Personal Finance

There’s always a lot of focus on ways to save money, stretch your budget, etc. But what about things you’re spending money on that you could allocate more effectively elsewhere? Not surprisingly, there’s some commonalities for most people’s biggest money wasters. How many of these are part of your current spending habits? Dining Out According to a calculation on Credit.com, making oatmeal for breakfast at home 3 days a week for a year costs about $25. Buying that same…

No one likes being in debt, but it can be tough to figure out how much to pay and how quickly to maximize your paycheck and get out of debt. When you apply for a loan at a bank, they look at your debt-to-income ratio with the expectation that your monthly debt payments are less than 36% of your gross income. Ideally, you want that figure to be 10%, but even 20% is quite good. With that in mind,…