The latest on the Fed rate hike, retirement when your spouse is older, and charging your five-year-old rent
Here are some favorite personal finance reads from around the web this week.
Fed interest rate hike: Who should care—and 5 more answers on how higher rates affect your money
—Mic
The Fed raised the benchmark interest rate yet again this week, signaling optimism for the economy’s continued upswing. Here’s a handy explainer on how the rate hike stands to impact your savings, credit cards and more—for better and for worse.
Planning for retirement when there’s an age gap in your relationship
—The Billfold
Saving for retirement should be your top financial goal, but what happens when you and your spouse have a 17-year gap between your target retirement ages? A woman discusses her and her husband’s long-term savings plan, including paying down debt and financing college for their children.
This mom is charging her 5-year old “rent”
—Money.com
Beyond the clickbait headline, this viral post by a mom talking about how she asks her five-year old daughter to pay $5 out of her weekly allowance toward rent, food, and other utilities actually has some bona fide financial literacy chops. Yes, it’s a more extreme place than most parents would go, but she’s helping her kid learn opportunity costs (and the “rent” the little girl pays actually goes into a savings account she’ll be able to access when she’s older).
The student loan industry finds friends in Washington
—The New York Times
Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education is at it again, undermining states’ abilities to regulate predatory student loan servicers—because DeVos seems to have more compassion for these corporations than for the students they are exploiting. The fact that the DOE has been “captured by an industry it is meant to regulate” is a tragedy that will haunt higher education for years to come.
Craving more financial finds? Here is my latest blog post!
6 steps to organize your tax documents
Swimming in a sea of 1099s and W-2s? You’re not alone this tax season. Shape up with this six-step plan to get all your documentation in order.
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