For grandparents (or other extended family members) who want to support a child’s education, there are a number of methods available for use—each with their own advantages and uses. All provide financial support for the student, of course, but each has its own challenges and tax considerations to be taken into account.
To help your children get a better financial start, it’s important to have an education savings plan. The sooner you start saving, the better off you will be in the long run, and even modest savings can grow into significant investments by the time your child is ready to head off to school.
The most important thing to keep in mind when dealing with an inheritance is to create a plan for its use. Because of the emotional circumstances surrounding your inheritance, it may be best to wait before making any decisions so you have time to process your thoughts and develop a coherent plan.
You have four options when it comes to your retirement assets: leave them with your former employer, roll them over into your new employer’s retirement plan, roll them over into an IRA, or cash out. As with most financial decisions, there are pros and cons to each choice, and your specific circumstances may make one choice more appealing than the others.
Embarking on a brand-new career late in life can be more difficult than starting when you’re young. Sometimes it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and the logistical barriers—not to mention age discrimination—make it easy to stick with the status quo. But if you’re truly unhappy with your career, or if you’d like to pursue a passion you’ve been neglecting thus far, now is the time to get started.
In households where one spouse shoulders all of the financial responsibility, that spouse is typically the husband. It is also common for wives to handle bill paying and shopping while husbands manage the big picture planning, such as retirement accounts, insurance and tax planning. On the other hand, there are a lot of women who are increasingly taking the financial responsibility for the household onto their own shoulders. Of course, you should do what works for your marriage and split responsibilities accordingly, but it’s also important that both you and your spouse are financially literate and aware of family finances, even if you don’t personally sign off on the mortgage payment each month.
A newly married couple has three options when it comes to deciding how to handle their bank accounts: They can choose to combine everything into joint bank accounts, keep everything separate, or do a combination of the two, perhaps keeping one joint account for regular shared expenses and two individual accounts for personal expenses. There are pros and cons to each of these options. It’s up to the couple to decide which option works best for their individual needs.
Saying “I do” and signing a marriage license change your legal rights significantly—marriage comes with more than a ring and a new last name. There are at least 1,138 tangible benefits, protections and rights that come with a legal marriage, according to a 2004 report from the U.S. General Accounting Office. These rights can benefit you in all aspects of your financial life.
Regardless of cost, the amount of emotional and sentimental weight that wedding rings carry make them nothing short of opulent. Couples should consider the best methods to protect these small treasures, so that in the event of an unfortunate loss, the damage is minimized as much as possible.
A good marriage relies strongly on good communication. Yet so many couples neglect discussing their finances with each other, either because it’s an emotional subject or because they just don’t know what financial topics they should be talking about. Since money squabbles are at the heart of many divorces, it’s important to sync up your financial goals and philosophies in order to start off your marriage on the right foot. Here are four conversations you and your fiancé should have prior to tying the knot: