While I was in my 30s and 40s, retirement planning meant planning travel to exotic places! Oh sure, I'd need money for food and other basics, but mostly I was saving money so that I could do LOTS of traveling. But now that I'm in my 50s I realize that retirement planning is a little more complex....

Spring is often when we start thinking about remodeling projects or buying a new home. Right now interest rates on home equity loans and mortgages are relatively low. If you are thinking about taking out a home loan, you need to be smart about choosing the loan. The Federal Trade Commission...

Before my fiancé and I planned for our honeymoon, we never realized just how much work goes into planning a vacation! Though it may not seem like it, vacation planning can become a time consuming and strenuous task. Whether it is a weeklong vacation, staycation or weekend getaway – without proper...

I love Money Smart Week! As Karen Chan mentioned in her blog post on March 12th, Money Smart Week is the best time of year

I have been pushing people to get a current copy of their credit bureau report on a regular basis for a while now. It is a good way to have a snapshot of your credit accounts and payment history and a method to catch identity theft before it gets totally out of hand. To do this you should get a...

This year's tax season will soon come and go, and you may be unsure of what you need to do with this year's tax forms. Below are some questions you may have on what you should do with this year's 2013 – filed 1040 tax return. What should I keep? With any financial...

It's been a year since Kathy Sweedler and I started our series of posts about losing someone close to us. For

A short while back I wrote about a co-worker's quest to pay off their credit card debts (a very worthwhile goal) and how she characterized it as being the "year of suck" because of all the sacrifices they were having to make not using as well as paying down their cards. Several of you wrote with...

Money Smart Week is coming, April 5 to 12, 2014. It's the best time of year to learn anything you want about managing your finances. Why is it the best time? It's all free. There will likely workshops near you. Over...

Many of us may have heard of the importance of having an emergency fund, but the value it can bring to our lives is often severely understated. Just recently my fiancé and I finalized saving for our very own emergency fund. Less than a week later we realized just how invaluable having a financial...