Money Management

Unlocking the Door to Your Dream Home: A Home Buying 101 Guide Are you ready to step into the realm of homeownership? The path to buying your own home can be both thrilling and overwhelming. But fear not, for we have the ultimate Homebuying 101 guide to equip you with...

Getting a mortgage is the biggest financial decision most people make. I spent 20 years as a financial planner walking hundreds of clients through this process. The difference between a good mortgage decision and a bad one? About $100,000 over 30 years. There are various types of mortgages available, including...

Are you feeling burdened by your car loan payments? Did you know that refinancing your auto loan could be the solution you've been searching for? With auto loan refinancing, you have the opportunity to lower your monthly payments, reduce your interest rate, and even save thousands of dollars over...

I walked into the dealership with a preapproved 3.9% APR from my credit union. The finance manager came back with 6.2%. I showed him my preapproval letter and asked, "Can you beat 3.9%?" He couldn't. That letter saved me $2,847 over the life of my loan—and the entire negotiation...

Here’s the deal: knowing how to write a check is still a crucial life skill in 2026. In my near 3 decades as a financial planner, I’ve noticed a funny thing: the more digital our money gets, the more intimidating the old-school tools become. I’ve had brilliant young clients. Tech...

You’ve heard the common advice a thousand times: "stop buying lattes," "track your spending," "cut subscriptions." And while that's not wrong, it's also not the reason most budgets fail. In my nearly 30 years as a financial planner, I saw that budgets don't break because of a $5 coffee....

58% of small business owners say inflation is their biggest challenge in 2025—a record high. Meanwhile, 51% struggle with uneven cash flows, and 39% carry over $100,000 in business debt. Without a budget calculator, you're reacting to expenses instead of controlling them. Jumpt Directly To: Using The Business Budget Calculator Understanding Business...

Let's start with the hard truth: the 50/30/20 budgeting rule is a beautifully simple idea that is failing millions of Americans. In late 2025 I had a client, a sharp 30-year-old nurse I'll call Leah, sit across from my desk, utterly defeated. 'My rent alone is 45% of my take-home...

You've found it. The perfect apartment. One bedroom, $2,200 a month, 15-minute subway ride to campus. Location? Perfect. Rent? You can swing it. Then you read the fine print on the landlord's application: "Co-signer required. FICO score 700+. Annual income must be 80 times monthly rent." That's $176,000 a...

There are few financial anxieties as sharp as expecting a direct deposit that never arrives. It's like a pizza delivery that's an hour late. You refresh your bank app every 10 minutes. Your stomach tightens. You're calculating which bills you can delay if this doesn't hit by 5 PM. You...