Laura Adams

Working With a Real Estate Pro When Buying a Home

October 19, 2010

So, you’ve decided to buy a home—or at least to start looking for the deal of the century. With bargain home prices and mortgage rates at all-time lows, it’s certainly a great time to snap up something affordable. Unless you buy a FSBO, you’ll probably end up working with a real estate salesperson. FSBO means [...]

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What’s Coming Due to Healthcare Reform

October 13, 2010

In March of 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as “healthcare reform,” became law. Many of the big changes—like requiring everyone to have health insurance, prohibiting discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, and putting caps on the amount of coverage you can get—won’t kick in until 2014. However, many reforms to our [...]

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The Differences Between a Traditional and Roth IRA

October 5, 2010

You may already know that IRA stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement (it was formerly called an Individual Retirement Account). It’s a special tax-advantaged investment vehicle that’s available to the vast majority of Americans. But do you know whether a traditional or a Roth IRA is best for you? I’ll explain the basic differences between the [...]

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The Pros and Cons of Investing in Mutual Funds

September 15, 2010

Everyone’s heard of mutual funds. They’re companies that pool money from many individual and institutional investors to buy and sell a variety of securities and assets, such as stocks, bonds, money markets, real estate, and precious metals. A mutual fund’s holdings are called its portfolio and each investor owns shares, which are a portion of [...]

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Should You Lease or Buy a Car?

August 19, 2010

Even though the decision to buy or lease a car has definite financial implications, it’s not the only factor to take into consideration. Your lifestyle also plays a big part in the decision. What’s right for one person can be totally wrong for another. Someone who’s a fan of leasing might argue the following eight [...]

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How to Know If Refinancing Is Worth It

July 7, 2010

Wow! The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.74% in June. That historically low rate should pique your interest if you have a mortgage or are thinking about buying a home. What is a Mortgage Refinance? Refinancing is when you take out a new loan in order to pay off an [...]

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Make a Balance Transfer Card Work for You

June 17, 2010
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What’s a Balance Transfer Credit Card? Balance transfer cards are a special type of credit card that offers a very low or 0% interest rate. That means you can keep a balance on a transfer card without having to pay a penny in interest, in some cases. The most common way to use them is [...]

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Becoming Self-Employed

May 28, 2010
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Have you ever thought about starting your own business? It could be work that you ease into and do on the side while you keep your full-time job. You might consider having a side hustle as a backup plan in case you lose your job. Or it could be just a temporary venture to earn [...]

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How Does Marital Status Affect Your Taxes?

May 20, 2010
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It’s the time of year when couples like to tie the knot. The beautiful weather and flowers in spring and early summer make having an outdoor wedding an occasion to remember. But in all the excitement, it’s easy to forget about tax issues that need to be addressed when you get hitched. What to Do [...]

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Should Couples Combine Their Finances?

May 13, 2010

In a recent interview, a journalist asked me if I thought couples should combine their finances or not. Since arguments about money are one of the leading causes of divorce and stress in relationships, it’s an important topic that I wanted to share with my fellow DINKS—and get your comments on. I told the journalist [...]

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