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Personal Finance blog
Debt Snowball or Debt Avalanche? Two Payoff Plans Run on the Same Four Debts The avalanche saves the most interest; the snowball may finish more often. Both plans run on the same four hypothetical debts, with the trade-off in dollars. Social Security is not your property, and Flemming v. Nestor said so The Supreme Court held in 1960 that workers have no contractual right to Social Security benefits, so every promise about them is a political one. What the Social Security and Medicare trust funds hold, and depletion day The trust funds hold Treasury IOUs, and when they run out benefits fall automatically to what payroll taxes bring in. Here is the arithmetic. ESG investing with your pension money bends the fiduciary duty owed you A retirement manager owes you loyalty to your financial interest alone. Investing your savings to advance social goals breaks the duty ERISA set in 1974. Pay the Tax Now or Pay It Later? Traditional and Roth Accounts Side by Side Traditional or Roth is a bet on whether your tax rate will be higher now or later. A side-by-side table and a worked hypothetical under three rate scenarios. How a 401(k), a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA Really Work, in Twelve Questions The common retirement accounts in twelve questions: who opens them, when tax is paid, matching, early withdrawals, rollovers and required distributions. From Savings Banks to Roth Accounts, a Timeline of How Americans Learned to Save Private thrift built American saving, and a few laws let ordinary workers own a nest egg. A dated timeline from the 1816 savings banks to the Roth IRA. Compound Interest Year by Year, the Arithmetic That Rewards the Patient Saver Compound interest is plain arithmetic. Worked year by year at a hypothetical rate, it shows why starting early wins and how fees and inflation bite. The Paid-Off Car Is a Raise, the Arithmetic of Driving Your Car Longer Keeping a reliable car for years after the last payment frees up hundreds of dollars a month, with the worked arithmetic shown. Six Things People Believe About Health Insurance That Are Simply Not So Six common beliefs about health insurance, from who pays the premium to preexisting conditions and price shopping, tested one at a time with a verdict on each. Cut a Year Off College Before Graduation With Dual Enrollment and CLEP A motivated high school student can bank a semester or more of college credit cheaply, if the family checks transfer rules first. The steps, in order. That Little Number on a Federal Form Can Protect You From a Penalty The OMB control number printed on federal forms exists because of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and its public protection provision has real force and limits. How Direct Primary Care Works and How to Find a Practice That Offers It Direct primary care swaps the insurer for a flat monthly fee, and this step-by-step guide shows how to test whether it fits your family in a single afternoon. Teaching Kids About Money, a Plan From the Piggy Bank to the First Paycheck A stage-by-stage family plan for teaching children to save, give and spend, from three jars at age five to a first paycheck and a first account. Marriage and Money, Why One Household Budget Beats Two Separate Ledgers A marriage is one household, so a joint budget is a moral choice before a bookkeeping one; the premises, a worked couple and the best objection answered. Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth, Read Line by Line for Modern Savers Franklin's 1758 preface to his almanac is still the shortest American course in industry, thrift and avoiding debt; read passage by passage for a family budget. 'The success sequence is just correlation,' answered point by point Critics say finishing school, working and marrying before children only describes privilege. The evidence says more than that, and the objection has answers. The Side Business Test, How to Know Whether Your Idea Can Pay Its Own Way Price, variable cost and fixed cost tell you whether a business idea can pay for itself, shown with a labeled home-bakery example and the traps around it. Buy or Rent? One Family, One City and a Five-Year Worked Example Owning wins for families who stay and costs dearly for those who move in three years. A hypothetical family, worked year by year, with the break-even shown. Why the Emergency Fund Comes Before Every Other Money Goal You Have A cash reserve is the foundation of every other money goal. The argument in numbered premises, where to keep it, how to start, and the investing objection. A Shopper's Playbook for Getting a Real Price Before a Medical Procedure Ten numbered steps for getting a price before planned care, from the billing office call to the Good Faith Estimate to a dispute if the bill runs over. Give Every Dollar a Job Before the Month Starts, the Zero-Based Budget Income minus planned outflows equals zero before the month begins. How a zero-based budget works, with a labeled example and irregular income. Eleven Questions About Health Savings Accounts, Answered for Working Families How a health savings account works, where it came from, what it costs, and why conservatives should explain it to families never offered the choice. The Envelope Budget, Cash in Labeled Envelopes and a Month Worked to the Dollar When the grocery envelope is empty, grocery spending is done. A step-by-step envelope budget, worked on a labeled hypothetical family of four. Carrying a Balance Builds Credit and Six Other Borrowing Myths, Tested Seven common ideas about borrowing, each tested against plain arithmetic and the law, with a verdict on every one. How a Credit Score Is Built and Why Paying on Time Beats Every Trick A credit score summarizes a few behaviors, mostly paying on time and not using much of your available credit, and no trick beats those habits. Executive Order 6102, the Spring Americans Were Ordered to Turn In Their Gold In April 1933 Washington ordered citizens to hand over most of their gold, a story every saver who trusts paper promises should know. Gold and Silver as Savings, How They Work and the Risks Sellers Don't Mention Precious metals are an old store of value with real virtues and real drawbacks, and a saver deserves both stated plainly. Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof, the Founders' Monetary Clauses The Founders gave Congress power to coin money and barred states from paper tender after the Continental collapsed. What the clauses mean for the Fed. Gold standard, Friedman's rule or today's Fed, three answers compared Conservatives disagree about money. Here are five monetary regimes on one table, with a fair hearing for each camp before a verdict. A central bank digital currency is a dollar Washington could program A retail CBDC would give government a ledger of every purchase and the power to restrict or expire money. Here is how it works and why to refuse it.