TessMore Finance Blog

If you need money for college, then you need to know about FAFSA deadlines. FAFSA stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The FAFSA the primary source the federal government uses, based on your specific financial information, to decide if you qualify for need-based financial aid, including federal student loans, scholarships, grants or work-study opportunities. Many states and colleges also use your FAFSA information to determine whether you are eligible for state or school aid, and some private providers use it to decide if you qualify for their financial aid. If you’re planning to (or already do) attend college or graduate school in the U.S., you should fill out the FAFSA. The FAFSA application is free, and you really shouldn’t skip it — even if the process seems intimidating or you think your parents make too much to qualify for financial aid . You can use our simple step-by-step guide to filling out the FAFSA . But the FAFSA deadlines overlap from year to yea

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . Life would be a whole lot easier if someone would just Venmo us $1 million, but unfortunately the chance of that happening is, well, probably zero. (Venmo doesn’t allow transactions that large anyway.) But even though our chances of becoming a millionaire are slim, we can still manage our money like one. No, we’re not going to tell you how to buy hundreds of shares of Apple stock. Or how to pick out the perfect yacht. These are simple money moves any normal, non-millionaire person can make  today . Each secret can get you closer to achieving your big goals... becoming a Millionaire. Take a look: 1.  Invest in Famous Art (Even if You’re Not a Millionaire) Here’s the deal: If you’re not investing in contemporary art, you might be missing out on an asset whose prices have historically outpaced the

If you could use a change of scenery, why not get free money to move somewhere? In the face of declining or slowing population growth, some cities have decided to get aggressive about their survival. Despite soaring real estate prices in some parts of the country , there are still cities giving away free land while others are literally handing out stacks of cash to folks who agree to move their metropolitan area. Here are seven places that really, really want you to move there… Places That Will Pay You to Move There If you’re looking for a new place to call home, but you don’t have your heart set on a specific area, we’ve found six cities — and one state — that are offering deals worth thousands of dollars to entice you to make their communities your home sweet home. 1. Tulsa, Oklahoma Oklahoma’s second largest city is offering to pay remote workers $10,000 cash to relocate there through its Tulsa Remote program. You’ll get $10,000 upfront cash with the purchase of a home. And

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . Bank of America does not offer large, unsecured personal loans. But Bank of America does offer other types of loans and a short-term loan program called Balance Assist for amounts under $500. For anything long term or over $500, you’ll need to look elsewhere. We’ve gathered your options, and you’ll find some solid Bank of America personal loan alternatives below. Keep reading to discover which company offering personal loans is the right fit for you and, as a bonus, more information on Bank of America’s Balance Assist and the other types of loans Bank of America does offer. Personal Loan Options While getting a personal loan used to simply mean heading down to your local bank, these days there are so many more options for personal loans on the market because of the many online banking possibilities. The

For whatever reason, you do not yet qualify to receive Social Security benefits, but you are old enough to begin thinking about your retirement. What can you do about that? One of those reasons you haven’t paid enough into the system to qualify may be that you stayed home to raise children. That’s a big job for sure, but an unpaid one. Now that the children are grown, you might want to get back into the workplace to earn Social Security benefits. Or, perhaps you worked for a public entity that had its own retirement program and did not pay into the federal system. You could retire from that job with 25 years experience and if you’re in your early 50s still have enough time to work to qualify for Social Security benefits. What kind of job can you get after age 50 that will build up your credits? The simple answer is any job where the employer pays Social Security taxes, and we will give suggestions on that later in this post. How Social Security Credits Are Accrued Social Security

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . In school, they’ll teach you all the algebra you can take. They’ll teach you about geometry and trigonometry. They might even teach you about calculus. But they don’t teach you diddly-squat about money. No sirree. All the differential equations in the world aren’t gonna show you how to handle your money like a grown adult. Despite all our education, our overall state of financial literacy is way too low. In fact, only about a third of U.S. states require their high school students to take any kind of personal finance class. Let’s refresh our financial education with these money lessons you didn’t learn in school. Doing these could save you thousands this year. 1. Grow Your Money 16x Faster — Without Risking Any of It Here’s a simple lesson we’ll expand on: You’ve probably heard one of the best ways to gr

Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners . You’ve been Googling ways to alleviate your debt. Many experts suggest refinancing or consolidating. In the next breath you ask: What’s the best company? Upon more research, you find there are something like one zillion options, but you keep hearing mentions of Upstart , a non-traditional lending platform. What’s so special about it? In addition to assessing your ability to pay back a loan based on your credit score, it takes other factors into consideration, like your education and employment history. “We really customize rates to the individual, meaning we’re [pricing] specific to each person based on the information they’re giving us,” Jungwon Byun, the head of growth at Upstart, said in an email. “You get the rate you deserve — not the rate a pool of people assigned to you deserves.” So… What Is Up

As rent prices continue to soar all over the country, you may be finding yourself entering your first real estate search. You’re not alone. According to the National Association of Realtors, millennials are ending their leases and buying homes in large numbers. Those in their late 20’s to early 30’s now make up the fastest-growing segment of buyers today. But how to even shop for a home these days? First-time buyers might remember being dragged to Sunday open houses with their looky-loo parents, but those days are gone. Everything is online , and many real estate apps have sprung up to help buyers find their dream homes. The 7 Best House-Hunting Apps Zillow, Trulia, HomeSnap, Redfin and even Realtor.com are among the house-listing websites that have become an essential part of the home-buying process, and all of them have mobile apps to make it even easier to jump into the real estate game. We assessed seven of them keeping first-time buyers in mind by looking at ease of use, conn