Landlords may try to sell their rental homes to first-time homebuyers instead of another landlord, because first-time homebuyers often lack negotiating experience and may pay higher prices. Whether you’re an investor or a first-time homebuyer, you should exercise caution when buying a rental. A home that was occupied by tenants could be an excellent deal, or it could be a deferred maintenance nightmare. Look at the Neighborhood Before Buying a Rental House One of the first things you should look for when you consider buying a rental is any other rental properties nearby....

There are several types of income-driven plans, and each of them can make monthly federal student loan payments much more affordable. But income-driven repayment plans can result in higher interest costs over time in some cases. This guide will explain the basics of how these plans work and provide details on how you calculate your income to determine your monthly IDR payment. Loans During COVID-19 Most borrowers with federal student loans, including those on an IDR program, do not have to make payments during the coronavirus crisis....

You are right to be aware that your prospective employer may check on the reasons you left your job. Most employers conduct background or reference checks during the interview process. If you’ve been terminated for cause, it may well come up during their investigation. Being prepared for what your former employer will tell inquiring hiring managers about the circumstances of your departure from the company can help you put the best possible spin on what happened....

Roth IRA Contribution Rules When You’re Married Filing Separately If your tax status is married filing separately and you lived with your spouse at any time during the year, here are your Roth IRA contribution limits: You can contribute up to the maximum Roth IRA contribution limit of $6,000 ($7,000 for ages 50 or older) in 2022 if your modified AGI (MAGI) is $0. Maximum contribution allowed in 2023 is $6,500 ($7,500 for ages 50 or older....

With Social Security payments making up 33% of a retired person’s income on average, it’s not money that most people can afford to lose. The good news is that you can receive Social Security benefits while you live abroad if you meet certain criteria. Would-be expats should keep in mind that there are additional financial and tax implications to living overseas. Receiving Benefits as a U.S. Citizen Living Abroad While Social Security wasn’t designed to be the sole source of income for retirees, it does make accommodations for those living abroad....

What’s the Difference Between Cash Flow and Revenue? Cash flow is the cash generated by the company’s operating, investing, and financing activities. Operating cash flow is generated by the positive and negative changes in the current asset and current liability accounts. Investing cash flow is generated by the changes in the firm’s investment account. Financing cash flow is generated by the long-term liability and equity accounts. Net cash flow is the bottom-line figure on the cash flow statement and is the result of the addition and subtraction of the accounts from the top-line figure of net income, taken directly from the income statement....

A bookkeeper or accountant will usually record these transactions in the cash disbursements journal on a monthly basis before posting them to the general ledger, accounts payable ledger, or other books. In some businesses, the cash disbursement journal is combined with the cash receipts journal and referred to as simply the cash book. The cash disbursements journal is an essential tool in financial management. Business owners use it to see how much cash has been disbursed and where it went, and calculating the percentage that went to inventory versus what went to paying other bills....

Unsurprisingly, cardholders who have been financially impacted by COVID-19 report they are less satisfied with their card issuers than those who have not suffered financially. Banks have been offering a variety of financial relief options and other benefits for cardholders struggling during the ongoing pandemic, but this new report shows it may not be enough. The annual study measures credit card customer satisfaction in six areas: interaction, credit card terms, communication, benefits and services, rewards, and key moments....

That’s according to an FBI report from earlier this year, which said the value of losses of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies to scams jumped from $246 million in 2020 to $1.6 billion in 2021. The White House cited these statistics Friday when it announced its creation of a framework for government agencies to regulate the fast-and-loose world of cryptocurrency. Among other measures, the report directed regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to step up their efforts to go after wrongdoers in the crypto world....

After learning more about the basics of trailing stop-loss orders, you’ll be better able to determine whether this risk-management approach is right for you and your trading strategies. What Is a Trailing Stop-Loss Order? A stop-loss order controls the risk of a trade. It is an offsetting order that gets a trader out of a trade with a market order if the price of the asset moves in the wrong direction and hits the pre-determined stop-loss price....

With the debt avalanche, you pay off your debts in order by interest rate. It’s also sometimes called the “high interest rate” method. With the debt snowball, you pay off debts starting with the lowest balance. Each method has its pros and cons, so before deciding how to tackle your own debt, it’s important to understand what each strategy entails and why one method may be better for your own situation....

How Carry-Back Mortgages Work When interest rates are high, or credit guidelines are tightened, buyers ask sellers to act in place of the bank and carry the financing for them. If the home is free of any existing loans, the seller might carry all the financing, or the buyer might get a conventional fixed-rate loan for part of the purchase price and ask the seller to finance the balance. If there is an existing loan secured to the home, sellers may let buyers take over the existing loan payments, although the loan will remain in the seller’s name....

The Basics of Dividends Dividends are payments by firms to their shareholders. These payments, often made each quarter, can be in the form of cash or shares of stock. When a firm makes a profit, it can either retain earnings to reinvest in the firm or share the profits with the shareholders in the form of dividends. Owners often have the option of having the payments put into their brokerage accounts as a cash payment (for income reasons) or to reinvest and buy more shares of the stock (for growth reasons)....

Learn more about how to approach the financial aid process when you’re going through a divorce, and how upcoming changes might impact your child’s financial aid application. Divorce and College Both navigating a divorce and paying for a child’s college can present significant financial challenges. Divorce rates are on the rise among parents who are in their 50s and 60s, which is about when their children may be going to college, Lili A....

When You Won’t Pay Taxes on Life Insurance Payouts You won’t pay taxes as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy (term, whole, or other type of policy) provided you take the money and don’t invest it or put it in an interest-earning account. Per the IRS, you don’t have to report the money as income on your federal tax return. Situations When Life Insurance Payouts May Be Taxed In most cases, you won’t have to pay taxes on a life insurance benefit you receive from the passing of a loved one....

While travel credit cards are often touted for their valuable perks, in this case, their insurance benefits probably won’t help much when it comes to getting trip costs refunded. Here’s what you should know right now: Does Credit Card Travel Insurance Cover Coronavirus Costs? Trip interruption and cancellation insurance are two benefits on many travel rewards credit cards, including airline- and hotel-branded cards issued by American Express, Barclays, Capital One, and Chase....

SBA loans are one of the most common forms of funding that small business owners can receive. Federally-backed SBA loans present an alternative means to grow a business outside of traditional loans that can come with higher interest rates. Small business owners as the borrowers can obtain credit at reasonable terms and with a repayment plan that fits their needs. Lenders, meanwhile, can build out their loan portfolios, grow their customer clientele, and increase their SBA expertise to a Preferred Lenders level....

At least 66 countries either peg their currencies to the dollar or use the dollar as their legal tender. The dollar is so popular because it’s the world’s reserve currency. World leaders gave it that status at the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The runner-up is the euro. Twenty-five countries peg their currencies to it. The 19 eurozone members use it as their currency. How It Works A dollar peg uses a fixed exchange rate....

In the case of money, that means when you spend $1, you are not giving up $1. You are giving up all of the dividends, interest, and rents that dollar could have produced from now until your death. In other words, if you take a dollar away from an 18-year-old today, you are not just taking away his or her $1. You are taking away all of the potential earnings on that dollar, which could actually represent hundreds of dollars over their lifetime....

Learn about the perks of email marketing, methods do it right, and how it compares to some other forms of marketing. What Is Email Marketing? Anytime a company sends out an email, aside from order confirmations and direct responses to customer questions, it could be considered a form of email marketing. Email marketing is one segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more....