Your Child is Turning 18: Handling Healthcare, Academics, and Finances Together As your child blows out the candles on their 18th birthday, you may still see your baby girl or boy. But in the eyes of the law your child is considered a legal adult in most states. This means they can vote, buy a lottery ticket, or get a tattoo without your permission. Even if you’ve prepared them for what...

Plenty of user-friendly technologies are on the market today for our older relatives and their caretakers. Here's a list of currently available devices curated by helloEd that may help them.1) Visual Clock & Reminder Visual clocks help with keeping track of the time, day, and date for people who have trouble keeping track of time and reading clock faces. Losing one's sense of time can lead to confusion, anxiety, challenging behavior,...

Attention Parents and Grandparents of College-Bound Students: FAFSA Gets an Overhaul Changes are coming to the complicated form that students must submit to qualify for college financial aid, known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The Department of Education is calling it the “most ambitious and significant redesign of the federal student aid application in decades” and adds that it “includes unprecedented changes to how students and families apply...

Money Tips for Parents Sending Children Off to College You’ve done a great job teaching your children vital life lessons and instilling values that will last a lifetime. As summer ends and a new school year begins, one thing that shouldn’t be overlooked, especially for college-bound children, is the money talk. Having open and honest discussions about finances can help shape your child’s long-term relationship with money, which might set them...

Diversification is a strategy designed to help you avoid unnecessary mistakes 1.  The Easiest Decade for DIY Investors (The Belle Curve, 3/17/2019) "Do you remember all the hoopla about “The Lost Decade” for US stocks? Over a ten-year period the S&P 500 had a negative return. That is a very long time to be down in stocks. But what rarely gets mentioned is that investing in different types of stocks provided positive...

First-time home buyers having a rough go of it 1.Starter-Home Affordability Hits a Decade Low (Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg, 8/27/2018) “Starter homes are now more costly to purchase than at any time since 2008, when the last boom came to a crashing halt. In the second quarter, first-time buyers needed almost 23 percent of their income to afford a typical entry-level home, up from 21 percent a year earlier, according to an analysis...

Your path to buying a home In How to Buy a House, Michelle Higgins of the New York Times outlines your path to homeownership, step-by-step. Steps include: Rent vs. Buy, How Much House Can I Afford, Check Your Credit Score, Get Pre-approved for a Mortgage, Line up Cash, Figure Out Where You Want to Live, Making An Offer, and Closing. Don’t forget to celebrate when all is done! Additional Reading: From...

How do you save for “retirement” if you don’t participate in a 401(k) plan? Katie Lobosco with CNN Money writes “The good news is that there are other accounts you can open yourself that offer similar benefits. For some self-employed people, the benefits can be even better than a traditional 401(k) plan's.” Roth IRA’s are great for kids with earned income Kimberly Lankford with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance notes “Contributing to a...

Sheri’s take: Recently, we shared two guest posts on this fall’s insurance open enrollment period, authored by Mark Maurer, CFP®, MBA, president and CEO of LLIS. Mark’s posts were well-received, so we were delighted when he agreed to share one more interesting idea with us on how to use “layering” to save costs on your life insurance while still ensuring adequate coverage for your loved ones. Good coverage at less...

It's been hard to escape the news of the Equifax breach. Even though it happened starting in May 2017 we're only just hearing about it. In my opinion, and others', the company's response to this breach has been far from stellar. Huffington Post reports: The Federal Trade Commission announced it is investigating the Equifax incident, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking into the company’s response to the breach. Members of the House Judiciary,...