Sincerely, R.B. Dear R.B., Great question! Investing in cryptocurrency (or crypto as many call it) remains such a hot button issue and the short answer is… it depends. What do you define as a good investment? Is it one that gives you 100x in returns? 50x? Is it one that helps you lower your risk? Once you define what a good investment is for you, and your risk tolerance, then you can better determine if cryptocurrency should be a part of your portfolio....

Owning your own vacation home, or secondary residence has pros and cons to consider. Let’s take a look at whether buying a vacation property is the right choice for you. Should You Buy a Vacation Home? Buying a secondary residence is similar to buying a home for your primary residence in that location and affordability will be top priorities. But there are a few other factors to consider with vacation homes, such as vacancy issues and different tax implications....

“It’s a high-risk, high-reward value proposition,” says Jena Abernathy, author of “The Inequality Equalizer.” There are right and wrong ways to play the game. Here’s what to consider before using a competing offer to up the ante at work. Exploration Can Be a Good Thing “It never hurts to explore,” Abernathy said. Checking out other offers can be an opportunity to network, and it’s a good way to gauge how your value has grown in the open market....

Should You Include a Picture on Your Resume? There isn’t one right answer to the question of including a photo on your resume, though it’s typically been considered a bad idea for most job seekers. Depending on your circumstances, it can be no, maybe, or even yes. Or you can consider a creative solution for showing a prospective employer your smiling face. The traditional advice regarding placing photos on resumes has been an emphatic “No....

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one out of every five women quits her job either before or shortly after giving birth. There are many reasons to resign during maternity leave. A position may no longer feel like a good fit given your growing family. Childcare may be a consideration. Or, you may get a job offer during leave. Quitting your job during maternity leave can be complicated. As with any resignation, you’ll want to preserve your relationship with your employer....

401(k) Loans Are Not Free Money One of the most common mistakes people make is thinking that borrowing from their 401k is the same as going to the bank and taking some money out of a savings account. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When you borrow money from your 401(k), you are taking out a loan. Just like an auto loan or a home loan, this means you promise to pay back what you borrow with interest....

One of the ways to act like a real business is to have the same type of documentation that other LLC owners have. An LLC with more than one member (the owner) has a document called an operating agreement that is prepared with the help of an attorney when the business begins. This article looks at how an operating agreement works for a single-member LLC, and what to include in this document....

Tax Benefits Available to You In 2021, Wisconsin residents who contribute to a 529 plan in the state can deduct up to $3,380 from their Wisconsin income tax return for each account they contribute to on behalf of a future college student, such as a spouse, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, niece, or nephew. Previously, only close relatives could be contributors, but in 2014 the state expanded the group of individuals who could contribute to those outside of a future student’s next of kin....

An asset management company invests and manages portfolios of mutual funds and other securities. Some are geared toward very wealthy individuals, in that these investors usually hand over full control of their portfolios to managers, who handle their assets. In this article, learn about some of the largest investment management firms in the world, plus what you need to know about how they work. How Do Big Asset Management Firms Work?...

These include: automatic blank page removal, handwriting detection, and automatic skew adjustment. Almost all document scanners available allow for wireless connections over Wi-Fi so you can send documents and images to your email, smartphone, or laptop without the need for a USB connection. You can also send digitized documents to cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive to create off-site backup copies. If your office handles many different types of documents, you’ll want to invest in a model that can handle everything from traditional letter-sized paper to business cards and receipts....

Schools teach kids a few ways to avoid this, but it can help a lot if you have a pen that’s made specifically with your hand in mind. This means one with quick-drying ink to avoid smears and a smooth flow because many people press down a little harder when they’re writing from the left. Some pens even offer special left-handed grips to reduce hand strain. You’ll find some or all of these features in these best pens for lefties....

Here are some of the ABCs of money to make it easy to start introducing these important topics to children early in life. Kiddie Tax The kiddie tax is a rule for how the unearned income of children is taxed. Of course as children, kids don’t typically earn income from work or an employer as their parents do. Unearned income in this case includes interest, dividends, and other investment income....

But even as rates dropped, the number of people applying for mortgages still fell, as home loan applications declined 3% last week from the week prior, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today. The number of applications is 40% lower compared to the same week last year, as higher rates have cooled appetites for purchasing a home. The recent dip in rates has renewed interest in refinancing, however. Those applications jumped 5% last week from the week prior but still sit 86% lower than last year....

This is, of course, to be expected. As the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates to bring down inflation, the likelihood of a recession grows. That makes shoppers less inclined to spend cash that they could be saving for upcoming rainy days instead. How much people are shopping is an important indicator in the U.S. economy, since 70% of GDP is consumer spending. In other words, when people stop shopping, the economy starts to slow down....

For investors, this week will also be all about corporate earnings. Companies will report how well they performed in the last quarter and give guidance on how well they expect to perform in the future. Big financial institutions, such as Bank of America, Charles Schwab, and Goldman Sachs are among those reporting this week, along with Tesla, United Airlines, and American Airlines. Even if you aren’t invested in a particular company, earnings could let us know how some of the country’s business leaders are feeling about the economy, and their predictions for what’s to come....

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.1% in August after staying flat in July, as food, housing, and medical costs soared. At the grocery store, prices jumped 0.8% in August, making for an 11.4% gain over the last year—the biggest since 1979. Housing and shelter costs swelled too, growing 6.2% year-over-year. True, you probably paid less at the pump in August, as gas prices fell 10.6%. But that was just about the only place we got a break—at the car dealership, new vehicles were 10....

The snowball method is a popular strategy, and downloading one of these debt-snowball spreadsheets can help you reduce your debt. One option on this list even walks you through how to choose a debt-payoff method by comparing the snowball method to the avalanche method and other strategies. Technically, these are spreadsheet templates that you can use with Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, or Google Sheets. With a template, you get a ready-made spreadsheet with the right formulas to do all of the calculating for you....

The rate of return is usually just a bit higher than a money market account, and it is a safe investment since the funds are guaranteed. It is not a great way to grow your money, but it is a great way to keep it safe. This is a good strategy for longer-term savings that you want to protect, like your ​down payment for a home. However, you may be able to earn a higher interest rate with another method....

But there’s a catch. Gift cards are easy to lose or forget about long enough that they can begin to lose value, and some may even expire. One survey found that, in 2018, while 70% of all gift cards are redeemed within 180 days of purchase, about three in 10 go unused. In total, an estimated $3.5 billion in gift cards goes unredeemed each year, according to recent data from Mercator Advisory Group, Inc....

A seller and home both need to meet certain criteria to be sold short. All information regarding the seller’s finances and the home’s value will need to be gathered and presented to the lender along with other items in a packet, as well as having a prospective buyer. Defining a Short Sale When a lender approves a short sale, they’re agreeing to sell the property for less than the outstanding mortgage balance against it....