Moneyning

With the E*TRADE Fully Paid Lending Program, they are basically promising me free money for doing nothing different. With the Fully Paid Lending Program, E*Trade is using shares that you own to lend out to other traders who want to short the security and sharing that income with you. Ally calls its offering the Securities Income Program, while Interactive Brokers call it the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. If I sign up with E*Trade and the firm was to run into financial trouble, the shares I lend out through the institution aren’t covered under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (SPIC insurance).

Most of those things cost money, but I think it’s probably worth the cost. It’s been well worth the exchange because the amount of money I make with an hour of work far exceeds the amount of money I pay each hour to my VA. It’s normally a three-hour drive and the trip costs about $50 more than driving, but I can get work done while I’m on the shuttle. Now that I am consciously spending money to get more free time, I try harder not to fritter away the time spent on things that aren’t important to me.

While aiming to be able to replace 80% of your salary in retirement is an excellent goal, and one that you should certainly be working towards, you don’t need to worry about running out of money if you fall somewhat short of the mark. Not only have you stopped saving for retirement by the time you reach that milestone, but you are also likely to no longer need to spend money on childcare-related expenses, mortgage payments, and life insurance premiums. Add in the costs of working — including a work wardrobe, the cost of commuting, the price of convenience foods and dining out, etc — and the amount of money you’ll need to maintain your lifestyle goes down more. As for your health care costs, it’s a good idea to look into long-term care insurance before you retire.

If I was given the opportunity to get the same slap bracket later in the day when I only had $5 left, I may have skipped the purchase because I would rather spend the last of my money on the gelato place that we know we would pass by. But there’s a reason why studies after studies have shown that people spend as much as 30% more when they use a card versus cash. Even if you pay off your credit card bill each month and have never paid interest on your credit cards, it’s still possible that you would be better off without plastic. For $5 a month, they send you recipes of delicious, healthy, yet cheap food that costs just $5 a meal.