Millennial Personal Finance Archives - Page 4 of 7

Google Fi Best Deal of the Year Good Until April 7

Breaking news for Millennial Moola readers that just came out yesterday: Google just dropped the price of the Nexus 5X from $350 to $199 if you activate Google Fi for a month and they eliminated the previous invite requirement. For those that do not know about all the new mobile phone options out there, Google Fi was an experimental service offered by Google to try and break into the mindless monopoly of AT&T and Verizon. The service uses a combination of T-Mobile and Sprint and offers coverage and data connectivity around the world in most countries for only $0.20 a minute. In the US, you can talk and text unlimited. Here’s a quick overview of who I think this incredible deal makes sense for, and why I’m waiting for a new development from Republic Wireless. Continue reading “Google Fi Best Deal of the Year Good Until April 7”

Why College Is So Expensive

The brand new, $75 million student union expansion project at my alma mater, University of Florida

Bernie Sanders wants to make college free, and who wouldn’t? College is so expensive today. It leaves generations of students saddled with mountains of debt. I contend that Sanders proposal to make college affordable would have the opposite effect, driving costs up for the taxpayer. To see why, we will look at higher education spending over the past 40 plus years. During this time, the cost to attend college more than tripled, using constant 2015 dollars. I will use my experience at a large public flagship state university from 2008-2012 to provide anecdotal evidence as to why college costs are exploding in addition to cold hard facts. Continue reading “Why College Is So Expensive”

Millennials’ Student Loan Knowledge is Hilarious, and Sad

A recent article I saw over at Bloomberg showed me why the student loan crisis is so bad in this country. Apparently most Americans’ student loan knowledge is approximately zero. When you don’t know what you owe, who you owe it to, or the different payback strategies that are available, how can you ever crawl out of the hole? I’m going to review several of the most shocking findings from this survey, and then provide some thoughts as to what you can do to increase your financial literacy in this important area of personal finance. No one wants to end up like Obama or Rubio who both were paying their loans off until their mid 40s. Continue reading “Millennials’ Student Loan Knowledge is Hilarious, and Sad”

Most Americans Save Almost Nothing

I’ve never visited a payday loan store in my life, but if you drive around the streets of many communities in America, you see them everywhere. Pawn shops, their close cousins, are similarly ubiquitous. I’m not talking about the the cute specialty stores dealing in high end collector merchandise on the History Channel. Most pawn shops take your wedding ring as deposit and give you a $500 loan with 20% interest. Pawn shops are just another way to get a super high interest loan. Also, how are there so many check cashing places at convenience and corner stores in lower income communities? Why do you get dozens of credit card offers a year in the mail? The answer to all these questions is the same: most Americans save almost nothing. Continue reading “Most Americans Save Almost Nothing”

Millennial Missionary Wants To Save For Retirement

I got a really interesting email from a millennial missionary reader in Malawi. I’ll call him Kirby to preserve his anonymity. Kirby is a 20 something college grad, but he has no retirement plan or other employer savings program. This is a really common problem for workers in the ministry, as churches and other nonprofits tend to not put a lot of thought into benefit programs, or can simply not afford them. What’s a guy to do when he wants to be responsible and prepare for his future but has no organized program to help him do it? Here’s the email below, edited for length and clarity. Continue reading “Millennial Missionary Wants To Save For Retirement”

The One Retirement Equation To Rule Them All

theretirementequation — Source: Millennialmoola.com

How much will you need to save to afford retirement? The life insurance agents and brokers you talk to give generic rule of thumb answers provided by their companies. “Save 8 times your income”, “Replace 75% of your salary”, and “Your portfolio should be 25 times your annual spending” are all popular suggestions. However, what if you want a mathematical answer to describe retirement? It can be described with one retirement equation, which is useless unless it helps to understand our personal finances on a deeper level. Let’s break down the one above and see how it can answer your questions about retirement. Continue reading “The One Retirement Equation To Rule Them All”

The Millennial Moola Guide to Buying Your First House

You’re in your first big professional job out of college. You’ve been renting for a couple years, but you’ve decided to finally make the big leap and purchase your first house. What should you look for? How much can you spend? Are you going to put 20% down or seek government financing? Should you buy a starter home with the thought that you’ll trade up later? There are a lot of choices to make when you’re buying your first house, and Millennial Moola is here to help. Continue reading “The Millennial Moola Guide to Buying Your First House”

How Twenty and Thirty Somethings Should Save For Retirement

You’ve graduated from college and are the proud new owner of a professional job with salary and benefits to boot. First off, congratulations. Second, learn how to save for retirement the right way. It will allow you to retire a decade before most people, or even sooner. Managing your retirement investments well is surprisingly easy. Twenty and thirty somethings should save for retirement as soon as possible. Here’s how to do it. Continue reading “How Twenty and Thirty Somethings Should Save For Retirement”

Knowing Your Daily Take Home Pay Is How You Control Your Spending

What’s your number? No not your cholesterol, portfolio size, or cell phone digits. Do you know your daily take home pay? Budgets in yearly terms are really hard to follow and understand. Whether you are trying to decide if a Maui vacation or four star French restaurant jives with your spending goals, it helps to think about your finances in daily and weekly terms. When you know how much you keep for a day’s work, you will know how to control your spending.

Continue reading “Knowing Your Daily Take Home Pay Is How You Control Your Spending”

How to Sign Up For an Individual Retirement Account in 5 Easy Steps

Someone asked me the other day, “I’ve heard a lot about the Individual Retirement Account (IRAs), but I have no idea how to set one up. How can I do it?” I realized that this person had a great question because unless you work in the financial industry or strangely have a hobby of reading tax codes you would have no idea how or why to open an IRA. Let’s look at how you could set one up in no time at all. Continue reading “How to Sign Up For an Individual Retirement Account in 5 Easy Steps”