

But if that's not possible, or if you need to tap your home equity for living expenses, options exist. (To run your own debt-free calculation, try the Credit Card Avalanche Calculator at .) Once that highest interest rate debt is retired, move onto the next highest. If you have a credit card charging you 19 percent it doesn't make sense to send extra money to the one charging 14 percent. It's called the avalanche method, and it gets you out of debt cheapest and fastest. You'll get the biggest bang for each individual buck by paying off the highest interest rate debt first, while making minimum payments on the remainder. At an interest rate of 19.9 percent, that would cost $360 a year.įreeing yourself from credit card debt will make your financial life in retirement easier. By 2010 that figure had ballooned to $1,800. Back in 2007, households headed by someone age 75 or older had a median of just over $800 in credit card debt. Part of that problem: plastic, particularly for the oldest age segment. Start a debt-busting avalancheĪccording to the Census Bureau, the median household debt for Americans 65 and over more than doubled between 20, rising to $26,000.
Finances 101 book for 19 year old how to#
It's a pocket guide to your money in your 70s and beyond: how to maximize your income, rethink your investments, spend smarter and save more, starting right now. The tips on the next pages will help you do just that, walking you through the big financial questions you'll face in the next 10 years of your life. See also: Take charge of your money at 50+ | And at 60+ Don't think 'How good am I at this?' Think 'How can I get better?' "

Instead, Halvorson says, "look at people who are doing it right - or at least better. So don't get hung up on what might have been. Trouble is, comparing can get discouraging. "Our brains are comparison machines, always tuned in to relative differences," says social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson, coauthor of Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence. Where do you stand, financially speaking, compared with your peers? Are you making more than your college classmates? How do your saving and spending patterns stack up against those of the rest of your generation? Entering retirement opens up a new universe of saving options, big and small.
