Save Money

I’ve been following certificates of deposit for a while now. Yes, I’m a weirdo. People love 12-month CDs and 60-month CDs (5 years) because they’re easy to think about. We like the 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month terms because they’re nicely spaced out. Sometimes people will consider a 24-month CD too. But lately banks have been […]

Have you ever wondered how much money you should be saving? Unfortunately, the answer to that question isn’t always as obvious as you might think. Savings rates for individuals and families will vary based on a number of factors. Your income, expenses, where you live, and your personality type all play a role in how

When you open a new brokerage account, there’s a good chance they asked you for your risk tolerance. Are you aggressive? Are you conservative? Can you stomach a loss of 10%? 20%? 50%? I believe these are stupid questions because they focus on the wrong things. And I have to believe that brokerages know this!

One of the ironies of credit is that it’s hard to establish. Credit card companies won’t give you a card if you don’t have good credit and you can’t build credit unless you get a credit card. To get around this, you forced to use sub-optimal credit cards, like a store branded credit card or

Upgrade is a financial technology company that offers banking services through a variety of banking partners. They’re known for their personal loans but they also offer deposit products, like a rewards checking and savings account, as well as credit and debit cards. Checking and savings accounts are provided by FDIC-insured Cross River Bank and their

Have you ever calculated how much your time is worth? As they say, money is time. There are so many ways to do it. You can take your salary and divide it by 2,000. You can take a multiple of that, say 2x or 3x. Or you can just say “I’m valuing it at $X”

Commercial banks make money by charging more interest on loans than they pay on deposits, by taking a small cut of debit and credit card transactions, and through various fees on loans and deposit accounts. They may have other income sources, but those are the big ones. The post How Do Banks Make Money? Income

If you are an active trader, especially if you are into options trading, Tastytrade is one of the best platforms for doing so. They are designed for active traders so the emphasis is on features that you’ll need. This includes an emphasis on speed and tools for the active trader, like quick trades, quick trade

If you want to build wealth, one of the best ways is to invest in the stock market. The average return of the S&P 500 over the past 151 years has been 8.4%1. The numbers get even more impressive if you look at rolling periods of 5, 10, and 20 years. In every 20 year

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Goonies. And one of my favorite moments is when Mikey finds One-Eye Willy’s treasure map (really, it’s when Chunk drops the frame) and the Goonies go on their quest to find his treasure. We love treasure maps. And we have one too – it’s a

In mid-2020, Empower Retirement acquired Personal Capital. In February 2023, Personal Capital was rebranded and pulled into the Empower Retirement brand. Empower Retirement was founded in 1891 and they are a retirement plan administrator. They have over 69,000 retirement plans under administration covering over 17 million participants. They are the 2nd largest retirement services country