Before diving in, consider if you’re truly ready to be your own boss and how your lifestyle will be affected by such an immersive personal and professional decision. Below are six traits that encapsulate a successful transition from being employed by someone else’s business to starting one of your own. Flexibility If you start a business, you no longer have one job with clearly identified duties. By necessity, entrepreneurs have a multitude of responsibilities during their first years of operation, and these various work streams will often be interrupted by an unforeseen crisis (particularly while in the startup phase)....

States With a Flat Income Tax Rate Tax concepts are rarely black and white, and specific rules can differ among the states that have adopted a flat tax system. For the 2022 tax year (the taxes you file in 2023, state individual income taxes for flat tax states are shown in the map below. Hover over each one for for more information. Colorado Income Tax Rate: 4.55% Colorado uses the same personal exemption and standard deduction amounts that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lays out for federal income taxes....

Section 529 plans are IRS-sanctioned accounts that offer tax advantages for educational saving. Families can start contributing to their child’s college fund early, and the account grows without taxation and can receive contributions from parents, family members, and friends (although there is an annual limit on contributions). Withdrawals are exempt from federal income tax if they’re used for qualified medical expenses, and many states have begun waiving their taxes, as well....

Tax Diversification Definition Tax diversification is the allocation of investment dollars to more than one account type. Tax diversification is similar to asset location (not to be confused with asset allocation), which refers to spreading investment dollars among various account types (the location of the investment assets) and choosing the best investment types that work best in those accounts. The two basic types of investment accounts are taxable accounts and tax-deferred accounts....

As a result, bonds can provide some stability for your portfolio to counter the volatility of stocks, while still generating income. Do Bonds Have Special Tax Treatment? Investors don’t typically look to bonds to outperform stocks, although this happens from time to time. Most investors view bonds as a way to help achieve stability and income in their portfolios. Then there’s the tax issue. If you own stocks, you don’t pay taxes on their growth until you sell them, and then you’re only taxed at the capital gains rate....

Let’s dive deeper into the 4% rule, learn how it works, how to use it to manage your retirement withdrawals, and explore a few caveats to the rule. What Is the 4% Rule of Thumb? As the name implies, this rule of thumb asserts that withdrawing 4% of your retirement savings each year (adjusted for inflation after the second year) is the best way to ensure your retirement funds won’t run out before 30 years....

To better understand how to apply the rule, we’ll look at its background, how it works, and its limitations, and we’ll go through an example. In other words, we’ll show you how and why to set up a budget using the 50/30/20 rule of thumb yourself. What Is the 50/30/20 Rule of Thumb? The 50/30/20 rule of thumb is a set of easy guidelines for how to plan your budget....

Hilarey Gould, Editorial DirectorHilarey Gould has spent 10+ years in the digital media space, where she’s developed a passion for helping people understand economics, saving, investing, credit card perks, mortgage rates, and more. Hilarey has held full-time and freelance roles at a variety of financial media companies including realtor.com, Bankrate, and SmartAsset. She has a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri, and a bachelor’s in journalism and professional writing from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)....

This could be good news. So few people filing for unemployment benefits through the month of August might mean the unemployment rate didn’t go up last month, but we’ll find out when job numbers are reported tomorrow. So we might not need to worry that a wave of layoffs will be hitting us just yet. But a strong jobs report could also reinforce the Federal Reserve’s belief the U.S. economy will be strong enough to handle more interest rate hikes....

The Chase 5/24 Rule The 5/24 rule is an unofficial rule from Chase that only allows applicants to be approved for a new Chase credit card if they’ve opened fewer than five credit cards in the past 24 months. (Note that Chase additionally limits the sign-up bonus on all their credit cards to customers who haven’t earned a sign-up bonus from Chase within the past 24 months.) Those five credit cards could have been opened from any bank, not just Chase....

Components of the EURO STOXX 50 index are selected based on a number of criteria and weighted according to free-float market capitalization. Index members are also reviewed annually in September in order to ensure a transparent and up-to-date basket. In this article, we will take a look at how to invest in the EURO STOXX 50 with ETFs, popular trading strategies for the leading index, and some alternatives that investors may want to consider....

The financial analysis section of your business plan may be the most challenging for you to complete on your own, but it also could be the deal-maker or deal-breaker when you are searching for funding. Because of the structured, in-depth financial data required for this section, you should consult your accountant or other trusted and qualified financial professional before writing this section. Financial Analysis of a Business Plan The financial analysis section should be based on estimates for new businesses or recent data for established businesses....

These taxes can cost you about 10% over and above what you’ve agreed to pay for services. A different arrangement for childcare or for keeping a clean house might spare you this extra expense. What Makes a Nanny a Household Employee? The Internal Revenue Servicee (IRS) guidelines for what makes your nanny a household employee are pretty simple. Your nanny is your employee if you control what work your nanny does and how they do it....

If you’re facing this challenge, you have a few options for getting help. Look for a Buyer’s Agent The smartest thing a buyer can do is hire a buyer’s agent in the new state. Don’t ask a listing agent for representation—they most likely represent a seller. A listing agent’s job is to sell a particular listing at the highest price and at the best terms for the seller. That can conflict with your best interests as a buyer....

Save $50 a monthSave ten percent of your incomeCommit to saving $500 by the end of the year Setting a smaller initial goal will make you more likely to succeed and keep you from being overwhelmed. Once you have been able to meet those goals for several months, you’ll feel more motivated and capable of increasing how much you save. Don’t jump from trying to save $50 a month to $500....

The average rate offered to homebuyers using a 15-year fixed mortgage plunged to 4.84% from 5.21% the previous business day, backing farther away from its recent peak of 5.26%. The average on a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.75% from 5.91% the previous business day. Earlier this month it vaulted to 6.19%, its highest point since at least 2019, and likely much farther back. (Our daily mortgage rate data only goes back to April 2021, but our data on yearly highs and lows date back to 2020, so we know rates weren’t higher in 2020, and if other measures are any indicator, may have hit their highest point in over a decade....

The average rate offered to homebuyers using a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage rocketed up to 5.87% from 5.41% the previous business day, the biggest jump for one day in at least the year since our data was first collected. The average 15-year rate jumped to 4.66% from 4.46% the previous business day. Both are at their highest levels since at least 2019. (Our daily mortgage rate data only goes back to April 2021, but our data on yearly highs and lows date back to 2020, so we know rates weren’t higher in 2020....

The average rate for a 30-year conventional fixed mortgage moved up to 6.27% from 6.20% the previous business day. Likewise, the 15-year rate rose to 5.38% from 5.31% the previous business day. Our mortgage rate data dates back to 2020, but if other measures are any indication, both rates are near their highest levels in over a decade. Fixed mortgage rates tend to track the direction of 10-year Treasury yields, which usually rise with heightened inflation fears (and fall when those fears subside)....

It makes sense to take a look at your current marginal tax rate relative to your projected marginal tax rate in retirement when you’re making the choice. Your marginal tax rate is very useful in determining what type of account you should contribute to. Why Marginal Tax Rates Are So Useful Let’s say you own a home with a mortgage and you itemize your tax deductions each year. Assume you usually have about $18,000 a year in itemized deductions....

For example, a popular pair that is widely traded is EUR/USD. The EUR/USD is the European Dollar, also known as the EURO, and the USD, which is the US Dollar. When the Euro becomes worth more money in dollars, the pair goes up, and when it is worth less money in dollars, the pair drop in value. How Forex Trading Works If you were to speculate that the USD was going to drop in value compared to the Euro, you would buy the EUR/USD and wait for it to start rising....