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A smartphone displaying a payment confirmation screen. Fraud prevention, documentation, and smart digital money habits need to be top of mind for anyone using payment apps – Shutterstock A payment-app transfer can feel almost too easy. A few taps, a confirmation screen, and money moves from one account to another, but that convenience can create a headache when something goes wrong. Saving the right records before disputing a transfer can help people organize the details […]
Have you been offered a job that pays $29 an hour, wondering if it is good enough? You may be asking yourself: $29 an hour is how much a year? Let’s determine how much you can earn in a year, month, week, or day, depending on the number of hours you put into the job. As one of the employees who works on an hourly basis, you want to know if you can have a […]
It all started with eyeliner. I noticed I was going through my eyeliner pens at a rate that made no sense. I barely wear makeup, and I buy my eyeliners in packs of two, so running out constantly felt strange. Every time I opened my makeup case, there was just one worn-down pen, even though I could have sworn I’d bought more not long before. I chalked it up to a bad memory and bought more. This happened a few times before I finally did a real clean-out of my closet and found a basket on my shelf with a small collection of eyeliner pens, some still in their packaging. I had bought them. I just never had a system for putting them anywhere I could find them, so each time I needed one, I assumed I hadn’t bought it and bought it again. That basket of eyeliners cost me real money, and it taught me something that applies far beyond makeup: being disorganized is expensive. Ready to stop cleaning in circles? Grab the Cleaning & Decluttering Planner and finally get your home & your to-do list) under control → Cleaning & Decluttering Planner Clutter Has a Price Tag When your home is cluttered, you lose things. Not permanently, usually, just long enough that you buy a replacement before the original turns up. Think about: a missing tape measure, a second phone charger, a coat you already own tucked into a box marked “winter clothes” that you can’t be bothered to dig out of the crawl space. Each of these is a small purchase on its own, but they add up fast, and they’re purchases you wouldn’t have made if you’d known where your things were. Clutter also costs money to maintain. More stuff means more bins, more shelving, and sometimes more storage space to hold things you rarely use. You end up paying to store items you forgot you had, while buying new versions of the same items because you can’t find them. Disorganization Undermines Every Other Frugal Habit You can build a great budget and still bleed money if your house is working against you. It’s hard to feel in control of your finances when you’re constantly replacing things you’ve lost, forgotten about, or damaged because they weren’t put away properly. Like I always say, frugal living is about intention: knowing what you have, what you need, and where your money is going. Clutter makes all three of those harder. There’s also a quieter cost that I have noticed over the years. A messy kitchen doesn’t exactly invite you to cook. After a long day, it’s much easier to order takeout than to face a sink full of dishes or a counter you can’t clear. That’s a grocery budget that quickly spirals into daily takeout and impulse spending you can’t control. Feeling overwhelmed by clutter? Join the 30 Bags in 30 Days Declutter Challenge and take the first step toward a more organized home! This free printable
Ever since two park rangers approached me at an empty public court while I was teaching my own children tennis, I’ve been thinking about how to make sure it never happens again. Not just to me. To anybody. The problem that afternoon wasn’t that the rangers were doing their jobs. The problem was information. They […] The post A Backwards Tax Identification System For Determining Your Freedom appeared first on Financial Samurai.
The Vanguard High Dividend ETF (ticker VDY.TO) has accelerated its outperformance over the TSX Composite (XIC.TO). In 2026 VDY has more than doubled up on the returns of the TSX at 26.2% vs 10.1%. VDY is concentrated in Canadian financials. Energy then chips in, in a meaningful way. From 2021, financials and energy have greatly outperformed. That has lifted the Canadian stock market, but more so the Canadian high dividend ETFs such as VDY.TO, iShares […]
In a dramatic legislative turn, Washington State has rewritten its death tax rules once again. After imposing steep estate tax increases last year, lawmakers in Olympia stepped back from the edge of a high-net-worth exodus. Facing urgent warnings from financial planners and tax experts that affluent residents were packing up for low-tax havens, Governor Bob Ferguson signed a major policy reversal into law earlier this year, restoring lower estate tax brackets. Read the rest
Are you looking for the best app to help you manage your finances? Here’s the lowdown on today’s 2 best money management platforms in the market: Rocket Money vs. Mint. Personal finance and budgeting apps can help you monitor your spending and help you save money. Still, they also have various useful features that can assist you in achieving your financial goals. How will you know which one is right for you? This article will […]
Right now, the U.S. national average interest rate on savings account balances is nowhere near enough to keep pace with inflation. The good news is you can do better with high-yield savings accounts. We’ve reviewed the best high-yield savings accounts… Source
Don’t miss an episode of our podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Available on all podcast players. Here’s the latest episode: A reader wrote in to me last week explaining his DIY retirement plan. His plan involved Roth conversions. No problem so far. Roth conversions create taxes. Indeed, unavoidable. And his plan was to pay those taxes via withholding dollars from the Roth conversion. Hold up! Withholding and Roth Conversions Withholding tax is money that an employer (or other payer) deducts from your income and sends directly to the IRS. It’s a preemptive payment toward your annual income tax. Most of us are familiar with withholding in our normal W2 paychecks. In the case of Roth conversions, withholding is money that your custodian (Schwab, Fidelity, etc.) deducts from the conversion amount and sends directly to the IRS. Rather than 100% of your dollars ending up in your Roth account, you get 100% minus your tax rate. By electing this withholding choice, you are using qualified Roth IRA dollars to pay your taxes. That could probably be the end of the article right there. Would you rather pay your taxes using regular bank dollars? Or using Roth IRA dollars? It’s a clear choice. But numbers will help us clarify further. Two Simple Roth Conversion Scenarios Let’s say you convert $10,000 in the 12% Federal bracket. You also have a normal bank account with $50,000 in it. Scenario 1: You withhold your taxes from the conversion. You convert the $10,000. You withhold $1200. Only $8800 ends up in Roth. You still have $50,000 in the bank. Scenario 2: You use bank dollars to pay the tax bill. You convert the $10,000. All $10,000 ends up in your Roth. You now have $48,800 in the bank. The Difference is Clear There’s a $1200 difference between the scenarios. That $1200 either ends up in your bank account or in your Roth IRA. I know which one I’d prefer, and it’s not even close. It’s the Roth! In fact, you could easily argue that withholding taxes from your Roth conversion is so inefficient that it’s actually worse than never having done the conversion in the first place. Are you 59 Yet? Because It Gets Worse… If you’re younger than 59.5, then today’s idea is even worse for you. Early withdrawals from IRAs and 401ks typically come with a 10% penalty tax. Roth conversions are not considered an early withdrawal. Roth conversions are safe. BUT…if you withhold taxes from your Roth conversion, then that withheld portion is not considered a conversion. It’s considered a distribution. An early distribution. Subject to a 10% penalty. You owe extra taxes on the money you withheld to pay taxes. It’s taxes all the way down. You do not want to do this. What To Do Instead When you make a Roth conversion, you’ll want to pay the tax
Using Topgiftcards via TopCashback can save you 1 to 5 percent on purchases, including groceries, services, and a variety of retailers. The post TopGiftCards Review (2026): How to Save Money on UK Supermarkets & Shopping appeared first on The Financial Wilderness.
Yousuf Rizvi, CPA · Principal and Fractional CFO, Ridgeway Financial ServicesGuest Contributor · CuraDebt · Updated July 29, 2026Cash Crisis Management for Founders and Small Business Owners: What Actually Works When the Runway Is Already ShortFrom CuraDebt · Key TakeawayQuick answer from Yousuf Rizvi, CPA: When a small business cash runway is short, the immediate […] The post Cash Crisis Management for Founders and Small Business Owners: What Actually Works When the Runway Is Already […]
SAVE is officially dead. A federal court entered judgment back in March, ending the plan for good, and loan servicers … Read more
A few months ago, I read my first—and likely last—book on tax-planning: Tax Planning to and Through Early Retirement. It was my first book on the subject because, well, tax planning historically hadn’t ever exactly set my pulse racing. And my last, because, well, tax planning doesn’t exactly set my pulse racing. Actually, that ain’t entirely true. Since learning more about federal and state personal income tax provisions after discovering FIRE (and that they were […]