Are you worried about Social Security? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent Gallup poll, 60% of non-retired individuals doubt that Social Security will be able to pay them a benefit when they retire.
Not surprisingly, pessimism is inversely correlated with age. Ask those in the 55+ age bracket and only 26% doubt Social [...]

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Being new home owners means we’re facing a number of new expenses. These include HOA fees, property taxes, and of course mortgage payments. In addition, we’ve been working on some home improvement projects that have the potential to be an additional drain on our budget.
This is all part of the process of making a house [...]

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It’s been a bit over a year since I started investing with Lending Club, so I thought I’d put together an overview of my experiences. For those that haven’t been following along, I first set up two test portfolios focusing on low risk vs. high risk loans.
For these test portfolios, I let Lending Club auto-select [...]

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Believe it or not, it’s almost time for back-to-school shopping. And you know what that means, right? Time for a sales tax holiday! Unfortunately, some states have dropped their tax-free shopping days due to budgetary problems, but others are still going strong.
What follows is an alphabetical listing of state sales tax holidays along with a [...]

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I recently received a flyer outlining the current bonus reward categories for the Chase Freedom card. For those that are unaware, Chase has decided to jump on the rotating reward category bandwagon with this card.
Now instead of getting a higher level of rewards in a standard set of categories, the categories will change seasonally. For [...]

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You’ve done everything you were supposed to do.
You learned as much as you could about investing and you made (what you thought) were smart moves.
But the investments didn’t work out. You lost money.
Of course, you’re not the only one singing this tale of woe. Over the last 10 years, stock market investors haven’t done well [...]

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Tomorrow morning, a new staff writer will debut on FiveCentNickel. Many of you are probably already familiar with his work. His name is Neal Frankle, and he’s a CFP as well as the proprietor of Wealth Pilgrim. Please join me in welcoming him aboard.
And now for some recent articles that caught my eye…

Daily-Use Fees and [...]

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Have you read “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz? It’s a fascinating book in which Schwartz argues that we’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices that we face on a daily basis and that, by eliminating consumer choices, we could greatly reduce shopper anxiety.
The paradox of choice is sometimes referred to analysis paralysis, [...]

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This is just a quick note to say that Discover has brought back the signup bonus on their Discover More card. Not only that, but they’ve upped the ante from $50 to $75. Simply apply for the card, get approved, and make $500 in purchases (within the first three months) to get your bonus.
In case [...]

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Business travel can have a big impact on your career. Depending on what you do, you might travel to attend conferences, meet with clients, or explore new opportunities for expansion. If you’re a freelancer, such trips can be even more important, as they’ll help you expand your network of contacts, potentially bringing in new business.
Prepare [...]

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