Understanding your financial IQ is crucial for making informed financial decisions and achieving long-term financial success. Your financial IQ, or financial intelligence, is a measure of your knowledge and understanding of various financial concepts and principles. Check out the books and tips below to increase your Financial IQ.
Life is full of surprises – many of which cost money. If you’ve just used up your emergency fund to cover your last catastrophe, then what if a new surprise arrives before you’ve replenished your savings? Using a credit card can be an expensive option, so you might be leery of adding debt with a high interest rate. However, you can’t let the ship sink either. What can you do? A personal loan is an
If you have established credit, you’ve probably received some offers in the mail for a balance transfer with “rates as low as 0%”. But don’t get too excited yet. That 0% rate won’t last. You’re also likely to find there’s a one-time balance transfer fee of 3% to 5% of the transferred amount.[i] We all know the fine print matters – a lot – but let’s look at some other considerations. What is a balance
It’s no secret that life is full of surprises. Surprises that can cost money. Sometimes, a lot of money. They have the potential to throw a monkey wrench into your savings strategy, especially if you have to resort to using credit to get through an emergency. In many households, a budget covers everyday spending, including clothes, eating out, groceries, utilities, electronics, online games, and a myriad of odds and ends we need. Sometimes, though, there
Some people love to live a life of thrift. It’s a challenge they tackle with gusto. Shaving down expenses with couponing, hunting the best deals with an app on their phones, or simply finding creative ways to reuse a cardboard box, gives them a thrill. For others, budgeting conjures up images of living in tents, foraging for nuts and berries in the woods, and sewing together everyone’s old t-shirts to make a blanket for grandma.
Everybody needs a budget. But that doesn’t stop “budget” from being an intimidating word to many people. Some folks may think it means scrimping on everything and never going out for a night on the town. It doesn’t! Budgeting simply means that you know where your money is going and you have a way to track it. The aim with budgeting is to be aware of your spending, plan for your expenses1, and make sure
Consistency is essential for anything, and the key to consistency is habit. Habits are behaviors that we do so frequently that they feel second nature. So your friend who’s woken up at 5:00 AM to work out for so long that it seems normal to him? He’s unlocked the power of habit to wake up, get out of bed, and make it happen. Healthy money habits are the same way; they open up a whole
