Money Tips Network

Whenever you want something better than what you currently have now, you have to change something. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to keep getting the results you’re getting, so if you want better results, you have to be doing better things.

Today, I’m presenting a list of 10 (well, really 11) extremely powerful financial changes that you can make to your life to change your trajectory. As with all such lists, not everything is going to apply perfectly to your life. Personal finance is inherently personal, and you should look at lists like this as a buffet of options where you choose the ones that really fit with your situation and skip by the rest.

Claire L. graduated valedictorian of Queens University of Charlotte, a small private institution, in May of 2019 with two bachelor’s degrees, three completed internships and plans to “save the world.”

She studied international studies and sociology to better understand how to help groups of people abroad, but she didn’t fully understand the gravity of the $100,000 in student loan debt she would be taking with her on that mission.

After spending seven months applying to jobs looking for the right fit, she found herself sitting alone at her kitchen table, on the phone trying to figure out how to consolidate her monthly loan payment totaling $900. “I very rarely cry or get upset,” she explained. But after she learned it wouldn’t be possible to consolidate her loans without a verifiable income, she broke down in tears.

“It was definitely a shock,” she says of navigating the experience. “No one tells you…I didn’t know how bad the interest would be.”

Sometimes emergencies happen in life, and the best advice I have for everyone is to plan as though an emergency will happen sooner rather than later. Start building an emergency fund now, so that you have cash when things go awry and you really need it.

That’s great advice, of course, but it’s not helpful for someone facing an emergency right this moment before they even have the opportunity to start building their own emergency fund. The reality is that we live in a time with high unemployment, and even before that, four out of five Americans lived paycheck to paycheck.

The best long term solution is to prepare for emergencies, but what are the options in the short term?

One of the joys of writing a money blog like Get Rich Slowly is the continuing self-education. I'm always reading and learning about personal finance. A lot of the times — as in the past month — this education is about esoteric topics. I'm currently diving deep into the history of personal finance, a subject that's interesting to me but admittedly not of much practical use in the modern world. (Today in the mail, I got a book about advertising and the use of credit during the 1920s. How's that for esoteric?)

But sometimes, this self-education does have practical uses, and it's stuff that I can share with you folks so that you too can become better educated.

A few weeks ago, I did a brief radio interview where the hosts of the program asked me whether I thought frugality and cutting expenses or investing and earning more money was more important. I thought for half a second — you have to really think on your feet with those kinds of interviews — and gave them my honest answer.

The truth is that people need both frugality and cutting expenses as well as investing and earning more money in their lives because those strategies address very different problems. There are life situations where frugality is going to be very helpful and investing isn’t going to help much at all, and there are going to be other situations where a long term investment strategy is going to be what you need and frugality serves a “helper” role.

I like to think of these different strategies in terms of the time frame over which they’re most effective.

If you are an enthusiast of classic or luxury cars, you probably know Chubb for its reputation for excellent customer service. The company offers amenities and perks not seen at many insurers, and it’s known for giving its customers and their cars excellent treatment.

That special treatment and the high-end services the company provides comes at a price; Chubb is probably not the best choice for those looking for a bargain.

Compare Affordable Car Insurance Rates

Save money on auto coverage with our simple comparison tool.

For his birthday last year, we bought our son a really nice mouse for his laptop, the exact one he wanted. It was a mouse designed for the types of games he enjoys playing on his laptop, with a bunch of extra programmable buttons and small weights so he could adjust the weight of his mouse just like he wanted.

Flash forward to a week ago. His mouse suddenly stopped working, and the manufacturer told us to return it to the store where it was purchased. The problem was, without a receipt, we weren’t sure if they would accept the return.

Fortunately, I had a record of it. With about two seconds of searching on my phone, I had an image of the receipt, which made the return incredibly easy. There was no looking through boxes or envelopes. There was no shrugging our shoulders and chalking it up as a loss. It took a few seconds, and we had everything we needed for a new mouse.

Millions of Americans will be working from home this spring in order to self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic. Many might be wondering if they can deduct home office expenses from their taxes and the answer is: it depends. While the self-employed and freelancers are allowed to deduct a portion of their office expenses as long as they use the room solely as a workspace, most W2 employees won’t qualify for the deduction. Ultimately, it depends on your specific situation, including what type of work you do and whether or not you use your office for other activities.

As the personal finance landscape continues to change, we all have to adapt. To make sure we’re always bringing you the best, we’ve rethought our newsletter.

Two Cents, our new weekly newsletter, brings you all the latest finance news and expert advice. Each week, we’ll highlight trending topics and give you exclusive insights from Trent Hamm, founder of The Simple Dollar.

What you’ll get each week
The latest news

Things might look a little different when you open the email, but we’re still committed to bringing you the best content. Whether through expert testimony or breaking financial news, you’ll still get the financial advice you expect from The Simple Dollar.

Exclusive tips and advice from Trent Hamm

If you’ve been wanting more from Trent, you’re in luck! Two Cents will include content from Trent you can’t find anywhere else.