What to Know Before You Invest in a Rental Property

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How To Evaluate The Rate Of Return On Rental Property

Buying a second home may seem like an extravagance in today’s cash-strapped economy, but it can potentially become a secondary source of income. With low home prices and interest rates, this may be an ideal time to become a real estate investor. However, you’ll want to conduct your research carefully and keep the following tips in mind before you invest in real estate and sink your money into a rental or holiday property. Invest in Real Estate and Rental Property Look at Different Types of Investments Before you invest in real estate and make this significant investment, you’ll need to look at all of your options closely. Some investors look for a vacation home that they can rent out on … Read more

What Is Payment for Order Flow and Why Investors Should Care About It

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stock prices

Payment for order flow is payment from a broker to a stock exchange for directing stock market orders its way. The payment may not be in the form of cash but rather as a credit to the broker’s trading account on the exchange. Payment for order flow can significantly impact market quality and liquidity because it incentivizes brokers to send their trading exclusively to specific stock exchanges. The practice has recently emerged as an important issue that investors should care about because of its effects on the market and liquidity. What You Need to Know About Payment for Order Flow Why Investors Should Care One of the key problems with payment for order flow is that it incentivizes brokers to … Read more

Top 9 Simple Strategies for Overcoming Lifestyle Creep in Your Budget

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Reasons to Add Fun Money to Your Budget

When you start making more money through your business, job, or investments, the next thing that typically happens is you start spending money more freely because you can finally afford to do so. There is a danger of lifestyle creep. Unfortunately, our desire to disregard our budgetary restrictions comes with a serious downside. We won’t make much progress in our financial goals if we’re too busy spending money and living at our means. It’s nice to have a little cash to wave around, especially if that wasn’t always the case. Nevertheless, you really need to rein it in, or you’ll end up practicing lifestyle creep. What’s that? In a nutshell, it dwells on the logic that an increase in income … Read more

Using a 529 College Savings Plan for Higher Education Costs

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Which is better a public or private college?

If you’re a parent, you want the best in life for your child. That includes seeing them go to college. To pay for tuition, books, labs, and other expenses, you have several options for financial assistance. One of these is using a 529 College Savings Plan. Considering that the cost to attend college continually increases, the sooner you start putting money aside, the better. A 529 College Savings Plan, also referred to as a “qualified tuition plan,” is one possibility to help you save money. Although certain aspects of this plan vary by state, overall, you can grow the funds tax-free. In most states, the contributions can also be deducted from state income taxes. While a 529 College Savings Plan … Read more

Top 5 Simple Ways to Save for a Down Payment on a Home

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Getting ready to buy your first home is exciting, though oftentimes overwhelming experience that requires extensive planning before you even start looking at potential options. If you don’t put in the time and effort to assess your current financial situation and set clear goals for your home-buying aspirations, you may fall short of your expectations and experience needless frustration along the way to save for a down payment. How to Save for a Down Payment One of the most important considerations you must make in the early planning stages is how much you want to spend on the home; not just the overall price but also the down payment, closing costs, monthly mortgage, HOA fees (if applicable), property taxes, and … Read more

Bitcoin vs Libra – How Are These Cryptocurrencies Different?

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How Secure Are Transactions Done Through Bitcoins?

Many people are curious about cryptocurrencies but still don’t fully understand how they work. We marvel at stories like the Norwegian guy who bought $27 worth of Bitcoin in 2009 (worth $980,000 in 2019 figures) and wonder how people with even one Bitcoin were clever enough to invest before it surpassed $18,600 in December 2017. It’s worth mentioning how volatile cryptocurrencies can be. In 2019, the value of one Bitcoin has hovered around the $9-11,000 mark, which is nearly half of what it was worth during the peak of Bitcoin hype just two years prior. Several other cryptocurrencies have come out over the years – including the Shiba Inu meme-inspired Dogecoin – but few have experienced the massive popularity and … Read more