Plant swaps, seed libraries, garden groups and perennial divisions can provide free plants without crossing anyone’s property line. Inspect shared plants carefully before adding them to your garden. Kokosha Yuliya/Shutterstock Anyone who has priced perennials, vegetable starts, or houseplants lately knows how quickly a few small pots can wreck a gardening budget. That makes it tempting to snip an interesting branch hanging over a sidewalk or quietly pocket a succulent leaf at the garden center, […]

Fallen leaves, untreated grass clippings, wood chips, pine needles and cardboard can all help replace purchased mulch. The key is matching each free material to the right part of your garden. larisa Stefanjuk/Shutterstock Mulch is one of those garden purchases that doesn’t seem expensive until you calculate how many bags it takes to cover an entire landscape. A 3-inch layer across a 100-square-foot bed requires roughly 25 cubic feet of material, so even modest gardens […]

Letting your health plan roll over at open enrollment means buying next year’s coverage without checking next year’s prices. Before the window closes, add 12 months of each option’s premiums to what you’d expect to pay out of pocket, and compare the totals. Then confirm your doctors and prescriptions are still covered. Source

My Sweet Retirement SIA Shares Price: Dividend Yield and Should I Buy Now? The SIA shares price sits at around S$6.55 as of 21 September 2026. Since the SIA shares price changes throughout each trading day, I always check the live quote on SGX or my broker before … SIA Shares Price: Dividend Yield and Should I Buy Now? My Sweet Retirement

Don’t miss an episode of our podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Available on all podcast players. Here’s the latest episode: Small change, giant impact. One challenge in financial planning is when a “small” decision creates much bigger than we assumed. “End of Plan” is one such decision. Some planning software might call it “planning horizon” or “life expectancy” or any number of other euphemisms for “when might you die?” Yes, death is scary to consider. And it’s obvious how our lifespan affects our finances. The longer we live, the more money we need to live a successful retirement. But there’s so much more! If you’ve ever dabbled with financial planning software (Boldin, Pralana, eMoney, RightCapital, Empower, etc.), you might be unaware of the unintended side effects that “age at death” is creating in your plan. Defining the “Problem”… The (frequent) “problem” I witness follows this logic: Running out of money is a scary idea. I don’t want to underestimate when we’ll die. I’ll overestimate instead…I’ll live until 90. My wife, 95. Boom. I’ve “solved” the problem of running out of money. [Narrator: But they were completely unaware of the unintended side effects…] I agree that it’s important to “stress test” whether you’ll run out of money. Changing your assumed age of death is a good idea. But what else are people missing? Let’s dive into what people often miss. Side Effect 1: Social Security Claiming Extending your End of Plan to age ~85+ almost assuredly pushes your Social Security claiming strategy out to age 70. If you live a long time, you wouldn’t want to claim Social Security early. This one is straightforward. In fact, it might be less of an “unintended side effect” and more of a “known headliner.” Plenty of couples should be claiming Social Security before 70 — at least for one of the two spouses. But if you model your End of Plans out at 85, 90, etc., then the planning software might encourage you both to delay until age 70. Side Effect 2: Roth Conversions Roth conversions are tricky. Decades of unknowns lie ahead, and you need to account for them in today’s Roth conversion math. It’s a gray area. Nevertheless, what’s the effect of assuming someone lives until age 95? The main effect is that said person would have 20+ years of required minimum distributions, the last of which would be more than 10% of their account value. These RMDs would push this person into higher and higher tax brackets, likely making present-day Roth conversions more and more attractive. Said succinctly: later death = more Roth conversions today. But if that same person dies at 75? Roth conversions might be outright bad. If they die at 80? Perhaps much smaller Roth conversions would be appropriate. The choice of modeling death at age 85, 90, or 95 can encourage

This long box has a butterfly clasp lid and can hold 300 comics. Image source: Amazon This post includes affiliate links. If you purchase anything through these affiliated links, the author/website may earn a commission. Here’s the hard truth: without proper storage, even the most valuable comics can warp, fade, or tear over time. Whether you’re safeguarding a vintage Amazing Spider-Man or your latest indie gem, the right short and long boxes are essential for […]

You’ve decided to buy a house. Congratulations! Now comes the hard part. Buying a home in Jamaica can be exciting, but if this is your first time doing it, the process can also feel overwhelming. Between finding the property, getting a mortgage, paying closing costs, dealing with lawyers, valuations, surveys and trying to figure out exactly how much house you can actually afford, there is a lot to think about. I bought my first home […]

12 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Moving Interstate Moving interstate is one of those costs that sneaks up on people. A quote arrives, it says three and a half thousand dollars, and suddenly the fresh start feels expensive before it has begun. Here is the part worth knowing: most of that number is negotiable, […] The post How to Move Interstate Without Blowing the Budget: 12 Ways to Cut Costs appeared first on The […]