Monthly Archives: October 2018

Reverse mortgages have gained popularity in recent years and provide additional monthly income for adults aged 62 and older with equity in their homes. Reverse mortgages let you borrow against your home’s equity so that you receive cash without selling your home. You can choose to receive a lump-sum payout, regular payments overtime, or set up a line of credit that allows you to take out money when you need it.

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It’s good to exercise caution even with reputable lenders, but many lenders are on the up-and-up. Legitimate lenders will conduct a credit check, won’t pressure you into agreements and may offer financial education and  tools to help you understand the details of your loan. Arming yourself with knowledge can help you understand what to look for in a loan and avoid bad terms.

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This 1968 law empowers borrowers in a few important ways. Lenders must clearly summarizes the APR, sum of all payments, total amount paid in interest and fees, and the total credit granted in a disclosure given to borrowers before they sign a loan contract. This law also gives borrowers the right to change their mind, in which they have three days after signing certain loans to cancel the loan.

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Learn to steer clear of these loans, which are great for the lender but horrible for your wallet. Payday loans are typically seen as predatory because the costs can escalate quickly: Annual percentage rates can reach 40o percent or higher, and borrowers may be encouraged to roll fees into expensive new loans. But mainstream loans, such as mortgage and auto loans, may have predatory terms, too. Learn how to protect yourself from these loans, how to spot one and alternative ways to borrow money. Research the lenders business record and whether they have questionable consumer rights actions or litigations.

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Cash in on unwanted gift cards instead of letting them go to waste by turning to trusted exchange sites. The five top websites to sell gift cards are:

1. Cardcash.com
2. Cardpool.com
3. Giftcash.com
4. CardKangaroo.com
5. Raise.com

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The Roth IRA is my favorite retirement vehicle, bar none. Because contributions are after-tax, that means you can look at your account and know that every penny (including earnings) is yours forever, tax-free. So contribute as early as you can. max it out every year for as long as you can, and you can sleep a little easier knowing your retirement will probably be okay.

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Change your habits so you can put money aside for the things that matter to you. But that’s also really, really hard to do. That’s because understanding personal finance is an uphill battle for many Americans. The smartest thing you can do, financially is to save a percentage of each paycheck. You can fund your emergency savings account first and then consider funding a Roth IRA.

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Automating your money works because you’re paying yourself first: if you automatically deposit a certain percentage of your paycheck to your savings, 401k, and other investments, you won’t be tempted to spend it later on. As Warren Buffet puts it, ”Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.

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By harnessing that pain of paying, you might be able to save money on discretionary spending, writes Joe Pinsker of the Atlantic, who says he records every credit card transaction in his phone after making it. ”After I buy something, I log the transaction on my phone, recording the price and what I bought,” he writes. ”The idea is to increase the pain of paying, especially with a credit card, by forcing myself to take note of what I’m spending.”

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If you’re trying to get your spending in order, one of the more painful ways to do is to embrace the ”pain of paying”, as Joe Pinsker writes in the Atlantic. That means, for one, paying for things with cash instead of credit. Because credit cards allow us to buy now and pay later, we tend to feel better about our purchases and overspend; paying with cash is a mentally more painful way to buy something because you’re parting with your money then and there.

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