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This article is by staff writer Robert Brokamp.

I’m a bit of a nut about Christmas; I even have a daughter named Noelle. So this time of year can be a bit of downer for me. The tree gets disassembled, the Bing Crosby CDs get packed away, and the holiday cards stop coming. Regarding that last one, however, the void in my mailbox will soon be filled by a different type of tiding — in the form of annual statements from my investment accounts.

OK, so they’re not as jolly as cards with pictures of friends and relatives. But using your year-end statements to give your portfolio a thorough checkup can pay off, especially if you discover ways to increase your chances at higher returns. To see the potential benefit, check out this table, which shows how much $10,000 could amount to, given different rates of return and time periods. As you can see, earning another two percentage points a year can add thousands of dollars to your net worth.

This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.

Let’s say that you and your prospective employer come to a satisfactory arrangement and you accept a new position. Surely you can loosen the purse strings a bit and relax now, right? Well, maybe. Sometimes promises and expectations don’t align with reality. While this can sometimes occur because a company is deceptive, other times this happens because everyone — both employer and potential employee — are just overly optimistic during the interview and hiring process.

This article is by Suba Iyer, who currently writes for FiveCentNickel.com.
The new year is almost upon us! Every year “save money” and “manage debt” resolutions show up among the top resolutions people make. And since January is the time we are most motivated to work on goals, you can use this momentum to push your financial engine forward at full speed. By setting aside between five and 30 minutes each day, you can transform your finances dramatically in 30 days.

Day 1: Compile all your 2014 expenses and income. Categorize them. You can use Mint.com or Excel, whatever you are comfortable with. Yearly budgets are more accurate because you will see irregular expenses like property taxes or gifts.

This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson.

I honestly cannot believe that this year is already coming to an end, and I still have so much to do to prepare. At my house, end-of-year responsibilities include assessing our retirement situation, getting our business books caught up for tax purposes, and going over our expenses to see if there is anything we could change and do better next year.

I’ve been working on that final part for a few weeks now, and I uncovered some interesting revelations — mostly due to the fact that I started tracking our annual spending on Personal Capital. Among the most interesting things I found out: