The way we were raised and our early childhood memories can affect us throughout life. Growing up in poverty can shape the way we think about finances decades after we’ve left our childhood home,…
There’s a reason lawmakers voted years ago to make Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, automatic. Without those yearly increases, Social Security benefits would be guaranteed to lose buying power over time. Now, Social…
A 62-year-old couple retires with $2 million saved, plans to draw $80,000 a year using the classic 4% rule, and assumes the standard retirement-calculator inflation rate of 2% to 3%. Then inflation settles in…
If you try to retire on Social Security alone, you may end up struggling financially. That’s because the average recipient today only gets about $2,079 per month today. But you should know that Social…
A 23-year-old with $25,000 in federal student loans has grown his brokerage account to $25,000. Should we pay off his debt at a 4.5% rate? Or should he continue with his stock market investments?…
The single biggest design shift inside the American 401(k) this decade is about taxes, more than fees, target-date funds, or auto-escalation. According to Vanguard’s 2025 How America Saves report, 86% of plans now offer…
Financial problems and mental health are often linked. Chelsea, a 30-year-old single woman, said two years of an aggressive debt payoff had left her socially isolated. She called into the Ramsey Show recently, questioning…
Saving money is often trickier in reality than it sounds in theory. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. Several common mistakes can slowly drain savings over time, from small everyday spending leaks to…
The American dream of home ownership seems out of reach for many young couples. In an age of record-high property prices and low inventory, people need to readjust their expectations, said George Kamel on…
A pension does something many retirees never fully account for: it can fundamentally change how aggressively they can draw from an investment portfolio. For a 65-year-old with $1.1 million in savings, a $2,400 monthly…
Caitlin, 27, from Shreveport, La., called The Ramsey Show recently with a story that starts with identity theft and ends with a question many people ask: How do I fix my credit score? “Whenever…
Even though we’re not even halfway through 2026, a lot of seniors on Social Security are already thinking about 2027. Specifically, they’re wondering what cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to expect in the new year. Many…
On a recent episode of Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart, 29-year-old investor Peter Slegers described how he tracks his 18-company portfolio. He ignores price ticks and instead totals the free cash flow generated by…
Jackie Cummins Koski, co-host of the Catching Up to FI podcast, made the case on episode 210 that most near-retirees are solving the wrong equation. “80% of personal finance, including Social Security, is psychological…
If you work for a state government, city, county, school district, or public university, you likely have access to a retirement account that most private-sector workers never hear about. The governmental 457(b) plan lets…
