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US Savings Bonds Series E Savings Bonds

May 11, 2021April 9, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

US Saving Bonds and World War II Bonds issued by the US Government are low-risk investments issued in order to finance the national debt. There are numerous types of Government bonds. Each bond has specific features that determine how much interest is paid to the bond holder, how long the bond’s term is, and how the bond is purchased. The different kinds of bonds are known by their “series” letters. Series E bonds are one of the kinds of US Savings Bonds. The last of the Series E Savings Bonds stops earning interest in 2010, which means that anyone still holding Series E Bonds is losing out on interest payments. Series EE Savings Bonds replace the retired Series E Savings Bonds. Smart financial planning tips from many experts suggest re-evaluating Savings Bond advantages and disadvantages before automatically rolling them over into new Savings Bonds like the current Series EE Savings Bonds. Remember, although there is no time when savings bonds expire, taxes are due on interest paid when the savings bond matures. History of Series E Savings Bonds Series E bonds, or Government E Bonds, were first issued to fund World War II efforts. The bonds were commonly known as …

Round Up Savings Plans

August 30, 2021January 23, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

Savings is really easy. You just spend less than you have, and voila! Savings! If you don’t want to save, then round up savings plans might be for you. Of course, talking about it, and doing it, are two different things. Recently, there have been several new products that offer to help make your savings easier. There are good reasons for this. Automatically saving money without you having to do anything is one of the most successful ways to save money. Some people have been using the IRS to do automatic savings for years. The idea is simple. You give your employer a W-4 Form with less deductions on it than you actually have, and they take more money out of your paycheck than necessary. Since the money comes out before you get it, you never have a chance to spend it, or even miss it. After a year, all of that extra money has built up into a sizable amount that you get back as a tax refund when you file your taxes. The disadvantages to this method, are also its advantages. Changing your W4 is often difficult making adjusting your savings troublesome and time consuming. Of course, this …

Contribute a PERCENTAGE to Your 401k

July 12, 2018 by Finance Gourmet

Sometimes, it’s easy to let the small (but BIG) stuff get lost among all of the other information and knowledge out there. I’m just as guilty as anyone else, and that’s why I’m ashamed that there are already hundreds of other articles on my personal finance advice blog before I got around to writing this one. It comes from a friend who was “running some things by me” who showed me that his 401k contribution is $750. “Why isn’t a percentage instead of fixed amount,” I said. “What difference does it make,” he said. Oh boy. Have you seen my Credit Karma reviews? Set a Percentage to Save Into Your 401k You’ve already heard it a million times before. There are fancy names for it, like “paying yourself first,” or whatever you like. But, in order to save, to really save you need to get money out of your hand, before it ever gets into your hands. It’s just human nature. We spend what we make. That’s why, no matter how old you are, and no matter how many times you’ve said it before, it still seems like just another hundred, or thousand, dollars a month is all you would need …

The Uncorrectable Housing Shortage

May 24, 2017 by Finance Gourmet

Here in Colorado, there is a housing shortage, especially near the bigger cities where the majority of people live, like the Denver metro area, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, and so on. The problem is in many ways self-inflicted. There are only so many buyers looking for houses above $500,000. There are many more buyers looking for houses below $500,000, and even more looking for houses below $300,000. A subdivision of homes priced between $200,000 and $250,000 would likely see a months-long waiting list in just hours. Why No One Builds Lower Priced Homes Anymore During the last housing crunch, buyers (like me) lined up to by houses from builders based on models. You put your name in the lottery for a lot, and then got to customize the house. The downside was that you had to wait the better part of a year to actually move into your new home while they were buying it. Back then, different builders built to different price points on large tracts of land. If you couldn’t afford the houses being built by one builder, you went with a different builder in that development. Check out my WalletHub review. Today, most builders are …

myRA IRA Review – Safe and Legit

August 25, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

No matter how helpful the government could potentially be to its citizens, it typically won’t/can’t get involved in finance because there are huge lobbying dollars behind financial services companies. For example, it would be relatively trivial for the IRS to create a free, online, auto-filing system that would work for most taxpayers, increase tax collections, and be a win-win for everyone involved. Everyone, that is, except for TurboTax, who, obviously, spend millions of dollars each year keeping such a system away from its lucrative tax software business. This is why I was surprised to find out about myRA, a no-cost government Roth IRA program aimed at people who might otherwise have a hard time getting started saving for retirement. What Is myRA and Is It Safe and Legitimate? The myRA account is a government run Roth IRA. As such, it follows all of the same rules as a regular IRA. There is a maximum Roth IRA contribution amount allowed each year. This year, it’s $5500, with an additional $1,000 “catch-up” contribution allowed for people 50 or older. So, what’s the benefit of using the myRA program? The myRA IRA has no start up cost, no IRA annual fees, and just …

Save For Retirement Not Early

June 8, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

Almost every article on saving for retirement makes a huge deal out of starting early. “Look! You if you start saving when you are 20 and then quit when you are 30, you’ll have more than if you start and 40 and save util you are 65.” That’s great. But, it doesn’t much help if you aren’t 20 anymore, now does it? Saving For Retirement Now Ricky Gervais once wrote an article in which he declared, It’s never too late, but do it now. He was talking about following your dreams or working toward your life goals, but the advice applies very well to retirement savings and planning as well. The reality is that you can’t go back into the past and save more for retirement. Your only option is to start saving and investing for retirement now. Or, as another saying puts it, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Whether you are 20 or 50, saving for retirement is the same. Put as much money as you can handle within your budget into a 401k plan. That’s it. That’s all it really takes. If you are 50 and …

Keep the Change Automatic Savings Program Review

May 13, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

As a former Certified Financial Planner, I can tell you that from a financial advisor standpoint, nothing is better than automatic. Automatic savings, automatic investing, automatic 401k, automatic bill pay, are all great ways to improve your personal finances. It seems like the financial industry agrees. One such automatic savings program comes from Bank of America and is called Keep the Change Savings Program. It works similarly to the Acorns automatic savings and investing app, but with a few small differences. Automatic Savings By Rounding Up Purchases There are a lot of ways to save automatically, including just setting up an automatic transfer to a savings account. However, some people are reluctant to commit to doing so. Ironically, these same people might sometimes be willing to save an equivalent amount of money if it can somehow be seen to be painless. The psychology of money is a powerful thing. Enter Keep the Change from Bank of America. Instead of setting up a specific amount to save each money, the Keep the Change program lets you by rounding up your purchases made on the debit card and then transferring the money to your savings account automatically. So, if you buy lunch …

Where To Get Free Checking

October 4, 2017March 3, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

If you know anything at all about personal finance, you know that big banks are financial institutions for big suckers. Right now, with interest rates at, a little bit over zero, everywhere, it isn’t as easy to tell, but big banks have never been good deals for average customers. Big banks are good deals for big money. Are you big money? Here is an easy way to tell. What interest rate do you get on your CDs and other accounts? If you get the posted rates, then you are not big money. If you get a rate negotiated by you and the bank manager because you business is so valuable, then you might be big money. Credit Unions Are Better Than Banks – Always There are numerous studies that show free checking is disappearing from big banks. Everyone already knows this, but until someone goes out and actually crunches the data, you don’t have a news story. Now, we’ve got a story and a money headline. Only 38 percent of banks offer no-strings, free checking. However, nearly 72 percent of credit unions offer free checking. By the way, this story NEVER changes. Credit unions are always better than banks for …

Personal Finance Index Card Advice

January 11, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

Back in 2013 on a show, a professor named Harold Pollack made the suggestion that everything the average person actually needed to know about personal finance could fit on an index card. He “proved” his theory by handwriting a list of personal financial advice on an index card, which then made the internet rounds. Now, he’s back with a co-author, and a $25, 256-page book called The Index Card. Wow. Could this be the most cynical book ever written? Free Financial Advice and Reality It always seems that when finance experts are talking about OTHER finance experts, that THOSE guys are over-priced crooks who you don’t need. THEY are just out to take your hard earned money. THEY don’t want you to know that finance is actually super easy and that you don’t need THEM. Funny, how that always changes dramatically when the opportunity for money or notary for their own self comes up. Back when I was a professional financial advisor, Susie Orman would stand up in front of as many people as she possibly could and say that all financial planners and advisors were crooks and you knew it because we took money from companies that offer financial products …

Use Accounts to Save and Budget

September 25, 2015 by Finance Gourmet

I talk a lot about the psychology of money. The reality is that no matter how much something makes sense mathematically, it just may not work for most people because money isn’t just something we move around on a spreadsheet. One of the most common questions I see are in the form of “What should I do with $5,000,” or “How should I invest $3,000?” The answer is to put it in your savings unless you currently have enough money saved for your emergency fund and short-term goals, otherwise, put it in one of your investment accounts. People don’t like this answer. Why? Money psychology. Use More Accounts to Save One of the problems with money on a personal financial level is that it comes and goes so easily, often without really noticing or appreciating it. Consider a man (or woman) age 35. He earns $120,000 per year, has a mortgage, a car payment, some nice hobbies and he puts money away for his kid’s college and his own retirement. Honestly, that’s pretty great and he should be (and is) pretty happy. Financially speaking, this means that each month he earns $10,000. His company takes out $5,000 for taxes, insurance premiums, …