Latest posts
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HSA Investment Options: How to Pick the Right Fund With Confidence
Your HSA investment options can be a short menu, and a short menu means you can finish the decision in one sitting. Once your account is set up to invest, the real work is reading a handful of fund names, comparing a few fees, and matching each fund to the year you expect to use…
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Reduce a Concentrated Stock Position Without a Tax Shock
If you want to reduce a concentrated stock position, the good news is that you don’t have to sell everything at once, and you don’t have to hand a big chunk of your gains to the IRS to do it. Schwab’s guide lays out several ways to trim a single holding, and several of them…
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Single Parent FHA Loan: Buy a Home With 3.5% Down
A single parent FHA loan is, in my view, one of the more realistic ways to buy a home on one income. HUD says an FHA down payment can be as low as 3.5% of the purchase price for 1-4 unit properties, and HUD’s housing counselor training guide says a credit score of 580 or…
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Calculate Debt to Income Ratio Like a Lender
You can calculate debt to income ratio in five minutes with a pay stub and a stack of statements. The CFPB says lenders use it to gauge whether you can handle the payments on a new loan, and in my view it’s a number you can actively move. This guide shows how the ratio is…
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Take-Home Pay After a Raise: The Exact Math
A raise adds income on top of what you already earn, and you can work out how much of it you keep in about ten minutes. The trick is to stop asking “which bracket am I in?” and start asking “what happens to this specific extra slice of money?” Once you split the raise into…
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401k to IRA Rollover for Crypto: 6 Checks Before You Move
A 401k to IRA rollover for crypto sounds like a clean solution. Your plan doesn’t offer crypto, an IRA can hold more kinds of investments, so you move the money and buy what you want. This post lists what to verify first, because a rollover changes the rules that apply to your money. This isn’t…
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Buy Crypto With a Credit Card: What a Cash Advance Costs
If you plan to buy crypto with a credit card, check how your card treats the purchase first, so there is no surprise on your statement. In my view, a debit card or bank transfer avoids the cash advance trap, because a cash advance is a credit card feature. Below is a breakdown of what…