Category: Saving and Investing ideas

Many of us dream about how it would feel to not have a monthly mortgage payment. Owning your home free and clear is the aspiration of numerous homeowners. But even without – in most cases – that hefty payment leaving your checkbook every 30 days, there are actually some reasons…

Free checking is coming to end thanks to new Financial reform regulation that will force banks to cut overdraft and ATM fees, which traditionally covered the cost of providing free checking accounts. Bank of America and Wells Fargo, US banks with the largest branch networks, have already started to discontinue…

After about a year of running my business, I'd built up a decent cushion of savings sitting in a checking account earning close to nothing. The account had features I liked, but it wasn't putting compounding to work for me — so after a promotional offer (a bonus rate plus…

Read an interesting article in the NY times, discussing states that are suing the various corporate credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Fitch, because of the losses they bore from securities they rated as AAA. They argue that these "incorrect" ratings have cost them millions now and into…

With gold prices soaring, it seems that even central banks around can't get enough of the yellow metal. Recent figures still show the US atop the list, but other nation's are rapidly catching up. After all, every central bank (and the International Monetary Fund) with a large holding of American…

Everyone who has a 401(k) or IRA has read the standard playbook: invest regularly, diversify, keep costs low. Good advice, all of it. But knowing what not to do is just as important — and some of the most expensive mistakes are the ones that feel reasonable in the moment.…

Here's the rule that makes everything below actually work: pay your card in full every month. At an average APR above 21% in 2026, a single month of carried interest wipes out most of what a cash-back or rewards card can earn you. With that out of the way, here's…

10-year TIPS were yielding a real, after-inflation return of roughly 2.3% as of July 2026, according to Federal Reserve data. That's a genuinely positive real return — a different environment than 2020-2022, when TIPS yields were negative or barely positive. Here's how TIPS actually work, what today's yields mean in…

Robinhood app I have been a big fan of discount brokers, primarily because of their low to zero trading costs and easy to use online brokerage platforms. However it looks the low cost broker wars have intensified with a strong new player in the stock trading scene, who is winning…

There is an important debate brewing around inflation in terms of its rise and sustainability. Many believe we are headed to significantly higher inflation in the coming months as Trump cuts taxes and imposes tariffs. Ultimately, whether we see inflation as a significant or permanent risk is a decision we…

As the stock market booms, many new and sidelined investors are getting tempted to jump back into the market. After all, you don’t want to look back in a few years and say, “If only, I had bought stocks then….” However, as past years have shown, the market can fall just…

Nowadays every extra dollar counts more than ever. Despite a paycheck from working a regular job, once taxes and other fixed expenses are accounted for, it is getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Since there are only twenty four hours in day, physically working more (provided you can…

Gold traded around $4,121 an ounce on July 10, 2026, up about 22.8% from a year earlier. It's also down slightly over the past month, which is the point: gold moves, and I'm not going to pretend I know where it goes next. What I can do is lay out…