A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks
So, you’ve made an investment strategy, and you’re ready to get started.
That’s great!
Investing is one of the best ways to build wealth over time.
The hard part, though, is sticking with your investment strategy. How are you going to stay on track?
If you want to make sure that you keep with your investing strategy, here are 5 things you can do to help you maintain your focus:
[Read more…] about 5 Tips for Helping You Stick with Your Investment Strategy
Even though a million dollars isn’t what it used to be, the goal of becoming a millionaire is one that many still strive for. If you have a net worth of $1 million, you are thought to have truly “made it.”
Becoming a millionaire doesn’t have to be hard, though.
In reality, the steps you take toward becoming a millionaire are actually fairly simple. The theory behind becoming a millionaire is fairly easy to grasp, although actually implementing your plan can be a little more difficult.
One of the “rules of thumb” that is often expressed when it comes to credit cards is that it’s important that you avoid paying an annual fee.
Even with rewards credit cards, many suggest that you stay away from the annual fee. After all, your annual fee reduces the value of the rewards that you earn.
There are some credit cards, though, that might be worth the annual fee.
These are premier credit cards, and they often come with annual fees that many of us consider excessive: $100, $200, or even $450.
Why would you pay that much for a credit card?
As with all things personal finance, it largely depends on what you expect to do with the credit card, and the benefits that you get. If you really look at the perks associated with a premier credit card, you might be surprised.
[Read more…] about What Can You Expect From a Premier Credit Card?
We live in uncertain economic times.
No one knows what will happen next. Between a difficult job market, a housing sector that refuses to recover, and Europe on the brink of complete financial disaster, it’s easy to feel anxious about your money.
Will we see another recession? Could things turn around and be great? Are a eurozone collapse and slowing growth in China about to dump us into another global financial crisis? While you want to be prepared for the possibility of economic problems, it’s not a good idea to let fear rule you.
Once you let fear master you, you start making very poor decisions based on that fear.
Whether it’s making a bad investment decision, a risky business choice, or sabotaging your relationships, fear and anxiety can lead to problems in your finances and your life.
Before you let your worries about economic uncertainty turn into a full-blown financial emergency, it’s a good idea to take a deep breath, step back, and consider these 5 tips to helping you cope with the uncertainties that come in an economy like what we’re seeing now:
[Read more…] about 5 Tips to Help You Deal with Economic Uncertainty
There are a number of provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that was passed in 2010.
Now that the legislation has been mostly upheld by the Supreme Court, there is little to stop many of the provisions from the PPACA from coming to fruition. From the inability of insurers to drop you due to illness, to the individual mandate for health care coverage, to the establishment of state exchanges, there are a number of highly publicized new policies in the bill.
However, there are also plenty of other provisions in the law, some of which you might not know about.
One of the lesser known provisions is the rebates that insurance companies will be required to send a rebate to customers if they do not keep overhead costs lower.
Some estimates suggest that as much as 30% of what we spend on health care goes to overhead — and not to health benefits. This is rather distressing when the costs of health care in the United States are compared to other developed countries that, in many cases, more efficiently keep the overhead to 1/3 of what it is in the United States.
[Read more…] about Medical Loss Ratio – What is it and Why Might I Get a Refund Check?
