozens of articles about Social Security. But when it came time to file for my own Social Security last year, I had to pause. I thought I knew the system inside and out. But once I moved from … Read more

It’s a claim you’ve likely heard echoing through the news cycle: Blue states are drowning in high energy bills while red states enjoy cheap, reliable power. It makes for a great sound bite, but if you’re trying to manage a household budget, you don’t need political theater — you need the math. One thing we … Read more

Costco shoppers get used to seeking out their old favorites — a juicy rotisserie chicken, a pallet of paper towels, enough coffee to fuel an entire dorm. But because the warehouse club’s selection is so huge, it’s easy to forget that Costco adds new products all the time. There’s no reason to skip over the … Read more

Personal Loan Finder Choose an amount below.This will not impact your credit score. $100 – $500 $500 – $1,000 $1,000 – $2,500 $2,500 – $5,000 $5,000 and over We use 256 bit SSL technology to encrypt your data. This helps us match you with the right lenders Excellent (750+) Good (700-749) Fair (650-699) Poor (600-649) … Read more

The financial news cycle is designed to spike your cortisol. Turn on the TV or scroll through social media, and you are bombarded with “experts” screaming that the market is about to crash — or that you just missed the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s exhausting. Worse, acting on that anxiety usually leads to expensive … Read more