We cover the basics and more about personal finance, answering frequently asked questions about credit and debt, identity theft, saving for college, retirement, estate planning, insurance, taxes, job hunting, and raising money-savvy kids. Check out the articles, columns, blog posts, radio shows and videos for tons of personal finance advice.
What Insurance Do I Need If I’m Renting Out My Home?
In today’s difficult post-Great Recession economy, I find that more of my clients are renting out their single-family homes. This allows them to move to a smaller place so that they can make ends meet or save money for the future more easily. Some of my clients who have second homes are also renting those [...]
Can I Write Off the Interest on a HELOC?
The mortgage interest tax deduction is one of the big perks of homeownership. There’s a limit to how much you may deduct, though, and deducting more than your fair share could put you at risk of an audit. You may only deduct mortgage interest if the debt is secured by your main or second home, [...]
Do You Really Need Smartphone Insurance?
You’ve just spent a good chunk of change on a fancy smartphone, and the salesperson paints you a picture of everything that could happen to your shiny new device. You could drop it on a concrete floor and shatter the screen. You could drop it in the toilet (don’t laugh—a colleague of mine just admitted [...]
Three Tips to Create An Index Fund Portfolio
If you want a “fix it and forget it” portfolio, investing in index mutual funds is a great option. An index fund is a type of mutual fund made with stocks that match the components of a market index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Index funds diversify your portfolio because you hold [...]
How Do I File an Auto Insurance Claim?
If you have ever been involved in an automobile accident, you probably remember how flustered you were after the initial impact. In the event of even a minor collision, it can be difficult to remember what your course of action should be. Calling the police should be your first step. After that, here are a [...]
Retirement Tips for the Self-Employed
When you are working for yourself, you may not have a human resources person or retirement specialist working for the company with which you are employed to help guide you through your retirement options. You may have to rely on yourself. As a self-employed individual, you have many of the same tax-deferred options as employees [...]
How the English Language Hurts Your Retirement Savings
Could the English language be hurting your ability to save for retirement? According to Keith Chen, former Yale University behavioral economist and current UCLA economist professor, it’s very possible that its hurting your retirement savings. English is considered a “future” language, meaning that in order to speak correctly, you have to use a different tense when [...]
Seven Tips for Saving Money on Your Utility Bills
If you feel like you spent more on your heating bills this winter, you’re right. In addition to the cold temperatures and massive snowstorms that blanketed much of the country, fuel costs increased significantly. Families who heated their homes with propane paid a whopping 54 percent more this past winter. In addition, natural gas heating [...]
How to Avoid Life Insurance Scams
Life insurance can give you the peace of mind that your spouse or children will be taken care of in the event of your death. Unfortunately, there are fraudsters out there who know how to prey on your fear for your dependents and scam you out of thousands of dollars. When you’re shopping for a [...]
Credit Monitoring FAQs: I Received an Alert, What Should I Do?
If you’ve purchased a credit monitoring product to help you stay on top of the information in your credit file, you may at some point receive an alert. When the alert is about a change you’ve recently initiated—a new credit card or mortgage, for example—it may not be a surprise. But when you receive an [...]