Featured Napkin
Budget
Nickels and Dimes
A budget is a plan you can use to better manage your spending and saving. When you follow a budget, you set limits on where your money goes. Following a budget can be a powerful way to improve your financial fortunes because it helps ensure you’re not spending more than...
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Emergency Fund
Cash Cushion
An emergency fund is your stash of just-in-case money. Along with your insurance coverage, it’s a vital...
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Risk Tolerance
Appetite for Destruction
Risk tolerance describes how much risk you can (or should) be taking on with your investments. Investing...
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Roth IRAs
Road to Retirement
A Roth IRA, or Individual Retirement Account, is one of the most common types of retirement savings...
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How to Save More Money
Keep the Change
Like many good habits, saving more money is easier said than done. Once you’ve gotten into a...
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Cash Alternatives
Cash In
Cash alternatives are investment types that you can consider as alternatives to simply holding money in your...
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Active vs. Index Investing
Pick Sides
Active and index investing are two different ways of choosing individual investments. With active investing, investors try...
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Estate Tax
Death and Taxes
An estate tax is an amount that may be paid from your assets to the government after...
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Growth vs. Value Investing
Moves Like Buffett
Growth and value investing are two different approaches to investing in stocks. Growth investors aim to invest...
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Term vs. Permanent Life Insurance
Life Sentence
Term and permanent policies are the two main types of life insurance. With both types of policies,...
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Paying For Retirement
Into the Sunset
Retirement may seem like an abstract, far-off goal (unless you’re already independently wealthy or a 401(k) ninja,...
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ESG Investing
Do the Right Thing
ESG investing means investing in companies that do good (or at least don’t actively do harm). With...
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Target-Date Funds
Bullseye on Retirement
A target-date fund is an investment fund that’s based on your expected retirement date. These mutual funds...
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Medicare
Free for All
Medicare is a health insurance program for retirees that is sponsored by the federal government. It is...
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Rollovers
Roll With It
A rollover is when you move funds from one retirement account into another, such as from a...
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Retirement Savings for Contractors
Squirrel Away
If you’re a contractor, saving for retirement can be much more complicated than it is for employees....
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Asset Classes
Building Blocks
An asset class is a group of similar kinds of investments. It’s a generalization, not a detailed...
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Financial Advisors
Get Some Help
Financial advisors are experts who can provide financial advice and help you manage your money. Some people...
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Financial Planning
Ducks in a Row
Financial planning describes the process of mastering your money. It means figuring out where you actually are...
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Asset Allocation
Divide and Conquer
“Asset allocation” is a way of describing what you own in percentage terms. If you’ve got $1,000...
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IRA vs. 401(k)
Nest Eggs
IRAs and 401(k)s are two popular types of retirement savings accounts. Most people who work in the...
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Diversification
Spread Your Bets
Diversification is the practice of dividing your money among lots of different types of investments. It’s the...
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Rebalancing
Move Your Assets
Know how self-help gurus are always talking about “finding the balance” in your personal life? That same...
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Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts
In Good Hands
A trust is a legal agreement allowing one person to transfer their assets to someone else via...
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Savings
One Penny at a Time
Savings are funds that you put aside and don’t spend. Life can be full of surprises, both...
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Municipal Bonds
One for the Road
A municipal bond, or muni bond, is a type of bond issued by a state or local...
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Charitable Remainder Trusts
Big Love
A charitable remainder trust is a financial tool that can provide a steady source of income while...
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Wills
For Love or Money
A Last Will and Testament, or “will” for short, is a legal document that lets you transfer...
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Dividends
Show Me the Money
A dividend is a portion of a company’s profits that is paid to its shareholders in the...
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Estate Planning
Bite the Dust
Estate planning is the process of figuring out what will happen to your stuff after you die....
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Reverse Mortgage
Can’t Take it With You
A reverse mortgage is exactly what it sounds like: instead of paying down a mortgage balance every...
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Mutual Funds
Join Forces
A mutual fund is a professionally managed fund that pools lots of investors’ money in order to...
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Bonds
Bonds, James Bonds
Bonds are essentially IOUs. When you buy a bond, you become a lender to whatever entity issued...
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Philanthropy
Greater Good
Philanthropy is giving back. It’s paying forward the resources you have—whether your money, or physical goods, or...
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Fiduciary Duty
Your Best Interest
A fiduciary duty is a legal obligation to act in another person’s best interest.
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Trustee
Handle With Care
A trustee can be an institution or an individual that is given the power to manage and...
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CDs
On Principal
Certificates of Deposit, or CDs, are low-risk investments that pay interest. You can think of them as...
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Annuities
Nest Egg
An annuity is a series of regular payments made over a set period of time. Annuities can...
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Power of Attorney
More Power to You
A power of attorney is a document you can create if you want to give someone else...
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Social Security
Safety Net
Social Security is a government program that takes in taxpayer dollars and pays out benefits to older...
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Trusts
Pennies From Heaven
A trust is a legal document that allows a person (the trustee) to hold the assets of...
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Investing
Piece of the Pie
Investing is putting your money to work in the hopes of earning a return. You probably already...
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Stocks
Buy Buy Buy
Stocks are pieces of ownership in companies. If you bought one stock of, say, Amazon, and Amazon...
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Blue Chips
Steady Eddy
A blue chip is a company that is financially sound and well established. These companies usually sell...
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