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Money Management

Vertex42 provides many different spreadsheet templates to help you manage your money. This part of the blog is for sharing and discussing money management principles including budgeting, debt payoff strategies, and savings goals. You may also find ideas for ways to increase your income. If you are familiar with Excel, check out our templates via the following category pages:

Introducing the Savings Snowball Calculator

Savings Snowball

Vertex42 has developed a new Savings Snowball Calculator to help you plan how to reach your savings and debt payoff goals. This article provides some background on the savings snowball concept and explains some of the features of the calculator. Questions and comments are welcome.

Debt Payoff – A Good Investment?

Debt Payoff Interest Savings

Taking a break from Excel tutorials, this article compares paying off credit card debt to investing. Take an in-depth look at interest rates, liquidity risk, limited return, risk of principal loss, and tax efficiency. Perhaps debt payoff is really my best investment.

15 Ways to Generate Passive Income

15 Ways to Generate Passive Income thumbnail

Passive income means having your money work for you, rather than you working for your money. Learn about 15 ways to generate passive income and see if they fit within your lifestyle.

42 Effective Ways to Save Money

42 Effective Ways to Save Money thumbnail

To help those who are using Vertex42’s budget templates and money management tools, we’ve compiled a huge list of effective ways to save money and help you stick to your family budget.

Budgeting Tips for the New Year

Building a Budget

Have you made your new year’s financial resolutions? Many people pledge to do better with their finances around this time of year, but they just don’t know where to start.

Money Management for Kids – The Family Bank Approach

Money Management for Kids

If you have kids, you’ve probably tried various methods to help your younger kids save and manage their money. We started out using the envelope method, but that wasn’t working for us. The problem with the envelope method was that [...]

10 Strategies for Paying Off Your Mortgage Early

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If you are interested in getting completely out of debt, paying off your mortgage may be the largest hurdle. Here is a list of strategies for paying off your mortgage early. Most of these strategies can be evaluated using the [...]

How To Budget For Christmas Gifts and Holiday Spending

Christmas Gift and Holiday Budget

Just because it’s a little too soon to put up the Christmas tree or break out the stockings and Holiday decor, doesn’t mean it’s too soon to create your Christmas gift budget. If you start saving now, it will help you [...]

How Much Should I Save for College?

Saving for College

How will you help your child save for college? This could be a scary thought. For one thing, most people have no idea how much college is going to cost  years from now when their child starts attending. The actual amount is as varied as [...]

Planning for Retirement? Don’t Forget About Inflation

Retirement and Inflation

Answering the question “How much do I need to save for retirement?” requires you to estimate how much you think you could live on after you retire. But, don’t forget about inflation. If you think you could live on $75,000 [...]

How Do I Plan a Wedding on a Budget?

Wedding on a Budget

So you’re planning the biggest day of your life. This is an important occasion and naturally you want it to be special. But, how do you plan a wedding that isn’t going to start you out financially ruined? You may [...]

How Do W-4 Allowances Affect Take-Home Pay?

Controlling Your W4 Allowances

Would you like to give yourself a raise? If you normally get a large tax return, perhaps you should take another look at your W-4. This is the form you fill out as you prepare to start your new job. [...]

12 Principles of Personal Finance

12 Principles of Personal Finance

One way to know if you want to follow a blog, listen to a talk-show, or even become someone’s friend, is to find out if the principles you want to live by match up with the other person. So, here [...]

What is a Debt Snowflake?

Debt Snowflake

Snowflaking has surfaced as a new popular term related to debt reduction. I would like to take some time to explain what this means, and how you can add “snowflakes” using the Debt Reduction Calculator. Snowflaking is basically just a [...]

How Do I Track My Savings Goals?

Savings Goal Thermometers

If you budget, surely you’ve had to deal with the problem of how to track your savings goals. Do you do it within your budget somehow? Do you try to make Quicken do what you want? Perhaps you’ve tried the [...]