A few years ago I checked my savings account balance and it was exactly what I expected – the number had gone up, slowly, the way it’s supposed to. What I hadn’t checked was what that number could actually buy compared to a year earlier, and when I did the comparison, groceries, rent, and a handful of everyday purchases all…
“Just use a credit card for everything and pay it off every month” is the default advice you’ll hear, and for a lot of people it’s genuinely correct. But I don’t think it’s universal advice, and treating it as one-size-fits-all has steered some people I know into trouble. The honest answer is that debit and credit are built for different…
I used to think an emergency fund was just “some money I don’t touch.” Then my car’s transmission gave out the same month my landlord raised the rent, and I found out the hard way that a vague pile of savings and a real emergency fund are two different things. One holds up under pressure. The other quietly evaporates the…