How to do financial analysis

How to Do Financial Analysis: The True Cost of Switching to Solar

Though numbers don’t lie, people do and if you don’t know how to do basic financial analysis, it’s difficult to make informed financial decisions. In this post I will scrutinize a real proposal for solar power that was given to my mom, to show how marketers pump up the perceived value of their products. I’ll also demonstrate an interesting method to net over $23,000, by switching to solar power..

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The Right Way To Teach Kids Personal Finance

The Right Way to Teach Your Kids About Personal Finance

I’ve come to terms with the fact that U.S. schools probably won’t be teaching my kids, or your kids, about personal finance. They don’t teach them how to stick up for themselves, how to think critically, or a slew of other important stuff either. With my background, I think I can do a decent job teaching some of that, however, since some parents don’t, or can’t, fill the gap, many kids become disadvantaged in ways that have a life-long, negative impact.

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These 5 Personality Traits Make You More Money in the Long Run (And How to Develop Them)

Being “bad” with money is not usually the result of stupidity, negligence or even bad luck. More often, being bad with money is simply the consequence of having personality traits that are better suited for other things. Studies like this one have demonstrated that some people seem to be born with an affinity for saving money and investing, while others lean towards instant gratification, even over a potentially bigger reward down the road.

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This Is What Really Happens When You Don’t Pay Your Taxes

The consequences for not paying your taxes have varied pretty wildly over the last several decades in the United States. Tax evaders were once literally be incarcerated for fairly low level tax delinquencies, but on the other end of the spectrum, hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt are sometimes just wiped clean if they’re not collected within a 10 year statute of limitations.

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These 5 Expenses Have the Biggest Impact on Your Net Worth

These 5 Expenses Have the Biggest Impact on Your Net Worth

There are some expenses we just can’t avoid, like taxes, health care and funeral costs. Sure you can maximize your tax savings and try to avoid overpaying for health insurance, but generally we must live, and die, with these costs. However, you can control most of your other big-impact expenses and with a little foresight, you can use these budget and investment adjustments to supercharge your net worth.

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Being debt free is overrated

This Is Why Being Debt-Free Is Overrated: The Math Behind Opportunity Cost

There’s a lot of talk, mostly in online personal finance forums, about the benefits of being completely debt-free. Not just somewhat debt-free, 100% debt-free, as in only buying cars with cash-on-hand, not using credit cards and avoiding mortgages. Though I can understand the attraction to being totally debt-free and even once wrote about why you should never borrow or lend money, being completely debt-free is a money mistake that you cannot afford to make.

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The 5 Best Ways To Make Money While You Sleep

One of the best things you can do to build future wealth is to develop multiple income streams now. Mostly, ones that require more time than money to create. Most profitable passive income sources demand a lot of your time, however, starting just one revenue stream today could prove highly profitable down the road. I started Valuist without much of a plan or even a consistent publication schedule. But after writing for a while, opportunities to make money

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stock investing versus real estate

Real Estate Versus Stocks: The Ultimate Investment Showdown

It’s definitely best to have exposure to both asset classes in some form, but if I had to choose one, I would go with stocks (mutual funds). To me, there’s nothing better than an investment you can buy quickly, pay little-to-nothing to hold and sell at the exact moment you choose. The fact that you can buy confidently during market crashes, bide your time and reap the rewards, usually within a few years, is also highly attractive to me.

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7 Proposed Changes to IRA Accounts and How They Could Alter Your Retirement Plan

The major problem with this proposal is that we’re no longer talking about the mega-wealthy here, this hurts middle class investors who don’t make the majority of their earnings from investments but want access to private equity. The vast majority of Regulation D (private equity, rather than public stock) offerings are made to accredited investors. Further, these investments are typically not highly liquid…

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15 myths about going green and sustainable living debunked

15 Myths About Recycling, “Going Green”, and Sustainable Living, Debunked

There is a lot of misinformation out there about sustainable living and “going green.” Many of the efforts that people take to mitigate their environmental impact, though noble in sentiment, are actually fueling the overuse of energy and waste of resources. There may be hope though; there are steps we can take to reduce waste and because sustainable living is actually highly cost-effective, we can hopefully pad our pockets while accomplishing something worthwhile.

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5 Money Myths You Should Stop Believing

5 Money Myths You Should Stop Believing – The tenets of personal finance are simple enough to grasp: earn money, save money, track spending and invest wisely, but things can also get really complicated. That’s because “personal finance” encompasses literally hundreds of interrelated topics, each requiring significant study to even discuss intelligently. The topic of Tax itself is so complex that practitioners have to specialize in subsections of the tax code.

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