Millennial Moola - Page 14 of 21 - Personal Finance For the N64 Generation

Five Places You Could Afford Retirement After Two Years of Working

People always tell me, “Hey man that sounds great that you retired at 25, but there’s no way that could be me.” Actually, those folks are wrong. You could afford retirement after two years of working. There are plenty of places around the world and even in the United States where you could retire after two years of work. You can choose your own lifestyle based on location, with luxurious retirement available in low cost international destinations and extreme frugal retirement available in US destinations. All you need is a solid professional income and a 50%+ savings rate. Think I’m full of it? Check out the cities below.

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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.

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Middle Class Workers in Philly Pay European Levels of Taxes

I checked out a budget for a friend in Philly recently because she expressed a desire to cut her spending to save for early retirement. While trying to find areas in her budget to cut back, I was really distracted by how much she was paying in taxes. I thought it would be really beneficial as we get close to the end of 2015 to talk about understanding where all the money in your paycheck is going. To do this, we will analyze the paycheck of my friend (let’s call her Charlotte), to see how she pays European levels of taxes in one of America’s largest cities. Continue reading “Middle Class Workers in Philly Pay European Levels of Taxes”

How To Decide If You Should Avoid a Toll Road

Google Maps gave every driver in America a powerful choice whether or not to avoid a toll road. Gone were the days when a tourist would mindlessly choose the toll road while locals took advantage of free back road options. Now, all you have to do is type in your destination and Google will give you toll or no toll options and calculate the difference in arrival time for you. Sometimes I am grateful I was born in the ’90s just so I can tell my kids one day that I helped my parents navigate with paper maps on our family road trips around the country. So now that America’s drivers are extremely well informed about their options, how would you go about making the decision?

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Obamacare and the Hidden Penalty That Will Cost Working Families Thousands

Obamacare is heralded for its accomplishment of extending health insurance to millions of Americans. Proponents also tout the fact that no one will lose health insurance due to pre-existing conditions ever again. Regardless of whether you are for it or against it, when I signed up for Obamacare a few weeks ago, I realized that Obamacare and the hidden penalty in it could bankrupt working families. It must be changed. Continue reading “Obamacare and the Hidden Penalty That Will Cost Working Families Thousands”

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”

Would Marco Rubio’s Personal Finances Be the Worst of Any President in History?

After seeing a few articles about Marco Rubio’s personal finance habits, I thought it would be fun to compare Rubio to other presidents in the past to see if he would have the worst money management skills in the history of the Presidency. Most folks outside of Florida had no clue who Marco Rubio was before the presidential campaign started this past year. His stellar GOP primary debate performances and the struggling campaign of Jeb Bush have led many to say that he will be the choice of the Republican establishment heading into the national primaries. That belief has caused a big change in the betting markets for his odds to win the nomination. Predictwise placed his odds of winning at 47% even though he usually places third to fifth place in the national polls. Clearly, it is not out of the realm of reason that Rubio could become the Republican nominee and possibly US President. Continue reading “Would Marco Rubio’s Personal Finances Be the Worst of Any President in History?”

If You’re in College You Should Live in a House and Not an Apartment Complex

While I was hanging out with my brother the past few days, we got into an intense discussion as to whether or not it’s better to rent a house or apartment when you are a college student. He signed a lease at a big brand “campus community” for junior year, and his group of friends are considering the pros and cons of house vs apartment for senior year. If you look at the issue holistically and factor in costs, amenities, flexibility of use, and quality of life, houses win by a long shot. Here’s why if you’re in college you should live in a house, and preferably a cheap one.

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TSA Airport Screeners Are a Good Investment

Honestly, I was expecting to write the complete opposite. I got bored one day after spending a long time stuck in the security line at the airport, and I started thinking that the TSA airport screeners had to be a big waste of money. My rationale is that I’ve seen multiple people get through security with knives in their bags, so it can’t be THAT worthwhile. Supposedly it costs $6 million for every 1 gun the TSA finds. With these kind of stats, there’s no way tight airport security makes sense right? The TSA has an annual budget of $7 billion. Airport security costs customers millions of labor hours worth of wasted time while they are waiting to get through to their flights. All these figures made me think a cost benefit analysis would show the TSA is not worth it. Here are the numbers that led me to a different conclusion. Continue reading “TSA Airport Screeners Are a Good Investment”

How to Work 10 Hours a Week with 6 Figure Student Loans and No Health Insurance

I’ve been spending a lot of time learning about the rules for student loans lately. Perhaps my sudden interest is due to dating a girl with a typical medial school debt burden and my desire to help out as best I can. I came across an incredible realization while reading through the FAQs on the Fed’s website, that you can hardly work 10 hours a week, pay barely anything on your student loans, and get it all forgiven in 20 years time or less. Here’s how the plan could work. Continue reading “How to Work 10 Hours a Week with 6 Figure Student Loans and No Health Insurance”