USALLIANCE Blog

Spring is here and it’s time for spring cleaning! While you’re decluttering the garage and organizing the basement, don’t forget to give your financial house a good cleaning as well. These 3 easy steps will have your finances spic and span in no time.

Your kids are learning subjects like reading, science, and mathematics in school- but are they learning good financial behavior?

A few simple activities can teach your children about budgeting and saving.

Who doesn’t love the buddy system? Being a part of a pair feels much more supportive than flying solo. So when you're applying for a new loan, how about you grab a buddy, or what is technically called, a co-signer.

Whether you’re just at the beginning of your college experience and trying to figure out how much to take out in student loans, or you’re a graduate already making payments on your debt, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed. But paying off your student loans isn’t impossible! In this post, we’ll walk you through a few different tactics so that you can find a manageable route to freedom.

With the average cost of tuition and fees soaring to $33,480 per year at private universities, and $24,930 per year for out-of-state students at public universities, the cost of college can feel utterly overwhelming. However, before you give up on getting a degree, take heart: there are lots of options for financing your education.

College is an investment in your future, but how much should you be borrowing against your future self? If you’ve heard about the student debt crisis (it's estimated that the total US student loan debt reaches up to $1.52 trillion dollars), you know that college graduates are taking on more debt than ever. In 2016, the average student had around $37,172 in loan debt. Debt like that often influences the kinds of jobs borrowers wind up taking, and can delay major life events like buying a home, getting married, and having children.

So how much should you borrow if you don’t want your debt to hold you back in the future? Here are a few things to think about that will help you make a more informed decision:

Money market accounts (MMAs) are interest-bearing accounts that typically earn higher interest rates than traditional savings accounts.

These accounts require you to maintain a minimum balance, but allow limited access to your funds. So how else do money market accounts differ from other savings accounts?

Let's talk Health Savings Accounts. 

What are they? Well, a HSA (Health Savings Account) is a tax-free medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP).

An HDHP is a health insurance plan with lower premiums and higher deductibles than a traditional health plan. Being covered by an HDHP is a requirement for having a health savings account.

Increasingly, employers are offering HDHPs as their health insurance benefit of choice. This means lower premiums for you, but higher deductibles. If you have an HDHP, you’re eligible for an HSA, so read on.  

Ah, investing. The clarion call of a Warren Buffet-esque existence is hard to resist. But before you go make a fortune off graphene stocks, here are some basic do’s and don’ts.