Personal finance, explained with real numbers.
Every budgeting method assumes a number you don't have: a predictable monthly income. For freelancers, commission earners, tipped workers, seasonal trades and anyone on variable hours, the standard …
Continue Reading about Budgeting on a Variable Income: Budget the Floor, Not the Average →
"FICO score" and "credit score" get used interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where most credit confusion lives. FICO is a company — Fair Isaac Corporation — that …
Continue Reading about FICO vs. “Credit Score”: Why You Have Dozens, Not One →
The kitchen is the most expensive room in most renovations and the one with the widest possible price range. Ask what a kitchen remodel costs and the honest answer is "somewhere between $10,000 and …
Continue Reading about Kitchen Remodel Costs: The Three Tiers, and Which One You Actually Want →
Apartment hunting is conducted in rent. Apartment living is conducted in the total, and the two differ by about a quarter. The real monthly number A $1,400 apartment, fully …
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Almost every article on this question gives you a number: 620 for a conventional loan, 580 for FHA, 640 for USDA. Two of those three are now wrong, and the third was never a published rule. Here is …
Continue Reading about What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House? (The 620 Rule Is Gone) →
Most people budget a trip by pricing the flights, because flights are the part with an obvious number attached. Flights are usually under a quarter of the real cost. Here is the whole formula. The six …
Continue Reading about The Trip-Cost Formula: What a Week Away Actually Costs →
