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Five Inexpensive Home Improvements for Winter
A new coat of paint is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to freshen up your home, so get rolling! Photo: Minnesota Pine
With the holidays behind us, many people are dreading winter and looking forward to the first signs of spring.
Since spring is generally best spent tidying up and working on the outside of your property, winter offers a good chance to get the interior of your home in tip-top shape. There are plenty of upgrades you can do yourself with a limited budget, including these fun indoor projects:
Paint or Repaint
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to freshen up your home is to add a fresh coat of paint to the interior.
How to Take Advantage of $2 Gas
Gas is cheaper than it’s been in years, so plan a road trip instead of a flight for your next vacation. Photo: The_Gut
During most of the time I’ve been writing for The Simple Dollar, gas prices have stayed somewhere well north of $3 per gallon, jumping regularly to levels as high as $4 per gallon locally and approaching $5 per gallon at various places in the United States.
That’s an expense that really adds up. Let’s start off with a real world example that demonstrates the pain of $4 per gallon gas.
Are Annuities Right for You?
Annuities can give you a reason to smile. But are they better for the buyer or the seller? Photo: Janine Tillman
Annuities are not complicated, which is why so many people find them appealing. They come in two basic types — immediate and deferred — with two ways of calculating earnings — fixed and variable.
Social Media Basics for Your Business
Don’t spread yourself too thin when it comes to social media. Find one site that resonates best with your target market, and then master it. Image: Sean MacEntee
As I suggested in 15 Ways to Grow Your Business This Year, it’s time to pick a social media platform that best suits you or your business and crush it!
Below are some basic steps to start your company toward building an effective social media strategy.
The Most Important Number
The single most important number when it comes to tracking your finances is your net worth. Photo: Annie Pilon
The most important number when it comes to personal finance isn’t how much you’re going to need to retire or the current rate of inflation or how well the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500 did last year. Those numbers are important in various ways, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t completely express the state of your personal finances.
The Hidden World of Credit Cards
There’s a lot of information stored on your card, but maybe not as much as you think. Photo: frankieleon
Chances are you’re among the 71% of Americans who carry one or more of the 1.5 billion credit cards in the U.S. While survey results vary, they all agree that most people don’t understand how credit cards work or how fees and interest are calculated, and an overwhelming majority don’t understand all the parts of a credit card.
By the Numbers
Virtually all national credit cards have one feature in common – the 16-digit number on the front of the card.
How to Build Good Credit in College
As a college student, you have plenty on your mind already. But you should be thinking about your credit, too. Photo: Francisco Osorio
The typical college student has a lot to worry about – paying for school, classwork, holding down a job, and of course that little issue of figuring out what to do with your life.
Can You Get a Chip-and-PIN Credit Card Now?
Chip-and-PIN credit cards, which have been in use in Europe and Canada for years, are expected to cut down on fraud and identity theft when the U.S. adopts them in October. Photo: Ciaran McGuiggan
2014 seemed to be the year of big data breaches in the United States. Hacks at four major retailers — Home Depot, Michaels Stores, Neiman Marcus, and Target — compromised the payment-card data of more than 130 million customers. Breaches like these left consumers vulnerable to fraud and identity crimes.
How Student Loans Affect Your Credit
Student loan debt can be a ball and chain for years, and can weigh heavily on your credit. Photo: Bossi
Whether you’re making your payments on time, paying extra every month, or struggling to pay the debt, student loans impact your credit report and score – for the good and the bad.
Here’s how:
Accentuate the Negative
Any time you fail to make a student loan payment on time, this is going to have a negative impact on your credit. Your payment history is 35% of what makes up your credit score, according to FICO, so late payments won’t look good.
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