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This article is by staff writer William Cowie.

[This is the third installment of a three-part series examining index funds. In Part I, we looked at the managed mutual fund market. In Part II, we looked at how an index is calculated and what an index fund is. In this installment, we'll consider how to evaluate index funds and where to buy them.]

Despite that managed mutual funds still dominate the mutual fund landscape, since 2007, there has been a steady migration of assets from managed funds to index funds and ETFs (most of which are indexed). In fact, there are more than 350 index funds from which to choose, so when you start to look into investing your money in an index fund, you’ll need to understand these two things:

This article is by Kayla Sloan.

[Kayla Sloan is a millennial on a mission to delete her debt. She writes about her journey to financial success at shoeaholicnomore.com. She put this terrific video together as part of her discussion about mastering personal finance concepts too!]

Nothing worth doing in life is easy. Have you ever heard that saying? I grew up with my dad preaching that to me, and I know I’m better person for it today.

Although I don’t always make the right decisions when it comes to my money, I am definitely doing better than I used to now that I understand the importance of sticking to my budget and building personal savings.

People in my generation, millennials, are generalized to be lazy, entitled, and spendthrifts; and while I don’t agree with that 100 percent, I would definitely say that sticking to your budget is the most difficult personal finance concept for people my age to master.

This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.

Recently, I wrote about meal planning and delivery services. Most of the meal delivery services that I found were priced similarly per meal to most of the fast-casual restaurants in my area. To me, at least, that’s rarely worth it, especially when you consider that with, many such services, you still have to do the cooking yourself.

One reason a service like that might be worth it for many people, however, is that they simply don’t know what to make when left to their own devices. I’ve definitely been there, even though I have a bunch of cookbooks and practice the Pinterest strategy.

This is an article from former GRS staff writer Donna Freedman.

About four in 10 elementary school students bring lunch from home. But it’s not likely to be a good one, according to a 2014 study from Tufts University.

Not one of the lunchboxes examined met all five National School Lunch Program standards, and only 27 percent of the meals met at least three NSLP recommendations (fruits, vegetables, low- or nonfat dairy, whole grains, and meat or meat alternatives).

Almost 25 percent of the brought-from-home meals lacked an entrée and, instead, were made up of packaged snack foods and desserts. Only 5 percent of the meals contained any vegetables.

On this kind of food, they’re learning?