Personal finance, explained with real numbers.
The S&P 500 does not hold 500 stocks. S&P Dow Jones Indices' own characteristics table showed 503 constituents when we checked it on August 6, 2026 — several companies have more than one share …
Continue Reading about S&P 500 vs Total Market: What Each Index Actually Holds →
The Federal Reserve deleted the six-transfers-a-month cap on savings accounts on April 24, 2020, after reserve requirement ratios were cut to zero, and has stated it has no plans to re-impose transfer …
Continue Reading about How Envelope Budgeting Works: Setup, Sizing, and Resets →
The EPA's most recent estimate puts the cost of the food an American consumer throws away at $728 per person per year — about $14 a week, roughly 11 percent of what that consumer spends on food at …
Continue Reading about How to Save Money on Groceries, Ranked by Size →
Three funds tracking the S&P 500 charge 0.015%, 0.03% and 0.0945% a year. Fidelity's 500 Index Fund (FXAIX) is the first, and Fidelity states it in dollars on its own page: $0.15 per $1,000 a …
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The strongest evidence that people spend less when they pay in cash is a 2024 meta-analysis covering 392 effect sizes from 71 published and unpublished papers. It found the effect is real. It also …
Continue Reading about Envelope Budgeting: What the Evidence Does and Doesn’t Show →
The FDIC publishes a national average savings rate. In the release dated July 20, 2026 — which, per the FDIC's own methodology, reflects data from the last business day of the prior month, so roughly …
Continue Reading about Where to Keep an Emergency Fund: Insurance, Yield, Access →
