Personal finance, explained with real numbers.
Ask what a move costs and most people quote the truck rental. The truck is usually the smallest line on the bill. Moving is a classic sinking-fund expense: predictable, lumpy, and consistently …
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Yes, 700 is a good credit score. It is also below the national average, two tiers from the top of FICO's scale, and four pricing bands below the best conventional mortgage rate. All of those are true …
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Everyone budgets for the price of the house. Almost nobody budgets for the other four categories, which is why "we can afford the mortgage" and "we can afford the house" turn out to be different …
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Renovation budgets do not blow up because homeowners are careless. They blow up because of a structural feature of the work: you cannot see inside the walls until you open them. Everything else …
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Strip the jargon and an index fund is one idea: instead of betting on which companies win, buy a sliver of all of them. A fund tracking a broad index (the S&P 500, or a total-market index) holds …
Continue Reading about Index Funds for Beginners: What “Buying the Market” Actually Means →
The dealership will never ask what car you can afford. It asks what monthly payment you're comfortable with — and then engineers a loan, of whatever length necessary, that hits the number. That's how …
Continue Reading about How Much Car Can You Actually Afford? The 20/4/10 Stress Test →
