Smart strategies that actually work—even for beginners Stock investing isn’t gambling, but it can feel that way without a plan. While you can’t remove risk entirely, you can lower it significantly. The key is knowing what to look for, how to buy wisely, and how to protect your downside. Here’s how to invest in stocks without losing sleep—or your savings. 1. Buy great companies, not just cheap stocks A low stock price doesn’t mean it’s a...
For many people, spending money is more exciting than saving. Even if this is your belief, it doesn’t mean you should spend every less dime without ever putting any money in the bank. There are many reasons why people neglect to save, with this being one of the biggest culprits: they don’t know what they are saving for. Here are five things you should be saving for: 1. Retirement. At some point you will want to...
Being frugal is easier said than done. Even though you may be interested in saving money, no matter what it takes, if you don’t have the right mental approach you will find yourself coming up short. Once you change your approach, it will not be long before you are realizing the benefits of living a frugal lifestyle. In fact, you may soon find that this is easier than you ever believed possible. Getting in the right...
When you look at your emergency fund what do you see? While some people are happy with the amount of money they have saved, others come to realize the following: they need to make up ground in a hurry. Nobody wants to be faced with an emergency, but you never know what is going to happen in the future. Why not prepare for the worst but hope for the best? Here are three reasons why you...
Do you have an emergency account? Do you add money to this on a regular basis? Do you need to get serious about growing the balance? Like many, you may add a few dollars to this account every now and again. For example, you do this when you have money leftover at the end of the month. However, if you really want to grow the balance, you need to get serious about adding large chunks as...
Savings for your current child or future child needs to be a big goal for you and your family. I found this amazing, but a recent government study found that it can take over $235,000 to raise a child from infancy to age 17. In fact that number does not include college, extracurricular activities, or family vacations. Now that you know its going to cost a lot to provide for a child, I wanted to lay...
Now that I am officially a family man, I have found that I have started to really look for ways for my family to save more money each month. I am sure other families feel this pinch and are constantly looking for ways to save money as well. While it is rare eliminating a single expense will give you control over your finances, you can usually save a lot of money by combining savings from several...
As I wrote on what a bond rating is last month, I wanted to also write an overview of what equity research is as well. You may be familiar with what equity research is, some may not. Below is a high-level overview of what equity research is, and feel free to ask any follow up questions in the comments section below. Equity research is primarily focused on publicly traded stocks. The purpose of equity research is...
Some people can be very frugal. In certain economic environments frugality is very important and can help you save money or survive in an economic downturn. Frugality is more than just clipping coupons. Being frugal is about aiming to get the most value from life's resources, including stretching your budget to its fullest potential. In working toward achieving that value, frugal people tend to adopt a wide range of daily habits. Below are the habits I...
Many investors have their investments spread across multiple accounts and it can be difficult to properly track the value of your overall portfolio. Your investment portfolio includes 401(k)s, IRAs, and investment accounts with multiple brokerage accounts. You could try to go to multiple websites and gather all of the performance yourself. However, sometimes that is not efficient, so I wanted to walk through a few ways to efficiently track your investment portfolio. Please comment if you...
