How to Save $50,000 in Two Years After Getting Out of Debt + MORE

I thought that title might get your attention. It just so happens, I saved $50,000 in the first 24 months after becoming debt free. My average salary throughout that time period was….. well… let’s just say it was less than $55,000 per year.
Can you do it too? Of course you can. Here’s how:
Step 1: Track Your Finances – How do you think I came up with that $50,000 number and the 24 month timeline? The data is sitting in my Mint…

This post is from staff writer Kristin Wong. “I can’t believe I’m going to be 30!” I told my Dad at the beginning of the year. I said the same thing when I turned twenty, so I knew he would reassure me that thirty actually wasn’t that old. “Nope, thirty’s old,” he said…

If you are like me and millions of other screwed Americans, you owe taxes by April 15. I used to think that it was always better to owe taxes each year, but that was when the 10-year yield and CDs were providing a healthy 4% annual return. Nowadays, you’re lucky to get a 2% return on either instrument…

Some want to travel around the world, and others want to stay closer to home and family. Some want to rest after years of work, while others can’t imagine not working at least some of the time.
What is your dream retirement? Where will you be, what will you do, and when will you do it? Are you on track to reach your retirement dreams?
Tell us about your dream retirement and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We’re doing three giveaways — here’s how you can win!
Mandatory Entry:

Post your answer in the comments below…

Rich Habits author Tom Corley spent 5 years studying the daily activities of 233 wealthy people and 128 poor people.  He discovered that wealthy people have vastly different daily habits than poor people (not a big surprise). Anyway, he tracked and listed the various activities that the rich do with the idea that if anyone else would do them too, they could become rich…

I’m at the stage in life where I get a lot of positive pressure to put money aside in a 529 college savings account for our children.
If you have children, I’m sure you get the same pressure.
If you’re like me though, you took action and you opened up a 529 plan and have started making automatic contributions…

 
 
Eating well-balanced meals and an overall healthy diet does not have to come at the expense of your wallet. Clearly, fast food meals are cheaper than fresh produce. Unfortunately, a box of fries and a burger immersed in grease does not present the nutrition an individual requires on a daily basis…

Thanks to heavy marketing campaigns, including endorsements and partnerships with everyone from Russell Simmons to Kim Kardashian to Suze Orman (it’s hip! it’s popular! it’s financially smart!), use of prepaid debit cards has surged. Prepaid debit cards were once a fringe financial product…

A friend of mine works at a Home Depot about ten miles from her home, which means she has a daily round trip of about twenty miles for her commute. She makes more than minimum wage – let’s say $8 per hour after taxes – and she seems pretty happy there.
As far as I can tell, she works five shifts per week, seven hours each…

Got this email below from a reader and must admit it caught me a little off guard. It’s not every day someone asks me how to cater to the rich, haha…
Read it below – along with my own advice – and then tell us what you’d do if you were in her shoes. Or if her whole way of thinking is off? (I can tell you it’s definitely *different*, that’s for sure, but bonus points for going straight to the money piles! ;))
Hi,
I’ve been trying to think of ideas to make some extra money on the side of my full-time job and thought maybe you could help…

I was reviewing some GIC (guaranteed investment certificate) rates at my bank and stumbled on to a GIC category that I had never heard of before, market growth GICs.  If I lock up my money for 5 years there is the potential for a 25% return at maturity.   Invest $1,000 and I could receive $1,250 upon maturity…

With thousands of television channels at your fingertips, it’s hard to imagine that there was a time when we had just a handful – and you had to stand up to change them. Unfortunately, along with the ever-increasing options have come ever-increasing prices. Arguably, the only aspect of television not to go up is the […

Samoa Air has begun charging higher fares for heavyset people, Time reports.Rates range from $1 to $4.16 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) based on the distance. The airline’s planes are much smaller than the commercial ones we’re used to — their fleet seats fewer than nine passengers per flight — and Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton says that makes minimizing weight variance more important…

Personal finance blogs, financial media, and financial advisors are awash and plentiful in advice on how to build the biggest retirement portfolio possible. But despite the subject’s incredible popularity, real world application isn’t living up to the hype. The numbers on 401(k) plans – the cornerstone of self-directed retirement planning – are not encouraging…

In recent years, my husband and I have started paying for convenience. Back in the days when we were both in grad school, scraping by with the help of student loans, we did a lot of penny pinching.
Now, though, we’re willing to pay for things that are important to us, and one of those things is convenience…

We live where most of south Florida universities are located. Naturally, in the fast food chains and the restaurants are full with student employees. On one such evening, I was taking out a pizza from Dominos. I asked the lady about her college. She gave a smile and told about her college and major…

Whether you are already on a plan to pay everything off or you have never even looked at your debts, you are already on a path to becoming debt free someday.
Even if you don’t pay extra on your debts, you will be debt free “some day”. If you stop borrowing money — for cars or vacations or dinner on your credit card — you will become debt free automatically!
Every loan you make, every mortgage you take out you has terms with a payoff date…

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m all about making side income. One of my favorite things about side hustles, side income, and small business in general is that there is always room for improvement. Limited resources forces you to pick and choose what you invest your time and money on, and there are definitely a never-ending number of things you can do to improve your business…

When the weather gets warm, a fun way to spend the day is set up in the back yard and create some spring crafts. Whether you are going for a light sewing project or creating your own garden art, there are plenty of affordable projects you can use to entertain yourself and the kids. Here are several of my favorites…

President Barack Obama is about to unveil his budget proposal, and parts of his proposal have already made their way into the news. One of the aspects of his new budget is that he wants to prohibit anyone from saving more than $3,000,000 in an IRA.
The White House issued a statement regarding this new proposal:
Under current rules, some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving…

One of the sources of confusion for many Canadians is the way that taxes are described. We hear about tax brackets and tax rates, but it can be difficult to conceive of how much of our income is actually taxed.
If you want a better idea of how much you are actually paying in taxes, as expressed as a percentage of your income, it makes sense to consider your effective tax rate, rather than your marginal tax rate…

We all need some down time, and a vast majority of north america spends at least part of that time in front of a television. In recent years, the entire television scene has become complicated and puzzling, especially for people who want to simply sit back and take a break. Cable companies offer deals that last only six months, leaving customers with the question of what to do when the price break runs out…