Categories
Health & Home Recreation & Leisure Wellness

15 Ways to Celebrate Yourself That Cost No Money

15 Ways to Celebrate Yourself That Cost No Money

Taking care of yourself and celebrating yourself is crucial to optimizing your mental and physical health. Some people don’t practice self-care because they think it has to be expensive.

Try these 15 ways of taking care of yourself that are absolutely free.

1. Write down your achievements

At the end of each week, write down everything you accomplished. These can be personal achievements or professional ones. This a perfect way to celebrate yourself and all that you have accomplished!

2. Organize your home

Cleaning out an old closet or room in your house can make you feel like you unburdened yourself. Take a few hours to organize and clean.

3. Get outside and celebrate

Being outside can make you feel like a new person. Spend a few hours reading, hiking, or just being in the sun.

4. Make a playlist

Create a playlist of songs that make you feel good and motivated. Listen to it every time you get something done.

5. Make a fancy meal for yourself

Use food you already have in your house to treat yourself to a fancy meal. If you don’t like to cook, make yourself a fancy coffee drink.

6. Journal about yourself

Write down things you have done lately that you are proud of. Look to the future and list some things you want to accomplish within the next few weeks or months.

7. Celebrate your brain

Celebrate your intelligence by learning a new skill. This can be done by downloading a language learning app or by listening to podcasts or Ted talks to get inspired.

8. Learn a new hobby

Many hobbies can be done at home and online for free. Try to think of something simple you have always wanted to do. Maybe it’s yoga and you can watch and practice free yoga videos.

9. Celebrate someone else

What better way to celebrate yourself than by celebrating a friend or family member? Send flowers to someone you know who just achieved something. Invite them over for a movie or walk to spend time talking with them.

10. Read a book

Taking time to finish that book you’ve had sitting around can make you feel like you did something productive. Ask to borrow a book from a friend if you want to, this way you’re not spending money.

11. Get up for the sunrise

Rising early can make you feel accomplished and productive. Spending some time outdoors at the beginning of the day also makes the rest of your day peaceful.

12. Make a routine

People who follow routines often get more done. This will give you more time to celebrate yourself.

13. Do an at-home spa day

Use cosmetic items you already have around the house and make a spa day for yourself.  You could take a warm bath or do a face mask. This is a perfect self-care day.

14. Get away from the phone

You don’t have to be on someone’s radar all the time. Set the phone down and think about yourself. You deserve to celebrate you!

15. Take a nap

Celebrate your day or morning by resting and spending some time alone.

Categories
Debt Financial

Debt-to-Income Ratio: Why Is It Important?

debt-to-income ratio

There are many unintuitive systems and statistics within banking. But above all of those, the most confusing is your “debt-to-income ratio”.

But what is debt-to-income ratio?

Debt-to-income ratio is the result of a math equation: First, take the amount of debt you have to pay every month. This includes house payments, car payments, student loans, medical bills, basic utilities, and rent. Add them all together and you have the “debt” part of the equation.

Then, add together all your monthly income sources. Banks will only care about your “official” sources of income—that is, those which are subject to taxes. That gives you the “income” part of the equation.

Now, divide the “debt” value by the “income”. If your income is greater than your debts, you will get a decimal point. For instance, if you have $3,000 in debt every month, but make $10,000 a month, this will divide into .30.

That .30 means that 30% of your income is tied up in debt. That percentage is your debt-to-income ratio.

But what happens if your debt is greater than your income? Well, to begin with, the number you will get from dividing “debt” by “income” will be above 1. This is a problem as far as banks are concerned.

Most banks will not give loans out to anyone whose debt-to-income ratio is higher than 43%. This includes mortgages, auto loans, and student loans.

Why did they pick that number? No one really knows, but it has been that way since the 80s. Whoever made the calculation that decided 43% was a red flag has long since faded into history.

While the reasoning behind the exact number is unknown, the reasoning behind having any kind of number at all is understandable. After all, banks have to have some method of determining your ability to pay off a loan.

Ratioing your debt with your income is one of banks’ primary methods of determining the viability of giving you loans. This means that it is an important factor in both a person and a business negotiating with their bank.

So, how do you manage such a thing? How do you keep your debt and income in a place where you can get the loans you need to make the moves in life you want to make?

It is easy to think of both your debts and your income as immovable things. This certainly feels true, but it is not always the case.

Remember that “debt” and “income”, in these cases, are both calculated before taxes and other things that might affect that total output of your income.

This means that if you wish to set aside more out of your income to pay your debts, it won’t affect this ratio. Paying your debts off doesn’t actually affect the ratio, but it can affect your bank’s willingness to look past the ratio.

Ultimately, it’s one factor among many in negotiating with your bank. It is not the final word.

Categories
Financial Tech & Media Technology

Best Stock Trading Apps for 2021

Best Stock Trading Apps

2021 has been an incredible year for retail investors. With the historic surge in Gamestop stock thanks to ongoing short selling and Reddit-fueled investment research, millions upon millions of everyday people are hopping on the rocketship.

There are a lot of stock trading apps out there, and they can all blur together if you don’t know the ups and downs of each one. We’re going to go over some of the more popular ones, and give you an idea of which might be right for you and your needs, depending on what those are. Let’s take a look.

Robinhood

This app was already doing well when it went viral during the first part of the year in connection with Gamestop. Robinhood boasts an app that allows anyone to invest. They allow investment in stocks, ETFs, as well as options trading, and they require no minimum to invest. Their app is extremely simple, and they offer very little in the way of research tools or in-depth functionality.

E-Trade

One of the zero-commission trade model pioneers, E-Trade is a very popular stock trading platform with zero fees on most trades, and no account minimums to begin. The app is super easy to use and offers a huge array of features. One of the many brokers that support fractional shares, they make it easy to invest a few dollars at a time, so that anyone can start building wealth.

Fidelity

Fidelity has been around for a long time. They offer a huge array of research and tools that are made available to their investors. Additionally, account approval can take a little while. However, the ability to trade regular stocks, as well as many penny stocks, makes this a very appealing platform to many new investors. One downside of the app is that it is basically a tiny version of the website. It does not offer much in the way of streamlining compared to the web version.

Schwab

Schwab is a great platform for new investors and offers zero fees on most trades. They have provided a consistent trade experience for a long time, and are highly trusted brokers. Schwab offers a highly enjoyable trade experience since their interfaces are always intuitive, regardless of the device, it’s viewed on. They do lack the ability to set various alerts on stock movements in their app, however.

TD Ameritrade

One of the most loved apps comes from TD Ameritrade, called Thinkorswim. It provides an amazing amount of functionality for doing market research. They have a legendary trading platform and offer a huge amount of financial education resources for thier customers. They offer zero-cost trades like many others, and also support fractional shares with no account minimum required to invest.

Webull

Another extremely simple to use mobile app like Robinhood, Webull offers a much more extensive feature set than Robinhood, but still struggles to compete with research giants like Schwab and Fidelity. They offer zero-cost trades for stocks, options, and even crypto.

Categories
Credit Financial

Credit Repair: How to fix bad Credit in 6 Easy Steps

Credit Repair: How to fix bad Credit in 6 Easy Steps

There are dozens of services that claim they can fix your bad credit for you. This is technically true. But what they don’t tell you is that everything they do, you can do yourself.

So, how do you go about fixing your own bad credit? There are at least six things you can do that are easy as pie.

1.  Take out a Credit Card (That you Never Use)

This tip sounds strange, but the purpose behind this becomes clear if you focus on the fact that you should never use this card.

You see, your credit can be improved in a number of ways. One of these ways is by having your debts paid and your credit even. If you take out a card, reports view this as a risk. After all, if you overcharge your card, your credit will suffer.

But if you don’t use the card at all, you won’t incur any negative credit. The existence of the risk will improve your score, even as you refrain from actually taking part in the risk.

2.  Dispute Inaccuracies in Your Credit Reports

There will tend to be more inaccuracies in your reports than you might expect. Disputing them is stressful, but it is absolutely worth it.

The most common inaccuracies come from car payments. Sometimes banks just will not register that you have paid for your car, even after you have finished your payments.

They are legally obligated to do this, however, so you can be certain they’ll capitulate to you if you apply any amount of pressure on them to recognize your status.

3.  Request Higher Credit Limits

This method requires a credit card, but again, you can have a card without using it.

The logic here is that a higher limit implies a greater risk. It’s basically you “calling your shot” and saying how much money you plan to spend.

The more you borrow, the more impressive it is when it’s paid off. So if you raise your limit, then pay it off or don’t use it, it will raise your score.

4. Become a Friend’s Co-Signer

This method relies on you having a friend with good credit. It doesn’t have to be exceptional either—if they follow all the steps on this list, you can help each other out.

Co-sign a loan they’re getting or become an authorized user on their card. Then, you are both participating in the “risk” associated with that credit. Hence, you will both be credited for it being paid off.

5.  Mix up Your Credit

There are many different types of credit. Bills and cards are on thing, while loans and property are another. If you have only one of these four, consider investing in the other three. Diversity builds more credit than reliability.

6.  Pay Your Bills!

This is the most obvious way to improve your score, and the one you have the most control over. But if you don’t pay your bills, you can’t expect anyone to take your credit seriously.

Your credit is in your hands, and no one is more qualified to improve it than you. Hopefully, you will have some idea of how to improve things now.

Categories
Financial Real Estate Savings

Rule of Thumb: How Much Should Your Rent Be?

Grab Your PopRule of Thumb: How Much Should You Spend on Rent

Now that winter has broken in many parts of the country, and it won’t be a punishment to move, people are heading to virtual rental tours in droves so look for new digs. But before you start cruising Zillow, Redfin, or other similar sites to look at your options, take a few minutes to figure out what you should be paying for rent.

The Short Answer Is 30%

Most experts agree that you should spend approximately 30% of your gross income. That’s before taxes are taken out. This means if you make $1,900 per month before Uncle Sam takes any, you should be planning on about $570 for monthly rent. Keep in mind that this is a general guideline and not a rule.

The major factor in how effective this estimate is is the cost of living in your area. While a simple one-bedroom apartment in the Bay Area or North Jersey could cost $2,000 or more per month, renters in rural areas of the midwest could see the rental of a 2 bedroom single-family home for less than $400 per month.

The 50/30/20 Method Works Well For Many

Another great method is the 50/30/20 split. This looks at your total take-home pay and splits it into three categories. This is 50% for your needs, 30% for your wants, and 20% for saving, investing, additional debt payments.

Your needs are expenses like insurance, broadband access, utilities, consistent debt payments, groceries, and of course, rent. Your wants are shopping splurges, dispensary trips or happy hour, concerts, and cosplay. For the last 20%, remember that you should only be keeping an emergency fund in a savings account, while all of your long-term savings should be invested in some fashion, so avoid inflation decay and begin building retirement income. If you have any debt, payments above the minimum should be in this category as well.

This means if you bring home $1,500 per month after taxes, your 50/30/20 split would look similar to this:

  • $750 for your needs
  • $450 for your wants
  • $300 for your future

The second and third categories are necessities, though in different ways than the first. You need a proper work-life balance, so if you can only afford to constantly work just to be able to eat, sleep, and work, your life can get bleak, fast. Make sure you make it a consistent goal to invest in your leisure, and your future.

With this in mind, you can get a really good idea of your rent payment by taking your $750 for needs, from our example, by starting with your relatively constant monthly bills, and working backward. For example, if broadband is $50, your groceries are $150 (I know, just pretend for our example), insurance is $35, and your minimum payment on your only high-interest debt account is $15, that comes to $250 in needs otherwise, so there’s $500 available for rent.

Categories
Savings

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do?

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do, When, And How?

When you look at your opportunities in investing your money compared to your opportunities from saving your money, you might wonder: Is this a difference in quality, or kind? Is your money going to be more valuable in the future, or less?

And how do you act on these evaluations?

The Qualities of Investing and Saving

You have probably heard that when a person wins the lottery, they are given two ways of claiming their prize money: Either by taking it all in one big, heavily taxed, cartoonishly-oversized check, or in smaller installments overtime that ultimately amount to more money.

It seems obvious that the smaller installments overtime would be the more economical option. It amounts to more money, doesn’t it? Only a short-sighted fool would take the smaller sum.

Thinking about this is very similar to thinking about investing versus saving. Even a static amount of money has forces acting upon it.

Imagine you have a healthy sum of money in your bank account. After a year, your bank provides you with a 1% allowance of the money you have. So, a bank account with $100,000 in it would yield $1000 in interest.

However, the economy grows by more than that percentage every year. In fact, inflation goes up by more than that every year. Inflation usually results in every dollar losing 3% of its value. So while you may be given 1% in interest, you lose 2% of the value of that inanimate $100,000.

But if you invest that money and grow it by 4%, then in that case you have affected a growth of 1%. Granted, this is not a large increase. But it at least offsets the natural entropy of money’s value in the face of inevitable inflation.

Investing comes with risks that saving does not, however. Investing can make you lose money if you make a bad investment.

When To Do Either

For this reason, if you are currently managing your debts and not seeking to buy a house, car, or start a business, then you should save rather than invest.

The reason is because of the aforementioned risk involved in investment. You don’t want your ability to pay a bill to be reliant on the whims of the market.

Once your income eclipses your debts, then you can risk investments.

How to Invest and How to Save

The methodology of investing and saving are far more similar than you might expect. Saving your money means giving it to a bank. A bank will turn that money into loans, and the interest rate of the bank will see your savings grow as the bank grows.

Investing money is similar, as you still essentially give it away, but this time to a hedge fund. They will invest your money into venture capital and start-up businesses.

These will allow your money to grow as those businesses grow.

When, where, and how to invest and save is a matter of your own personal trust in these institutions. Use your money responsibly, and stay safe.

Categories
Financial Real Estate

How To Be Approved For A Mortgage

mortgage approval for buying a home

As we continue to come back from the significant recession that the housing bubble caused, more and more people are thinking about buying a home. With many being first-time homebuyers, we’ve compiled a list of the essentials you’ll need to know to get mortgage approval.

1.   Look At Your Debt-To-Income Data

The very first step to mortgage application preparation is to determine your monthly income as well as your debt payments. Your potential lender will want to see evidence of employment, generally going back two years, but often a few recent pay stubs can get you started with many lenders.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who are self-employed or have variable income such as performers, be prepared to have that process be much more involved. Getting the best mortgage overall, as well as the best payments and interest rates, is going to be dependant on your debt to income ratio.

2.   Clean Up Your Credit Health

This is often one of the largest challenges for many people. Your credit history report and your credit score will be instrumental in your lender’s eventual decision. You should aim to have a FICO score of 680-700 as a floor. However, if your credit score is only missing 680 by a small margin, you may want to look into an FHA loan, which has a little bit easier approval requirements in some cases.

3.   Calculate Your Mortgage Budget

Before you make an appointment with any potential lenders or mortgage officers, you will want to know for sure, how much house you can afford, and what you can commit to in terms of a monthly payment. This payment will include your taxes, fees, and insurance, and should not be more than 33%-35% of your pre-tax income. This can be a difficult stage, since many mortgages have variable interest rates, meaning your payment could fluctuate at some point in the future.

4.   Plan To Save For Your Home Down Payment

This is a very significant step and can make or break your house hunt. Many lenders will require you to be able to put at least 10% down unless you are participating in an FHA loan or other special lending program. If you can put at least 20% down, you can avoid having to obtain PMI, or private mortgage insurance, to protect your lender against a possible foreclosure of the property before it has enough equity built up.

5.   Figure Out The Best Time To Apply

You can often get a pre-qualification without a hard credit pull. It will however stay on your credit report for some time. A pre-qualification can give you a good indicator of whether you can obtain a mortgage at a glance, and is often a very strong indicator of being a serious buyer.  You can often get a pre-qualification letter that will be good for 60-90 days depending on the lender, it’s non-binding, and will put you in a great position to start looking around.

Categories
Career Career & Education

Interview Mistakes & What to Say Instead

6 Phone Interview Mistakes & What to Say Instead

Phone interviews can be stressful. They can feel like do-or-die moments that decide whether you get your dream job or live in poverty. In short, it is important you get them right.

So here are a few ways to develop your interviewing skills, from someone who does interviews all the time.

1.  Be More Specific Than Honest

You probably want to know up front: Do you have to be honest during an interview? The answer isn’t easy to swallow, but the truth is no. As long as you can’t get caught, enhance the truth.

But that does not mean lie. It’s illegal to lie during an interview. What you should do instead is take your normal answers and spice them up with details that will make you stand out.

2.  Never Show Fear To The Recruiter

Interviewers are fully aware of how scary interviews are. This makes them perfectly environments in which to evaluate a candidate’s ability to act under pressure.

Hesitation is fine. It can make you seem thoughtful, measured, and patient. But fear is unacceptable. If the recruiter gets the impression you are rushing through an answer, babbling nervously, or cracking under the pressure of having to answer a question, they will notice.

3.  Still, Take Your Time

Many people imagine fear to only manifest as reluctance or the petrification of panic. But more often people who are afraid express this by being jittery, hurried, or over-eager.

If you are asked a question and you draw a blank on the answer, do not panic. Don’t stall for time, ask for it. It takes a lot of courage to ask for time to think of an answer, and your recruiter will appreciate that you are communicating a need to them in a calm, collected manner.

4.  Respond to Red Flags

This is one of the hardest pieces of advice to follow if you have been out of a job for a long time. As much as it sucks to hear, there are some jobs you are better off not getting.

Don’t be afraid to walk out or hang up on an interview if you get the impression a workplace is abusive or incompetently run. Places like that will leave you out to dry without a reference eventually, so it’s better to distance yourself sooner than later.

5.  Remember The Recruiter’s Name

This is an uncommon bit of humanity to exhibit in an interview, but if you remember your recruiter’s name and show that you remember their name, they are far more likely to remember you than if you didn’t.

6.  Don’t be Right, be Human

It’s natural to go into an interview thinking of the recruiter as an emotionless robot who is looking for a candidate that is ideal on paper.

That is the job of the robot that scans resumes for keywords. Indeed, every step of the job process up until the interview lacks humanity. But once you’re at the interview it behooves you to represent yourself not as the best employee, but the best person you can be.

Good luck in the job market. Now more than ever, you’ll need it.

Categories
Financial Health & Home Savings Wellness

5 Things To Do For Your Future Without Spending

5 Things You Can Do For Your Future Self That Don’t Cost A Dime

So many people have a good idea of where they want to be in the future. We envision ourselves working until a certain age in a career that we love, often living in a particular area in our dream home, while not worrying about money, and being able to live a life that we enjoy.

While this is something that many people can admit that they do, often advice on how to get there can seem sparse. But luckily there is some good information out there, and we’ve compiled 5 of the best things you can do today to put yourself on a better path for the future, for free.

1.   Start the habits that you want to see your future self practicing.

This goes for just about anything, from quitting smoking, exercise more consistently, painting, reading more, spending money more sensibly, literally anything. If you take small steps to incorporate this new activity or habit into your life, it will be easier to carry that small step into additional actions. If you are wanting to start a new hobby or learn a new skill, try to set aside 30 minutes a day to work on that activity. It will pay dividends.

2.   Keep your credit in the back of your mind.

It is used to score you for so many things, it just makes sense to keep your credit in as good of shape as you can. This means monitoring your credit and credit score, paying down old debt if you have any, and improving your credit where possible.

3.   Automate your saving and investing.

With apps like Stash, Acorns, Robinhood, and even Cashapp, you can automate saving and investing your money. Make sure you aren’t letting all your money sit and die of inflation in a savings account, though. Keep a liquid emergency fund, and invest the rest in stocks, bonds, and crypto to generate passive and retirement income with almost zero effort over time.

4.   Learn the difference in various retirement accounts before you need one.

The best time to start investing is whenever you can start. Employer-offered funds like a 401(k) are perfect starting points, particularly with many companies offering matching up to a certain point. Not only is it smart to invest early and often, but you can invest from pre-tax money to reduce your tax liability, and an employer match is basically free money.

5.   Test yourself monthly by cutting out one paid “extra” each month.

This can be almost anything that you pay for as an extra. One of the many streaming services, eating at a particular fast-food restaurant, a subscription box, and so on would be a perfect example. You cancel or cut one out for a month, and see if you can live without it. Many times we forget that we have grown attached to many “needs” that are actually well-disguised “wants”. Skipping a month here and there can save big bucks and build big discipline.

Categories
Financial Health & Home Home Improvement Tax Services

Are Home Improvements Tax Deductible?

are home improvements tax deductible

Tax code is a complex web of rules and regulations. Things you would never expect to be tax deductible are, while others that you might be certain are tax deductible are not. So, are home improvements tax deductible?

No, they are not ordinarily tax deductible. But that is not the full story.

What Home Improvements Are Not Deductible?

Home improvements will not count as tax credits on a home that you are currently using yourself. Whether it is a home you live in year-round, or a beach house you live in during the summer, these are the kinds of homes that you get no tax credit for improving.

However, you can get tax credit for the improvements you make to a home (or part of a home) that you use as part of a business.

If you sell a home, for instance, or if you rent it out during certain parts of the year, then the improvements you make to it become business expenses.

What kind of improvements count as the kind that will give you tax deductions?

Well, so long as the improvements extend the life of the home, or adapt it to new situations, the improvement will count as a tax deduction. Sadly, this means that luxuries like entertainment systems and saunas do not count as tax credits.

Interestingly, the definition of “improvements” in the context of taxes is rather specific. If you repair your roof or prepare it for harsh weather, that counts as an improvement that can be tax deductible if you sell or rent out the home.

If you call an exterminator to clear the house of bed bugs, rats, or termites, that can also count.

But what if you do not have a second home to rent out?

What if you do not plan to sell your current home before the end of the year? Is there anything you can do?

Well, yes. Odd as it is, if you register your home office as a part of your business, then money that you spend on that office is tax deductible. Sadly, this does not come with as many loopholes as you might think it does.

You cannot just install a new entertainment system, call it your office’s break room, then expect to be able to write that off as tax deductible.

A good example of how the office deductions work is thinking of replacing your roof or windows. If you replace five windows, but only one window for your office, then 20% of the cost of those window replacements is deductible.

One very important note: Improvements can only be deductible if they exist at the time taxes are incurred. So, if you install weathering on your home, but that weathering is gone by the time you sell your home, then you cannot use that weathering as a tax deduction.

Taxes are a truly dizzying maze of rules and regulations. While home improvements are not meant to be deductible, doing so is still possible.