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Finding Housing During a Financial Crisis

In today’s economy, finding housing is hard enough even when you’re flush with cash. When your financial situation is problematic, finding a place to live can feel darn near impossible. Before you panic and/or reconcile yourself to being homeless, make sure you try some of these tips and techniques to help you keep a roof over your head. Finding Housing During a Financial Crisis Put Your Pride Away In spite of what you might have heard, there is nothing wrong with applying for the Section 8 program. In fact, the Section 8 program is often a lifesaver for people whose financial situations and housing needs are dire. In many states, Section 8 is a universal tool. Landlords are not allowed … Read more

How Fantasy Football Is Just Like Investing in the Stock Market

by Guest Contributor

How Fantasy Football is just like the Stock Market

The following is a guest post by Ben from YoungMoneyFinance.com about investing in the stock market. If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines.

A lot of us shy away from the stock market. It’s almost like we’re afraid of investing in the stock market. Sure, we know that we should invest our money, but a lot of us get nervous when it comes to doing so in the stock market. Too many ups and downs, too unpredictable.

Most of us write off our inexperience and lack of knowledge and decide to stay out of the market. However, we do spend a lot of time and energy on our fantasy football teams, and if you think about it, playing fantasy football isn’t all that different from investing in the stock market.

How Fantasy Football Is Like Investing In The Stock Market

LendEDU published the results of a very cool survey while we’re on the topic of fantasy football. Here are some of the interesting results…

The average season-long fantasy football player spends $286.84 on league-entry fees, while the average daily player (DraftKings, FanDuel) spends $272.52 on related fees.
The average player spends nearly 8 hours a week on fantasy football and 4.31 hours a week of work, or $1,186 in lost productivity if you factor in the U.S. median wage.
89.6% of season-long players expect a positive ROI this year, while 92.41% of daily players expect a positive ROI. Nothing wrong with a little confidence! Can we say confidence bias?

Just like managing a good stock portfolio…

1) Depth and diversification are key. A good fantasy team is made up of a number of different players, each playing a different role. A good stock portfolio also has different stocks playing different roles. You’ll have your growth stocks (ones you expect to grow in value) and your value stocks (less price appreciation but lots of dividends). You’ve invested in different industries, just as you wouldn’t have a team full of RBs.

2) You have your core players and ones you can easily trade. Your fantasy team is made up of several core players (what up Peyton!) and then your TBD players. Some weeks you’ll pick up a new player and give them a start or two and depending on how they do, you’ll either drop or keep them. Your core players, though, are your winners.

They’ve proven themselves time and time again and you’d never trade them. A good portfolio will have your winners and then stocks that you’re testing out. Don’t be afraid to buy a couple of stocks and then trade them out when they don’t live up to your expectations.

3) Perceived value. We each learn how to notice and pick up undervalued players when we see one. It earns us ultimate bragging rights. Conversely, we’re quick to trade a player while he’s still ‘hot’ when we know he’s going nowhere but downhill. Stocks are the same way.I’m always on the lookout for quality stocks that have taken a hit by the market. Perhaps some big investor has been trash talking them, or the company made a dumb mistake. It doesn’t mean they’re not a good company – rather, just that they are a good buying opportunity for me!

4 Things Businesses Should Include in a Terms of Service Agreement

by Guest Contributor

Not Sure Which Business Is Right For You?

While no one reads the terms of service agreement for many service providers—such as social media networks—creating an airtight agreement will protect your business from many future legal headaches. What to Include in a Terms of Service Agreement Here are four things businesses should include in a terms of service agreement. Provide a Definition of Your Service or Product This is something that essentially every kind of business—big or small—will want to include in its terms of service. By providing a definition of your product or service that is easy to understand, and can only be interpreted one way, you are mitigating any claim that someone was deceived by your product. In some ways, this is another form of small … Read more

How to Not Waste Your Vacation Days with a Retirement Rehearsal

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Greg PHELPS, CFP®, CLU®, AIF®, AAMS®, a CEFEX certified fiduciary financial advisor, speaker, author, and the creator of the Wealth Summit. Greg has his own financial planning practice at Redrock Wealth Management

I came across this interesting concept the other day called the “retirement rehearsal”. Apparently, something like 50 billion dollars of vacation time goes unused – or lost – each year when people retire.

The retirement rehearsal concept is to plan years in advance of retirement to actually use those dollars to “try” being retired. It’s an interesting concept so I spent a bit of time learning more.

Over 50 billion dollars worth of vacation time is lost each year when people retire. Click To Tweet

The Retirement Rehearsal

There’s an intangibility about what retirement might look like for most people. Many people think retirement is trips to Disney World with the grandkids, traveling around in an RV, and rounds of golf every day. In reality, many retirees struggle to fill the 40 hour void left by the absence of a full-time job.

The first step in rehearsing your retirement is to make sure you have a written financial plan. The retirement rehearsal is useless if you can’t go back to a written plan and make the necessary adjustments.

How to Get Cash After Your Debit Card is Stolen

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Kelly Kehoe. If you’d like to submit a guest post to Money Q&A, check out our guest posting guidelines.

Credit and debit card fraud happens all the time, but if you’re traveling abroad like I did recently, it can be a nightmare to deal with. After withdrawing money from an ATM just once in Barcelona, I received an email two days later about a withdrawal that had posted to my account amounting to $540.

Another transaction from the same vendor with the odd name (it was Russian, according to my frantic Google search) was pending for $285. I immediately emailed my credit union (it was 9pm back home) and within 12 hours, my ATM card was completely shut down.

While I was grateful that no other fraudulent charges would show up, I was now in trouble because I had zero access to my bank accounts (except online), no cash (a lot of places I went to in Europe, especially Germany, were cash-only), and 8 more days left of my trip with just a credit card to help me pay for expenses.

How to Get Cash After Your Debit Card is Stolen

To save you a headache and anxiety of confronting the same problem I did, here are some things I learned while dealing with debit card fraud abroad:

What to Do When Your Debit Card is Stolen

The Federal Trade Commission outlines your legal rights in cases of credit or debit card fraud. If you’re lucky like I was – even though I didn’t feel “lucky” at the time! – and you still have your debit card in your possession, then you won’t be liable for any of the fraudulent charges as long as you report them within 60 days.

If your debit card was lost or stolen, however, you could be liable for up to $50 of the charges if you notify your bank or credit union within 2 days. If you notify them after 2 days but before the 60-day mark, then your liability increases to $500. If you wait longer than 60 days, then you could be liable for the entire amount of fraudulent charges. Even if you have to pay a couple dollars to call your bank from abroad, it’s worth it to report the charges as early as possible.

Once you report the fraudulent charges, your bank or credit union will likely email you a dispute form to fill out and return (ask a representative how long you can wait to submit this if you don’t have access to a computer or printer while traveling). Depending on your financial institution, you could get your money back within 48 hours to 3 weeks, on average. To ensure other aspects of your personal identity are safe, keep a close eye on your credit report for the next couple months as well.

The Quick ROI Calculation for College Education

by Guest Contributor

Should You Take Out Private Student Loans for College?

The following is a guest post from Douglas Boneparth and Heather Boneparth, the authors of The Millennial Money Fix. If you’d like to guest post on Money Q&A, be sure to check out our guest post guidelines.

Ultimately, understanding the return on your college investment isn’t as easy as plugging numbers into an equation. After all, the college experience is much more than just what you learn in the classroom and what job you land after school. Yet, some basic math can actually teach us if choosing a certain school is a good or bad financial decision. Yet, for all the AP math classes out there, no one seems to be doing the simple addition and subtraction needed to figure out if pursuing a college degree is really worth it.

Calculating Return on Investment for a College Education

As our book, The Millennial Money Fix (Career Press, 2017) points out, we know that those with a college education earn more than those who don’t have one – something like $17,000 more a year on average over a 30-year career. While this statistic is compelling, this is only one-half of the equation.

What we fail to show young people is how the cost of obtaining that education affects their ability to go into the world on solid footing. The average college graduate leaving school with close to $37,000 in student loan debt, making it obvious that one of the main sources of paying for college for many people is through loans. And in some extreme cases, students are borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars to enjoy the college experience but no know exactly what it is they want to do. Yikes!

In order to help those thinking about going to college or those already in school (it’s not too late for you older Millennials), I am going to share with you the simple real-world math that anyone can use to quickly determine if they are making a smart financial decision regarding higher education and borrowing loans to make it happen.