Should I buy an Annuity? Good question. Annuities are complex financial products. In this post, we’ll try and explain what an annuity is, some of the variations, and why an investor may want to consider one. Insurance An annuity is an insurance product. Much of what we talk about on finance-abcs.com is related to investments […]
Should I Buy An Annuity? Read More »
While I don’t know anyone who has kind words to say about their loan or their monthly payment, the fact is, loans are a necessary part of life when we need to buy a home, a car or pay for higher education. Understanding how they work will help you make better decisions about financing. How
A Health Savings Account (HSA) is becoming a popular but frequently misunderstood employee benefit. An HSA provides huge tax advantages so let’s dig in. What it’s Not I’m sure I’m breaking every literary rule by starting off with what an HSA is not, but for those of us who began our employment with Flexible Spending
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I read an article this morning about a woman who was irate because she paid off a loan and her credit score went down 30 points. I don’t blame her. I’d be angry as well. You should be rewarded for good financial habits, not penalized. I also understand why this happened and if you read
Credit Score – Today’s Example Read More »
Bonds are a key part of a diversified investment portfolio. In this post we’ll talk about what a bond is, how it works and the role it plays in your portfolio. A bond is a fixed income security, which means it is a security that has a fixed duration and a fixed interest rate. Fixed
If you read only 1 article on this site, please choose this one. Compounding is the magic that will enable you to grow your wealth over time. Understanding how compounding works will help you to envision how your wealth can grow over time. Knowing this will help you stick with a regular saving and investing
To many people, a stock is something you trade to try and make some quick money, but a stock is a whole lot more than that. In this post, we’ll look at what a stock is and how it works. First and foremost, a stock represents equity ownership in a company. When you buy a
Mutual Funds and their cousins, the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) are very common, but also commonly misunderstood. Let’s take a closer look. We’ll start with mutual funds. Most of what we talk about here applies to ETFs as well. We’ll talk about the differences later in the post. Think of a mutual fund as a
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Retirement Plans: DB, DC, 401(k), deferrals, investments, vesting….We’ll talk about everything you need to know to understand and to get the most benefit from your retirement plan. We all worry about retirement. At some point, we’ll leave our jobs and transition into retirement. This brings up a ton of questions: “When can I retire?” “How
Debit cards, like credit cards have an important place in your wallet, but there are some key differences you should be aware of. I’ve published a post on credit cards that you may want to review as well. Debit cards don’t have the excitement of credit cards. You typically don’t get glamorous perks like airline