Paying off debt can be daunting, especially if you don’t have a plan. However, with the right strategy, the path becomes clearer. The debt avalanche method is one such strategy and is the method that I personally recommend for paying off debt. Although each person’s financial situation is different, when compared to similar debt repayment strategies, the debt avalanche method will save you the most money in the shortest amount of time over your repayment period.

Successful investing isn’t easy to achieve. With the number of seasoned investors in the real estate and stock market, these markets are very efficient, leaving little to no arbitrage opportunities on the table. However, because the markets are so efficient, most of the equities are fairly priced. This means that anyone with a little patience, discipline, and know-how can be successful. Smart investors who want to achieve success learn and emulate others who have already experienced it. Please keep reading to learn 13 common habits of successful long-term investors.

Have you ever bought something on a whim that sounded like a good idea in the moment, only later to find out it wasn’t quite what you were looking for? Early in our lives, my wife and I had a penchant for purchasing exercise equipment. Back then we thought that instead of buying a gym membership, we could purchase a few pieces of home gym equipment and workout from home. The idea was ok in theory and we still use some of the equipment we purchased, but the first piece of equipment we purchased, an expensive elliptical, very rarely got used. If we had practiced the pause prior to making our home gym equipment purchase, we most likely would have realized that the equipment in question wasn’t right for our planned workouts and either bought a better fit or foregone the purchase altogether. Keep reading to learn more.

Like many of you, I was first introduced to the concepts of calculating your real hourly wage and trading your time (or life energy) for money in the book, Your Money or Your Life. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. You should be able to find a copy at your local library. If you can’t find it, ask your librarian to request a transfer from a library in-network. One of the main tenets of the book, is that we all have a finite amount of life energy. That life energy is equivalent to our time on this earth or, in other words, the time that we’re alive. When we go to work to earn an income, we are essentially trading that time for the money we receive from working. To get the most out of our time, we should strive to make the highest wage, right? The short answer is yes, but it shouldn't just be your highest hourly wage. It should be your highest real hourly wage. Keep reading to learn more.

According to a recent report by CBS News, Americans pay an average of $104 per month in water and wastewater bills, which is up more than 30% in less than a decade. This outpaces inflation and the price of food over that same time period. Due to aging infrastructure that’s costly to repair, its likely the cost of water and sewer will continue to climb. So, what can you do about this? How can you save money on your ever-increasing water bill? The easiest answer is to lower the amount of water you use each month. Keep reading to learn 16 simple ways you can reduce the amount of water you use each month and save money on your water bill in the process.

Saving money can be difficult, especially on a tight budget. You budget for savings each month, but for one reason or another, you end up either saving less money than you intended or nothing at all. This doesn’t have to be you. There is a time-proven method that makes saving money easy. You simply pay yourself first.