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Family Finance Favorites
10+ Things to Know About How Mortgages Actually Work
This quarter for the Family Finance Book Club pick, we read The Big Short by Michael Lewis, giving many of you a front-row seat and eye-opening read about how the mortgage industry nearly collapsed the entirety of Wall Street, taking Main Street down with it… but it also left you with lots of questions. Like,…
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How Much Should I Get Paid? Be Sure You Know Your Worth!
Ever wonder, “How much should I get paid?” Whether you are freshly graduated from school, new to your field or area, or just feel like you are being paid what you are worth, I think every woman has asked herself this question at some point in time. Women are not alone in the battle for…
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Why the National Debt Matters: Understand Your Family’s Risk
Learn why the national debt matters and how it directly impacts your family now, and going forward We all have our biased lens through which we look at the world. As a former financial analyst, my lens is biased towards the numbers: dollars, cents and statistics. While today there are many points of highly publicized political debate,…
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How to Calculate How Much House I Can Actually Afford
First time homebuyers, and even experienced homebuyers who may be buying in a new area or buying into a higher price point, often ask me how much house they can really afford or how much of their income their mortgage should be. The key to answering these questions is understanding that the total cost of…
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Your Top 10 Income Tax Questions and Answers
This time of year, most families’ biggest financial concern is filing income taxes. In 2018, a brand new tax bill took effect and brought in sweeping changes to many family’s personal income taxes and lots of questions with it. A year later, I’m still getting lots of inquiries about it, so this week, I’ve put…
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Your Average Family Budget Breakdown FAQs
When I first published the example of a family budget based on the Consumer Expenditure Survey data, I knew there would be questions, requests to dig into various parts of the data more, and the need for clarifications. Here are the questions I’ve been asked most often about the average family budget breakdown, and the…
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Where Should You Keep An Emergency Fund?
The first major step on the Family Finance Road Map to free yourself from credit cards and adding to your debt is to build an Emergency Fund. But where to keep that emergency fund is this week’s follower Ask Me Anything topic. Every day, I get lots of great questions from followers across social media,…
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How to Shop at Aldi
Learn the ins and outs of how to shop at ALDI, the international discount grocery chain, to save money on your family’s grocery bill. When it comes to budgeting, many families single biggest struggle is grocery spending. You try to save money by meal planning, you make lists, you try to eat in instead of…
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How Much Money Should I Save for Retirement
Once your budget is under control, the next most common question I get is “How much should I save for retirement?” Our retirement plan is likely to look a lot different than it did for our grandparents, and even our parents… and most of us aren’t saving nearly enough!
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Finance News this Week 4-5-2021
It was a short week for the markets, with the stock market closed for Good Friday and the bond market closing early Friday at noon… but that didn’t stop there from being plenty of activity and finance news this week. The biggest news? President Biden unveiled the first part of his Build Back Better campaign…
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Monday Market Commentary 3-29-2021
The S&P 500 continued to have mixed performance last week, mostly coinciding with the direction of long-term interest rates. The market eventually finished the week up +1.6%, as long-term Treasury yields fell slightly, after closing at their highest yields in a year the week prior. This week, we also got insights on the housing market,…
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Market Weekly Update 3-22-2021
The S&P 500 put in a mixed performance this week: hitting a new all-time high Wednesday after the Fed’s FOMC statement but then selling off over the latter half of the week, ending the week down 0.8%. Long-term Treasury yields continued to rise, hitting their highest yields in a year, now surpassing pre-pandemic levels. This…
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20 High School Seniors Ask: How to Prepare for College Financially
I remember my college search process, the campus visits, and final choice like it was yesterday… my thought process went something likes this: I deserve to go anywhere that accepts me. Cost barely registered in my decision-making – and certainly not because my parents could afford it. My mom just kept telling me “we would…
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My 10 Favorite Money Books for Kids
After sharing my 20+ Favorite Finance Books for YOU… I got lots of requests to share a similar list of money books for kids. So I teamed up with my friend Lauren at Happily Ever Elephants to share just that! As the child of a kindergarten teacher, I grew up in a house full of…
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4 Simple Money Lessons All Kids Should Know
This is a sponsored post on behalf of BusyKid.com. As always, opinions remain 100% my own. Read on to learn how these basic money lessons are the perfect introduction to finance for kids at any age, and how the BusyKid app can help you successfully implement them all! Birthdays. Christmas. Back to School. Weekly errands.…
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Lazy Mom’s Quick and Easy Shepherd’s Pie
One of my favorite, go-to meal plan ideas for Fall and Winter is Shepherd’s Pie… but seriously, who has time to cook the filling, make mashed potatoes, put it all together, and then, bake it all over again??? Here’s how I make all the same flavors happen in 30 minutes or less for a quick…
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10 Best Things to Buy At Costco
When it comes to saving money on groceries, I swear by two things: meal planning and Costco! For families, you can save tremendously on your grocery budget by buying right and buying in bulk… and there’s no better place to do it than Costco. Just before the holidays, I asked my Instagram followers what are…
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How to Save Money At the Grocery Store
When it comes to budgeting, many families struggle with sticking to their food budget every month. There are lots of ways to lower your monthly grocery spend: you can save money on groceries by meal planning, eating in instead of eating out, but you can also learn how to save money at the grocery store…
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Budgeting Your Time to Maximize Your Mom Schedule
If you’re a busy mom who feels like your days are passing in a blur, while your to-do list grows faster than you can ever seem to keep up with, this one’s for you. While it may seem as a stay at home mom in particular, you should have all the time in the world,…
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How to Protect Your Children: 10 Things to Know About Will vs Estate Planning
No one likes to think about their own mortality. However, once you have children who depend on you, it becomes essential. If something happens to you, what will happen to them? How do you make sure they are protected and financially provided for? I was recently asked about wills during a weekly Ask Me Anything…
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The Ultimate Guide to Finance for Baby’s First Year
Congratulations, your precious baby is finally here. Now the real fun begins! While you may have purchased everything on your baby registry list, there are many family legal and financial tasks you cannot actually begin until your baby arrives, and some come with significant time sensitivity. So even if you’ve been preparing for a baby financially…
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