The 7 Personal Finance Articles We Love This Week
This week was probably the most dreaded financial week of the year: it was tax week. For most of us, taxes were due April 18, which was Monday, and as I’ve already mentioned on the site, my tax day involved running 12 blocks to make sure my checks were postmarked on time. I arrived at the post office panting, trying to explain to the very kind woman at the desk that I REALLY needed to postmark my envelope by the end of the day, and probably not making much sense. Luckily, she pointed me in the right direction, and my taxes were postmarked on the right day. Good for me. Now I just have the lovely task of waiting until that money comes out of my checking account. (Fortunately, per the Billfold’s article below, I don’t have a $7k tax return to spend in one night.)
I’ve also been worried about saving money recently. Right now, I’m in New York, and a lot of the checks for freelance articles I write are showing up in LA, where I live. I haven’t opened any of these checks yet, so it’s hard to estimate exactly how much I have brought in last month, and therefore how much I can put in savings. (To be clear, I can estimate how much money I’ve made, but I don’t know what has been paid out yet, and what hasn’t.) Fortunately, my boyfriend is bringing me these checks next week, and I’m very excited to see them (um, I mean, excited to see him). Because that’s been on my mind recently, I really enjoyed reading the 8 Creative Ways to Save piece on Money Watch 101, which I stumbled onto thanks to the link roundup below. And being more into pop culture than I care to admit, I also quite enjoyed Budgets Are Sexy’s How Angelina Jolie Budgets . Overall, we have seven great pieces this week, which were rounded up thanks to our friends at Rockstar Finance. Enjoy, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts!
1. The Ultimate Guide to Passive Income – The Smarter Dollar
“I took 17 of the most popular resources on passive income, and combined them into this mega-post. No need to trust me. Trust Paula Pant, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, Jeff Rose, Alexa Mason…all of which have incredible amounts of passive income (some more than $1M+ annually).”
2. 8 Creative Ways to Save — Money Watch 101
“Put your screen saver to show a picture of a twenty dollar bill and every week transfer that amount to savings.”
3. How Angelina Jolie Budgets — Budgets Are Sexy
“If you can pull this off, you’re essentially left with TWO-THIRDS of your income leftover to do whatever it is you please!! Save it, invest it, give it all away, work less – you are completely empowered and have about a billion options at your disposal.”
5. That Time I Spent a $7,000 Tax Refund in One Night — The Billfold
“His entire bed was covered in twenty dollar bills… He had gone to the bank, deposited the check, and withdrawn all seven thousand dollars in twenties. And then spread it all over his bed and waited for his child-girlfriend to come over after school.”
6. The 3 Groups of People to Avoid – Jessica Moorhouse
“In my experience, there are 3 main groups of negative money people. As a general rule I avoid them, but when I can’t this is how I handle them.”
7. The Money Binder — Dough Roller
“It’s a simple 3-ring notebook that contains everything anybody would need to understand our investments, insurance, wills, trusts, and even passwords. It’s intended to give my wife a complete understanding of our finances and how to handle them going forward.”
Image via Pexels
