Tag: Investing
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How Oil and Gas Prices Drive Inflation
The other main way to increase inflation is by increasing the cost of the components of things. For instance, if you’re Apple and the cost of most of the materials for making iPhones increase, you’re going to have to raise your prices if you want to stay in business and keep making money. There is…
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Inflation: What is it and what causes it?
Inflation is defined as an increase in prices and/or a fall in the purchasing power of money. Simply put, if prices go up or the value of your money erodes, you’ve got inflation on your hands. We’ve seen this a LOT in the past few years, as the prices of virtually everything have gone up.…
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Choosing Your Investments
So how do I choose what to invest in? For most of you, you don’t have to worry too much about choosing your investments yourself – chances are, your 401k/403b will come with a financial advisor who manages your account for a small fee, and they can help you figure out how to structure your…
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Tax Deductions
So what is a tax write-off? I’ll let Johnny Rose do some of the heavy lifting on this one. As Johnny said, tax write-offs (aka tax deductions) are expenses that are used to reduce your taxable income. He mentioned business expenses specifically, but there are also many personal tax write-offs as well. Some of the…
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Tax Brackets
What’s exactly is an Income Tax Bracket? In the United States, we use a system that charges a different tax rate depending on your income. As your income increases, so does your tax rate. These different rates are called tax brackets. One of the common misconceptions is that if your income is high enough to…
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401Ks, 403Bs, and IRAs
I keep hearing about these. What are they??? In short, they’re all types of retirement accounts. They are designed to encourage you to save up your money for retirement by allowing you to save money on your taxes, depending on which account type you choose and how much money you contribute to them. They also…
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Mutual Funds, ETFs, and Index Funds
So you understand what stocks and bonds are… for the most part. That’s okay. It’s going to take a few tries to get that “Oh! That makes sense!” moment. Stick with it, and let’s add on to things a little bit. A fund is a pool of money that is used to invest in different…
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Stocks and Bonds
Why does this matter? For the average investor, stocks and bonds are the main investments that are easily accessible and common. Understanding stocks and bonds alone will not make you wealthy, but understanding them will help, and failing to understand them will create an Everest-size speed bump in your financial journey. What is a stock?…
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