If you want to understand why having the W-4 form explained is the most important thing you can do for your paycheck, you just have to look at the month of April. Every spring, millions of Americans sit down to file their taxes, and they experience one of two extremes. Half of them jump for…
If you are trapped by credit cards, deciding between the debt avalanche vs debt snowball method is the most important financial choice you can make. I can vividly remember sitting at my kitchen table, staring at a stack of bills. I had four different balances across four different cards, each with a different minimum payment…
I used to think budgeting was self-punishment. For years I’ve managed my money by downloading ridiculously sophisticated spreadsheets, recording every single $4 coffee I bought, and feeling guilty every time I spent money on something fun. Predictably, the strategy was short-lived, and lasted only three weeks. It was tiring. It was a financial crash diet,…
Three years ago, before I discovered the debt snowball strategy, I stared at a spreadsheet on my laptop that made my stomach drop. I had five different credit cards open. One was from a big-box furniture store, two were standard cash-back cards, and one was a high-limit travel rewards card. The total balance across all…
I kept a beat-up shoebox at the back of my closet for the first five years of my career. I put the receipts for things like pens for work, donating old items to Goodwill, and paying a medical co-pay in that box. I was sure that when tax time came, I would “itemize” my deductions,…