Money Tips Network

One complaint people often make when they settle into a more frugal lifestyle is that their life begins to take on a feeling of “sameness,” in that each day feels more similar to the others than it did before they made frugal changes to their life. (This same shock is being felt by people under stay at home orders, too, for similar reasons.)

I’ll give you a great example of this. Many people settle into a routine of eating out fairly often, and this gives them an opportunity to visit different environments and eat different food very frequently. As people shift toward frugality, that often translates into eating at home more often, where the environment is more or less the same every day.

When you buy renters insurance, you probably have one primary reason for making that purchase: you want to protect your belongings. Renters don’t have to worry about rebuilding their homes after a disaster, but that doesn’t mean fires, theft and other perils can’t impact their belongings. Fortunately, renters insurance gives you a way to protect your furniture, clothes and electronics.

Thanks to off-premises coverage, your policy can extend to your belongings even when they are not at your rental. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that anything you bring outside the walls of your rental is completely covered.

If you’re storing stuff in a storage unit, you might wonder if your items are covered. Let’s take a look at how your renters insurance can double as storage unit insurance and where it falls short.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Using my stimulus check
2. Gas prices and hybrid cars
3. Worried about returning to work
4. Wedding planning suggestions?
5. Safely storing cash at home
6. CSA and safety
7. Financial success and self-worth
8. Figuring out break-even point

A top-shelf rewards credit card with luxury travel perks.

The gives you access to coveted airport lounges, which is a unique benefit that will be highly attractive to some. Only a few American Express rewards cards will get you into the 10 Centurion Lounges around the world. Additionally, the card offers a number of other travel benefits, including access to Delta Sky Clubs and a free checked bag on Delta flights.

Like any credit card, it does come with some drawbacks, including a high annual fee and a low rewards rate on everyday purchases. Therefore, it will be a good fit for those who frequently fly with Delta and want to travel in comfort and style, but not those who want to earn while at home.

Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons as well as how it compares to other Delta SkyMiles offerings.

One of the most powerful strategies I’ve found for improving my life is the idea of systems.

Basically, rather than setting a goal for yourself, you develop a system of some kind, a set of daily actions that gradually nudge you toward that goal.

For example, instead of saying “I’m going to lose 100 pounds this year,” you ask yourself, “What can I sustainably do each day to lead to gradual but significant weight loss over the course of this year?” At that point, you do some homework to answer that question. The answers might be very different for different people — intermittent fasting, a mostly vegan diet, a keto diet, or an exercise routine.

The point is to have a system of simple tasks you do every day (or nearly every day) that inches you little by little toward your goal.

If your big goal is to write a novel, your system is to write 1,000 words a day. Nothing matters other than that 1,000 words a day.

You may be ready to say goodbye to your car insurance company to find a new insurer that offers better rates or customer support, but you might be wondering how to switch car insurance.

Switching insurance carriers isn’t difficult, but it takes some planning. Considerations such as coverage, claims experience, discounts and price play a crucial role in finding an insurer that can protect your car. Learn how to tell if you need to switch insurance companies and what to expect if you decide to make the change.

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With social distancing measures in place and stay-at-home orders issued, it's been difficult for many of us to replicate the beauty treatments that we're used to getting at our local salons. Which face mask should you use? Is it time to try a new night cream?

How to establish credit is a common concern for younger individuals. While they may be ready to make their first significant purchases, the lack of any credit often presents a major hurdle. Similar obstacles confront those with the task of rebuilding poor credit history. Thankfully for both groups, a secured credit card allows each to start (or restart) their credit journey with the goal of financial independence. How do secured credit cards work? Let’s take a closer look.

What is a secured credit card?

A secured credit card is one backed or “secured” via a cash deposit paid by the cardholder. Similar to how a rental deposit protects a homeowner against damage or default by the renter, the cash deposit protects the issuer of the credit card should the cardholder be unable to make payments.

Passive income seems like a wonderful dream. A source of income that requires little or no time and effort to generate money? It’s something that pretty much all of us would find incredibly useful.

Of course, passive income isn’t an easy thing to build — if it were easy, all of us would have big streams of passive income and we wouldn’t have to work! Still, it is possible to build sources of passive income for yourself. It just takes a few ingredients and some reasonable expectations.

Let’s dig in to see how you can get started with passive income.

The ins and outs of passive income
Passive income usually operates on the “long tail” idea.

Most sources of passive income operate on the idea of the “long tail.” You start off with a large investment of time and/or energy and/or money that may not generate a whole lot of initial return, but over the long run, it slowly and continually brings in revenue.