Financial Solution News

Plug the holes

If you were in a boat in the middle of the ocean and you noticed that water was coming in through a hole, would you spend your time scooping the water out over the side of the boat, or would you plug the hole?
Getting out of debt works with the same principle. Our spending is like the water coming into the boat, and the way to fix it is to QUIT SPENDING!
Yes, it is obvious, but it needs to be repeated because for some reason our brains can realize that it is true, but not do anything about it. So our goal in this lesson is to plug the hole, stop the bleeding, whatever you want to call it: quit spending.
Spend less money than you make
Getting out of debt, creating wealth, living financially free, retiring with cash in hand can all be achieved by following one simple rule:
Spend […]

Original post by bob

Are you looking for help getting out of debt?

Great, I think you have come to the right place. At the time of this writing, I am right there with you on this journey to break free from the “slavery” that the Bible calls debt (Proverbs 22:7). It is not easy, but it also isn’t that difficult either. Over the last two years my wife and I have paid off nearly $30,000 in consumer debts from some mistakes that we made in the past.
The 7 steps that I am going to take you through are things that we did to pay down our debt or we would have done if we had the opportunity. Each article is fairly long, so you can feel free to bookmark it and come back later or use the print button towards the bottom of each article to print them out.
If you are serious about getting […]

Original post by bob

Should I save for retirement or pay off student loans?
This is a question that I have been asked a lot. Yesterday a reader (Megan) left a comment…
“Hi Bob. I have a question for you. I am a recent grad who had a job and a retirement account during the two years of post-college to starting grad school. Now I’m just starting grad school with student loans and I wanted to find out if it’s best to stop adding to it until I graduate.”

I kind of touched on this in a post I wrote about financial advice for newlyweds.
In the post I was talking about our decision to continue funding our retirement accounts while paying down our debt. I said…
“…I have come to understand the impact that time has over investments. Without getting into too much detail, I will just say that getting started investing early puts you […]

Original post by bob

I found this article about Roth IRA’s and I think it is worth posting. It goes over the basics of Roth IRA’s and why you should consider one, if you don’t already have one. If you are thinking, “what’s an IRA?” then you should probably start here.
Right now, you may be wondering why you should invest in a Roth IRA if you currently have a retirement plan (401k, 403b, etc.) with your employer.  The Roth IRA has many benefits that other retirement plans don’t have, and chief among them is the fact that your investment earnings may accumulate tax-free. In other words, your Roth IRA has the opportunity to grow without incurring any taxes and can be distributed to you tax free, if some certain conditions are met.
While there are advantages to owning a Roth IRA, there are also some rules you should think about before you decide […]

Original post by bob

Financial advice for college grads
The most recent Money Magazine had a few interesting articles worth commenting about. The first of which was one that contain advice from the pros for new college grads.
Clean up MySpace and Facebook pages
“. . . because potential employers will check them. One test: Make sure there’s nothing up there you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see.”
I think that is good advice for job-seekers and anyone really. Also, you may want to Google your name once in a while just to see what is showing up. Googling someone is the new form of background check that can provide a lot of detailed information. We are transitioning to a transparent society where not much can be hidden any longer - so do your best to watch what you type - no matter where you are online (and make sure you add me as a friend on […]

Original post by bob

I think mutual fund investing is a good way to get started investing. I own two mutual funds currently and there are a few good ones out there, but most mutual fund managers still don’t beat the average market returns. It is for this reason that I recommend Index funds. Actually anyone who looks at the numbers and isn’t trying to sell you something will tell you the same thing.
Index funds give you the market returns
To put it simply, investing in Index funds is like buying a tiny share of each  company in the market. So, for example, if you bought an Index fund that tracks the S&P 500 (which is a good choice) you would own a tiny amount of each company listed in the S&P 500.
The S&P 500 index includes 500 large companies that do a good job of representing the US economy as a whole. […]

Original post by bob