by Rachel Christian, CEPF®Senior WriterYou’ve probably heard of health savings accounts, or HSAs. You can use these accounts to pay medical expenses if you have a specific type of health plan with high out-of-pocket costs. But with sweet tax advantages, HSAs can also be a smart way to save for future medical expenses in retirement. Think of it like a 401(k) for health care costs. We’ll dive into four specific ways you can
by Kari FaberStaff WriterWhen your salary finally tips over $100,000, all your worries about living paycheck-to-paycheck should be gone, right?Not necessarily. In fact, 16% of six-figure earners said they have difficulty covering basic expenses, such as food, rent or mortgage and car payments, according to a November 2020 survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.They’re living paycheck-to-paycheck.How is that possible? Here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter how much
by The Penny Hoarder Staff Meat has long been the most expensive item on our plates, but prices for chicken, beef and pork have jumped even higher as the pandemic moves into its third year. The sticker shock at the grocery store is real.At the end of 2021, beef was about 20% higher than the year before. Chicken prices had risen about 8.5% and pork was up nearly 17%, according
by Nicole DowSenior WriterWhen Nora Martin was expecting her first child, she wasn’t going to let all the many baby costs bring her down. She had a plan.“I pretty much wrote up everything that we needed … and then split up the total over six months to see how much we would have to save each month to get to our goal,” Martin said.This practice of splitting a large financial
by Lisa Rowan It’s that time of year again — tax season. Wondering where to start? Overwhelmed by advertising promises for tax prep help? Don’t dive in — or pay up — until you check out these options for filing your taxes for free. If you live in a state that collects income tax, you may have to pay a nominal fee to file through the services below. If you
Varo BankBest for Cash Back3.00% APY Axos Bank Essential Checking AccountBest for Unlimited ATM AccessUp to 1.25% Chime SpendingBest for Digital Features0.50% APY Ally Interest CheckingBest for No Fee PerksUp to 0.25% by Kathleen GarvinContributorDo you remember why you chose your current checking account?If you got started early, your parents might have helped you open a kids’ checking or savings account at their bank’s branch. Or maybe you went with
by Mike BrassfieldSenior WriterWhen it comes to investing your money, dead people have the right idea.You see, there’s this funny story that gets passed around on Wall Street. The way this story goes, one day, the chief bean counters at the financial giant Fidelity did this big study on what kinds of investors performed the best. And what they found out was, the accounts with the highest returns were classified
by Dana Sitar, CEPF®ContributorFiling taxes in the United States could be free and simple for everyone — if only tax prep companies weren’t lobbying to keep it so complicated.The Internal Revenue Service and your state tax collectors already have access to most of the information you painstakingly report in a tax return, because your employers and banks are required to provide it.We could, in theory, have a return-free system, where
Are you earning enough money?If you’re like most Americans, you probably feel like you’re not. You may also feel like you don’t have enough in the bank, that your cost of living is rising, and that it’s harder to make ends meet lately. Now more than ever, amid economic uncertainty and rising inflation, it’s hard not to worry about financial sufficiency.So, what exactly is ‘enough,’ and how many people feel
by The Penny Hoarder Staff Finding a reliable work-from-home gig can be a real chore, especially with so many job boards, listings and companies that regularly seek remote employees.Our work-from-home jobs portal is a great resource for finding new positions that become available every week. We hope you find it useful and check it often. But you may have wondered how we decide which work-from-home jobs are share-worthy.With a thorough
