.5 Factors Are What Actually Matters When It Comes to Your Credit

by Robin Hartill, CFP® Senior Editor Updated December 20, 2020

Five factors determine your credit score: pay history for loans and lines of credit; credit utilization; credit history length; credit mix; new credit and hard inquiries. Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder

It’s impossible to overstate the impact your credit score has on your life. It determines everything from whether you can buy a home or rent an apartment to your credit card interest rates and how much you’ll pay for insurance.

Your credit score is basically just a three-digit number that measures how likely you are to repay your debt. Credit scores range from 300 to 850 and are based on information the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — have on file for you.

.3 Financial Mistakes I Made

By MONKWEALTH

Personal Finance mistakes are not just consequences of insufficient knowledge or experience, they’re also part of human nature. We continuously miss out on opportunities or remain ignorant to factors that may improve our financial situation, but also overspend led by emotions, compulsions, or subscriptions.

This post is about the missed opportunities and potential gains due to lack of knowledge or inexperience. Many people, especially those who are not on a path to FIRE, will find themselves doing these mistakes and not being aware of it, as some of them are not intuitive or obvious right away. However, acknowledging their existence can set you years ahead, not only on your FIRE journey, but also in life. So, let’s start!

.How to Write a Will and Why You Need One (Even if You’re Young and Broke)

by Lisa Rowan

It’s the question we usually ask our parents late one night while sitting around the kitchen table. Or we ask our siblings when they become parents for the first time.

“Do you have a will?” Of course, if you’re facing an illness, coming up on retirement age, or have a partner or children, you should have a will. But even if you’re young and feel invincible, you should probably have a will, tool. Life can come at you fast. So can death. Before you go online and print a will from the same website where you got ordained to preside over weddings, check out this primer of all the estate planning-type documents you might want — and their true costs.

What Is a Will, Anyway? This short list will orient you with some of the terms you’ll see bandied about by estate lawyers, websites, and likely your family and friends, too.

.To Exchange It All or Not?​

By Muhammad Ali CurrencyExchangePlanner.com

I was asked this question recently from one of my Currency Exchange Planner customers; his name is Robert from California. “Will you exchange all IQD or some and hold and wait if it comes out low? “

Now I see 2 sides to this question, I’ll tackle the easy side first, if the value comes out low, for example $1 to 1 Dinar, I would only change a few notes and wait for the value to go higher before changing the bulk of my notes. How much YOU would change would depend upon how many notes you hold?​

Now, let’s say the value comes out to $4 right away, would I still change all? Again, I would still only change a few and wait for the rate to rise higher and then change more. I already have my personal target in mind.​

.7 Mistakes Many of Us Are Making With Our Money During the Pandemic

by The Penny Hoarder Staff

One way or another, we all make mistakes. It’s the human condition. But right now, in the midst of a pandemic, one thing you don’t want to make mistakes with is with your money. Sure, we’ve all let bad financial habits creep up on us. But in these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re not your own bank account’s worst enemy.

Here are seven mistakes people are making with their money during the pandemic, and what you can do instead.

.10 Questions From a Beginner Investor

By MONKWEALTH

If you’re researching investing, you’re most probably having some uncertainties that need to be addressed.

By no means a complete list can be compiled to answer every question a beginner might have, but here are a few I’ve heard lately. So, if you overcome investing fear but still aren’t ready to take the leap, let’s see if this post can help with some of your concerns. Isn’t investing risky? Compared to what?

The best way to resolve this concern is by distinguishing between:

Investing and trading - Investing and gambling - Investing and betting

.Treat Your Life Like a Business

By MONKWEALTH

Some people got lucky and made millions. Some people were disciplined and got rich slowly. However, adopting certain principles can make us eliminate the factor of luck in business and in life. Maybe not completely but enough to feel sufficient control over our project. In this post I want to point out a few non-exclusive factors that may significantly improve our lives. The idea is in the title: Treating our lives as a business. And if we’d do a good job in achieving what’s considered success in life, applying the same principles in a corporate environment would be a joke. Winning at life is much more rare than career success.

Don’t overspend - It always starts here. Know your budget. Allocate it properly. Don’t borrow without a plan. Have a fund that can cover your expenses for a few months. Regardless of whether we talk about business or life, going into high interest debt is extremely risky, especially when certain levels of cash-flows are not already established. Although debt can be used as a leverage given a proper strategy, it can also be a fast track to a bankruptcy. So use with caution – or don’t if you have the slightest doubt in what you’re doing.

.5 Money Myths and Misconceptions

By MONKWEALTH

We all have misconceptions.

A field that’s especially misunderstood by the average person is personal finance. People are prone to believe various myths about money and end up sad, poor, and frustrated as a consequence.

This post is aimed to that segment of the general population – the people who think money is evil, that time is money, or that “the rich” owe them something. Enjoy.

1. Money Can’t Make You Happy

Okay, I agree. Money can’t make you happy, indeed. However, no money also can’t make you happy. Mind blown, right? I don’t fully understand how some people connect money to happiness in an exclusive way. But I understand that many use it as an excuse to indulge in excessive self-sabotage by disregarding the importance of personal finance.

.Tony Robbins’ 8-Point Guide to Reversing Your Fortunes in 2021

By Matt Crossman | December 13, 2020

What’s left to say about 2020 that hasn’t already been said? Dumpster fires and train wrecks think it was a bad year.

When viewed through the narrow prism of work, it was a nightmare for companies big and small, for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, employees, freelancers, members of the gig economy, and everybody in between. Maybe for you 2020 was bad enough to prompt, or even require, a reimagining of your work, your focus, or your dreams. Tony Robbins feels your pain. He knows, understands and shares in what you’re going through because he went through it, too

A life and business strategist, No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Robbins spent decades traveling the world speaking in front of thousands of people, and all of that disappeared seemingly in an instant. But did the end of large gatherings forecast the end of Robbins? Nope.

.10 Ways You Can Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is This Holiday Season

By Sarah Paulk | December 17, 2020

Like everything else in 2020, the holidays are in upheaval. Even a visit to see Santa means a socially distanced photo complete with face shields and masks. But unlike everything else in 2020, gift giving has not been postponed. In fact, maintaining simple traditions like wrapping and gifting presents can be an incredible stabilizer when it feels like the world around us is anything but.

The trick in this chaotic year is to find gifts that are meaningful and relevant. A lot of people on our lists are working from home, eating takeout at home and ordering their essentials from home, so gifting anything that signals dressing up or going out is bound to gather dust. Concerts, movies, wine tastings—events that make us crave a shared experience with strangers—don’t make much sense this year, and diamond earrings don’t exactly match the house slippers and sweatpants that have become a part of Zoom call chic.

.Warren Buffett's 6 Ways To Keep Your Finances Healthy During COVID

Doug Whiteman Sat, December 19, 2020

COVID-19 and recession it caused have been hitting everyone — including 90-year-old investing legend Warren Buffett.

At his massive conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the pandemic "has adversely affected nearly all of our operations, although the effects are varying significantly," the company said in its latest quarterly earnings release, in early November. But even with the challenges, Berkshire reported an 82% jump in net profit for the July-through-September quarter — so, billionaire Buffett would seem to be weathering the crisis just fine.

You can, too, if you follow his lead. Here are takeaways from six bits of Buffett wisdom to protect your money as the virus rampages on.