Articles on Personal Finance

Best Money Tips: 10 Ways to Improve your Home Office Cheaply

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best of Personal Finance roundup. Today, we share tips for jazzing up your home office on a budget, how to throw a killer LEGO birthday bash, and 33 free

10 Tips to Save You from an ATM Skimmer

If you don’t yet know the term “skimmer,” put it in your vocabulary. Here are ways to avoid ATM skimmers.

How Long Can You Stay in Your Home After You Stop Paying the Mortgage?

Even though the economy seems to be getting better, the number of mortgage delinquencies is still rising. Some homeowners are choosing to walk away because their debts are much

Best Money Tips: How to Buy a $5,000 Car

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips roundup. Today, we give you tips for buying a good $5,000 car, how TV can actually save you some cash, and why financial intervention wit

The HIRE Act: Incentives for Hiring Now

If your business has been growing but you've been reluctant to take on a new employee because of economic uncertainty, maybe recently enacted tax incentives will convince you to

Is Telecommuting a Good Way to Go Green?

There are some savings that go along with a small business allowing employees to telecommute, but it also offers an opportunity to go green.

How To Cut Car Ownership Costs

Here are a few things to consider to keep the costs of car ownership low.

The Credit Crunch Myth: You Can't Fix What Ain't Broke

In an effort to fix the credit crunch, the American Recovery Reinvestment Act authorized $730 million in funding for the SBA. Only one problem: There may not be a small business

Book Review: The Little Book of Big Dividends

Did you know that from 1926 to the present, dividends have accounted for 43 percent of the total return of the S&P 500 index? The Little Book of Big Dividends by Charles B Carlson,

Health Care Reform: Good for People Like Me

A long time ago, I had an idea. I was working a regular job, but I realized that what I wanted to do was be a writer. I figured that I could make some money writing, but not necess

5 Money Ratios to Live By

These five money ratios answer questions about spending on housing, saving, engagement rings, retirement, and investing.

Convenience Checks: 6 Reasons Why They Can Cause Trouble

Convenience checks aren't like regular checks attached to a checking account. They are a type of loan, a cash advance against the credit availability on your credit card. Here are

How to Save Without Goals

Basic plans for saving and investing that don't require use of a formal financial plan with specific goals.

CitiMortgage Told Me to Default on My Loan

Only in the completely screwed-up world of the lending industry would this be a logical and serious piece of advice. But that’s basically what I was told after calling CitiMortg

How Health Care Reform Will Impact Your Small Business

The new health insurance reform legislation adds both new requirements and perks for small businesses.

Financial IQ Test: How Healthy Is Your Disability Insurance?

1 in 3 people are disabled during their working lives, and those disabled for more than 2 months have an average disability length of two and a half years. Make sure your disabilit

This May Be the Best Time to Negotiate Loan Terms

With credit at its tightest in over ten years, banks are hurting. For successful borrowers, that means loan terms and conditions may be more negotiable then ever.

What Every Business Owner Should Know About Collateral

Establishing the collateral value of an asset is often a point of contention in loan negotiations. Here are some rules-of-thumb to help you understand how a lender's likely to v

Clever Tax Move for the Un- and Under-Employed

There are a lot of people who used to have a good-paying job but who have been unemployed or underemployed for more than a year. If you're one of those people, here's a clever tax

Can You Settle Your Old IRS Debts?

Not filing your income tax is a debt that will not go away quietly. The IRS has options if you owe back taxes where you may be able to settle your debts.