Saving
How to actually hit a savings goal
Working out the monthly number takes ten seconds. Still having that number leaving your account eleven months later is the part nobody writes about.
Retirement
How much do you need to retire?
There is a famous shortcut, and it is genuinely useful. It is also built on assumptions that are worth knowing before you bet thirty years on it.
Housing
What your mortgage payment actually includes
The number your lender quotes and the number that leaves your account every month are not the same number. The gap is usually a third of the payment.
Debt
The minimum payment trap
The minimum payment is not designed to get you out of debt. It is designed to keep the debt comfortable — and it is extraordinarily good at its job.
Inflation
What inflation quietly does to your savings
Inflation never takes money out of your account. It does something harder to notice: it leaves the number exactly where it is and shrinks what the…
Income
What your salary is really worth per hour
Dividing your salary by 2,080 gives you a number. Whether it is a useful number depends on how many hours the job actually takes.
Net worth
Net worth: the one number that tells the truth
Income describes what passes through your hands. Net worth describes what stopped. Only one of them can be faked with a good salary.
Borrowing
Debt-to-income: the number lenders check first
Before anyone looks at your credit score, they work out how much of your income is already promised to somebody else. You can calculate it yourself…
Budgeting
The 50/30/20 rule, explained in 3 minutes
If every month you wonder where your paycheck went, the 50/30/20 rule is the simplest starting point there is. No complicated apps, no 40-column…
Security
5 signs an "investment" is a scam
Good investments are boring. Scams are exciting, urgent and sound too good. These are the five red flags that give them away in seconds.
Mindset
Money Scripts: the beliefs that sabotage your money
Your money decisions don't come from logic. They come from beliefs you installed before age twelve, without realizing it. They're called money…
Saving
Emergency fund: how much you really need
An emergency fund doesn't make you rich. It does something more important: it keeps an unexpected event from sinking you into debt. And almost no…
Debt
Get out of debt: snowball vs. avalanche
There are two proven ways to get out of debt. One wins with math; the other, with psychology. The best is, almost always, the one you'll actually…
Investing
Compound interest: why starting today changes everything
They called it the eighth wonder of the world. Compound interest is why starting at 25 beats starting at 35, even if you save half as much.