Personal Finance

Cost of Raising a Child

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Every year, the United States Department of Agriculture publishes a report about how much it costs to raise a child until age 18 in America. Of course, the information is only an average, and even then, to make any sort of calculation, a lot of assumptions have to be made. After all, raising a child is a very personal experience and the cost varies a lot based on the choices you make, not to mention variations based on where you live. It obviously takes a lot of time to compile all the necessary data, so the report with numbers for 2013, was just released here in fall of 2014. You can find the full-report, or cute graphics containing the official report’s details at the USDA’s website. Raising A Child Costs Money It’s no surprise to any parent that kids can be expensive. Of course, there is food and clothing. Then, there is education, insurance, school supplies, birthday parties, and so on and so on. So, how much does it cost to raise a child from birth to 18? The report breaks out various categories, but the quick version is this: Urban West $261,330 Urban Midwest $240,570 Urban Northeast $282,480 Urban …

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Are You Paying for College Wrong?

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There is an article floating around on Marketwatch titled Parents You’re Paying for College Wrong. This kind of article is one of the reasons I write Finance Gourmet. After being a Financial Planner in Denver for several years (and, yes, I was a Certified Financial Planner), I saw a lot of different financial situations from a lot of different people. I realized two things: Too often useful information gets bogged down and confusing because it spends so much time covering small, infrequent, exceptions to the rule. On the other hand, useful information is often harmful because it glosses over all of the possibilities in favor of hard and fast statements that aren’t necessarily accurate for everyone. If those to reasons seem a bit contradictory, then you understand why writing personal financial advice can be tricky. How To Pay for College The Wrong Way According to the article on Marketwatch, a lot of parents are “paying for college in ways that experts say aren’t smart.” Fair enough, that’s probably true. However, the way the article goes on to explain what is “smart,” makes it sound like you are a fool for doing certain things that are not foolish whatsoever. The important thing …

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How People Pay for College

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Here is an interesting infographic from Sallie Mae, the quasi-government entity that handles most federal student loans today. It goes with an upcoming post about financial articles and how people are supposedly paying for college “the wrong way.” While you’re at it, check out our article about opening a 529 plan account online to save for your child’s college education.

Do I Need an Accountant?

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The only question I get asked more often than, do I need a financial advisor, is do I need an accountant. The answer isn’t that complicated for most people, however, as with all things money and finance, there are always some exceptions that seem to throw off the ability for anyone to give a straight answer. So, let’s start with with what an accountant does and does not do, and then move on from there. The spoiler, if you are chomping at the bit to get a quick answer, is probably not, but let’s examine the angles to be sure. What Does An Accountant Do? First of all, before deciding whether or not you need an accountant, you should probably understand what an accountant does. More importantly, you should probably understand what an accountant does not do. Now, just like other professions, there are accountants who do more than accounting. I actually know some accountants who are also financial advisors. After all, there is some merit to wrapping all of your financial needs into one little package from the same professional you already trust. But, for our purposes here, we are going to focus on just accountants. That is, do …

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Save Money on Vacation Travel Airfare

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Most of the time, if you find information for saving money on travel, you’ll find tips on how to get the lowest airfare, or how to get discounted hotel rooms. Unfortunately, these tips are often impractical for the vacation traveler, or even the business traveler. While it may be true that new airfares on released on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, I never seem to be going to the kinds of places that have a cheap fare just because it is Tuesday. In fact, what is seldom mentioned in these travel tip articles is that the most volatile airfares occur either on the least popular routes, or on travel at the least popular times That is because those planes are not already full, so the airlines have to jockey around on the price in order to sell the seats. Realistic Airfare Savings Tips There really aren’t any secret airfare tips that you can use, unless you can be pretty flexible in your travel. If you need to leave on a certain date, or even at a certain time, the “tricks for saving money on airfares” won’t help you. To see what I’m talking about, open up any travel website you like. Try …

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Make Money Working From Home Online Scams

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Virtually every one of the so-called work from home jobs is a scam. Keep in mind that while plenty of Americans work from home, they do it for their regular jobs that they already have, and they probably still have to go into the office some times. These people did not find an online ad and get a working from home job with no experience by just filling out some forms and information over the Internet. Just think it through for one minute. Doing something like data entry from home would be a great job, especially if you could get a job like that without any experience. That means TONS of people would want these jobs. If that is the case, then why would any business pay high wages for that, especially to someone with no experience? In fact, if you think about it for just one more second, you should end up with another conclusion. A job that can be done by anyone, from anywhere, without any extensive training, or previous experience is EXACTLY the kind of job that you can outsource overseas to someone making $5 a day. How could it possibly be that any company or business …

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Coming to FinanceGourmet – Personal Finance Blog

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This coming week, we have some interesting new articles for Finance Gourmet to help with frequently asked about and requested personal financial health topics. First up, as May draws to a close, June marks both the end of the second quarter, and the midpoint of the year. What kinds of things should you be aware of at this point for optimal financial health? We’ll discuss quarterly tax payments, how the markets are looking at the half way point, what things you might want to be thinking of for minimizing your taxes, and more. Next, we tackle signing up for a 529 plan, step by step. Not long ago, I wrote about how a financial planner can help keep you from getting stuck on your financial planning actions such as setting up a 529 plan. But, when you can find them, a detailed step-by-step guide to setting up financial accounts such as a 529 plan can be just as valuable. We’ll give you a detailed guide on how to open a Colorado 529 plan, including how to fill out all the Colorado 529 plan forms to set up an account. Then, we’ll look at some of the new IRS numbers that …

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Little Things Can Cost Money

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Generally, this website focuses on the slightly more complex personal finance advice and other money issues. However, every once and awhile, I get enough motivation to fire off a tidbit of money saving advice on something smaller and easier. This evening, I finally got pushed over the line by one of those little things that companies do to wring a little extra money out of their customers. The Laundry Soap Scam Years ago, laundry soap came in big boxes and big bottles. The bigger the bottle of laundry soap, the more loads of wash it did. Then, laundry soap manufacturers figured out they could concentrate their liquid laundry soap. In doing so, they could ship more product to the stores for the same cost, and stores could keep more product in stock thanks to smaller bottles. Of course, at first, this took a fair amount of consumer education because people were very used to the concept that bigger meant more. Finally, laundry companies settled on printing on the bottle just how many loads of laundry each bottle could do, and that was that. Along the way, however, those same companies couldn’t pass up a chance to cheat their customers out …

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Car Rental Scam Fees Explained

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Recently, I had a very nice family vacation. Now, I travel on occasion for business, and often when we travel we setup via the same system. The rental companies don’t really bother with the tricks, because they have a blanket contract with the company. This time, however, the family and I went on our own. In doing so, I noticed more than a few of the most common travel company tricks have been updated, and some new ones are out there as well. So, without further ado, let’s look at the latest car rental company tricks to increase your bill. Rental Car Fee Scams The travel industry was once the domain of luxury travelers and big spenders. Travel companies just charged high, profitable rates for everything from hotel rooms to car rentals. But, along the way, travelers got savvy. Internet travel websites opened people’s eyes to the vast difference in pricing, and the race to the bottom was on. One way travel businesses, like rental car companies, compete is by offering a rock bottom, low price, for a car rental, with every intention of boosting those rates back up with fees when you actually rent the car. Avoiding a high …

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Your Money AND Your Life

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I write this personal finance blog because I like writing, I have real, professional experience in finance, and I like to help people. I also know that when I read a lot of the financial advice out there, it is either, too complicated, too oversimplified, or flat out inaccurate. This isn’t too surprising, because dealing with money and all of the various things that go with it, like savings, borrowing, investing and so on can get complicated very quickly. It is also very easy to lose sight of the forest, for the trees. I thought this might be a good time to remember that your balance sheet is not how you keep score in life. Living Your Life Making Smart Financial Decisions Recently, a reader left a comment on my review of Credit Karma basically calling me a fool for leasing a car. This seemed odd. Leasing does have a lot of moving parts, but the concept itself isn’t a scam. He went on to say that the only smart thing to do was buy a used car and live debt free. Then I knew, what was going on. Some people lock into “rules” about finance and take them as the …

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