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- Age 33
- 'cause it get cold like Minnesota
- Seen May 15, 2024
Easily being swindled by the idea of a "good deal" and not having ever been taught how to properly budget or manage money.
The key to doing it yourself is to remember what you worked with mom on.
TurboTax is probably better for not missing benefits, but I use HR Block's free e-filing because my taxes aren't as complex as people make taxes sound like.
STUDY THE MAP AND ASSERT YOUR DOMINANCE BY DRIVING AN SUV THAT'S WAY BIGGER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE.
But seriously, just study the map for the route you're taking and make sure to flag a couple alternate routes in the event you miss your exit/turn or need to turn off early.
How detailed do you want on the internet one?
RE money: Well, pretty much all of the better things you can do with money still involve a bank in some way. It's just a matter of whether you have the capital to do so. One of the more affordable options if you're employed full-time is to go to a credit union and apply to open an account. The benefits of credit unions are generally better than the benefits of banking with banks, such as usually having higher interest and lower fees on savings and checking accounts while also having lower interest rates on loans.
You can also open an IRA independent of any 401k or pension your employer offers. Never hurts to have a backup plan for retirement.
Here's a list of non-checking/non-savings account services my bank offers:
Retirement Planning
Wealth Management
Small Business Services
College Planning
Estate Planning
Insurance Services
Granted, all of these cost money, and none of these are insured by the FDIC.
One thing you can do is open yourself an IRA independently of any pension or 401k your employer provides. You can buy treasury bonds (such as I-bonds). You can look into municipal, county, and school district bonds.
It's a bit tricky right now because the last financial crash caught a lot of banks with their metaphorical pants down where investment banks and savings & loan banks were dipping their hands into the other type of banking, and this was broken up, so the variance in account types is lower because bank executives got greedy pre-recession and had to be barred from the irresponsible practices that led to the '08 crash.
Things that your normal bank offers that could be beneficial include Certificate of Deposit accounts, money market accounts, and high yield interest checking and savings accounts.
You still want to build a 6 month or 12 month buffer if you haven't already built one before you even consider other things with your money, though.
Also you could look at buying a house down the line as that is usually something that increases in value as the years go by.
I think there's more worthwhile for knowing on this topic, but I can't remember any of it.
This is a good resource: https://www.fool.com/personal-finance/saving/where-to-park-your-cash.aspx
All sorts of reasons.
