Personal Finance

Are you currently or have you ever worried about the state of your financial situation? Whether you’re struggling to pay off debts, living paycheck to paycheck, living with minimal savings, or falling behind on retirement contributions, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced anxiety about your finances at some point in your life. After all, a January 2020 CreditWise survey by Capital One found 73% of Americans rank finances as their #1 cause of stress, significantly more than the rates of stress caused by politics, work, and family. Notably, the survey also found that more than 80% of Millennials and Gen Zers are reportedly stressed out by their personal finances. Still, financial stress isn’t exclusively a younger generation problem, of course. … Read more

Nobody wants to think about dying, but unfortunately, it’s such a big component of financial planning that you can’t afford to ignore the prospects of dying earlier than expected. In addition to planning for the future with life insurance options, you should also be aware of Social Security survivor benefits. Social Security Survivor Benefits When You Report a Death In most cases, funeral homes are responsible for reporting deaths to the Social Security Administration (though you need to give their Social Security number beforehand). If you want or need to report the death yourself, you can call 1-800-772-1213 (Mon-Fri, 7am to 7pm) or visit a local Social Security office to file the report. It’s important not to cash any checks … Read more

Apparently, Americans are not good at vacationing. According to the U.S. Travel Association, more than half of Americans did not use all their vacation time in 2018. Every year, more and more vacation days go unused. As we begin a new year and venture into a new decade, how can we change our priorities to include using those hard-earned vacation days? You can save money on vacation and on your next vacation. Let’s dig a little deeper into the problem. Why are we not taking vacations? For some, leaving work is just plain hard. There is often a lot of preparation that goes into taking time off work and sometimes, it is easier to just stay put. But, for many … Read more

The following is a guest post by Joey Cohn, creator and author of HardlySimple.com. Are you interested in submitting a guest post to Money Q&A? Be sure to check out our Guest Posting Guidelines. Have you ever wanted to take control of your finances?  How about your health?  What if I told you that there are things you can do to take control of both?  Well (surprise!) that’s exactly what I’m going to do.  And the best part of all?  It comes down to one simple thing.  Creating habits. Not just habits, but good habits.  The right habits, for you.  See, I can only take you so far.  And while I’m sure if you actually did exactly what I did that … Read more