savings

Why You Need An Emergency Fund

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It’s often said that trouble comes in threes. This past weekend, I narrowly avoided not one, but three expensive bills. On Friday, the washing machine broke down; it wouldn’t drain, leaving the drum and the laundry full of water. Fortunately, I was able to open it up and disconnect the pump from the hoses. Inside, […]

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What’s More Important: An Emergency Fund or Being Debt Free?

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Having an emergency fund is one of the most important steps to financial freedom, but if you listen to some personal finance pundits, it’s not as important as being debt free. (Dave Ramsey, I’m looking at you.) When you’re financially free, you’re out of debt and have a 3-6 month emergency fund, but when you’re […]

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Ask the Readers: How Are You Improving Your Financial Situation?

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There is good news coming from the recession. Last week, we learned that American consumers have cut their their debt by $21.6 billion, the largest ever on record, with credit card usage accounting for $6.1 billion of that total. Add that to the personal savings rate hitting 6.9% in May, the highest since 1993, and […]

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Freelance Finances: The Holy Trinity

Cartoonist Don Martin once wrote that the root source of the term “Freelance” was both “Lance,” a medieval knight’s weapon, and the French word “Froid” for cold. As in, if you didn’t succeed selling your services and making some money, you’re going to freeze to death outside in the cold. Those of us who’ve struck […]

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Savings Rate Hits 6.9%, Highest Since 1993

More good news coming from the recession: the personal savings rate continues to increase, hitting 6.9% in May. That’s up from 5.6% in April, and the highest since December of 1993, when it was 7.6% (according to the Wall Street Journal). At the same time, spending was up 0.3% in May and disposable personal income […]

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Are You Your Biggest Savings Enemy?

When it comes to managing your financial success, there’s no one more qualified to make decisions than you. (Yes, not even many fund managers.) But even though it’s up to you to plan out and execute your financial goals, you may be getting in the way of your own success. Let me share a story […]

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24% of Homeowners Have No Savings, Survey Says

Big news: we’re buying a house. If you’re wondering why the blog has been so empty recently, it’s because we’re in the final stages of purchasing our first house. And it takes a lot of patience, paperwork and … perspiration. In the past few weeks, I’ve been dealing with: realtors lenders lawyers sellers inspectors banks […]

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Why Every Account You Have Needs a Name

As I’m helping more people manage their finances, I’m finding one common theme: people don’t have names for their savings accounts. Instead of having multiple short-term savings accounts, they tend to only have one “savings account” that holds all of their money. If you’re in this situation, you need to break out your savings into […]

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Weekend Linkage: Rate Chasing, Roth IRAs and Automated Savings

Each week, there are tons of great posts from across the Personal Finance blogosphere that you may not have seen. In keeping up with this site, I barely have time to read all the articles I’d want. To end off the week, I’ll try and highlight some of the stories I’ve seen that will help […]

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Why an Emergency Fund is Crucial to Your Health

As much as you may know that having some money set aside in an online savings account for emergencies is important, research shows that it’s actually crucial for your sanity, too. The “Emergency Savings Survey Analysis” from the Consumer Federation of America has found that people with fewer than $500 in an emergency fund worry […]

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