TessMore Finance Blog

Straight out of college, I was thrilled to land my first job teaching kindergarten through eighth-grade music. It was perfect. Except for one thing: It was part-time. Like many recently graduated music teachers, I wasn’t left with many options except a $20,000-per-year job in which I worked only about 25 hours per week. Though I thought I could make it work, I was back to living on ramen noodles by September. It definitely wasn’t what I had envisioned my post-college professional life to be. Then I saw the sign — a literal sign: “HIRING NOW FOR THE HOLIDAYS!” I was skeptical at first about the idea of retail work — I had a college degree, after all. Plus, I was a teacher who was pretty darn good at her job, if I do say so myself. Why would I want to work a seasonal retail job in my off hours? The Benefits of Part-Time Work   In the end, my rumbling stomach (and looming monthly rent payment) won — I took a job working as a cashier at one of the busiest stores in the United Sta

Prema Choudhury’s love for tutoring started at an early age. Her Bangladeshi-American parents are both educators who have been offering free tutoring to kids from their Bronx community for years. “Before bedtime, my mother would tape a multiplication table next to my bed so I could absorb the information easily.” Prema, now 29, smiles at the memory. “It was a brilliant idea, actually! The table was the first thing I would look at in the morning and the last thing I would look at before falling asleep.” Visit Our List of Best Business Loans Compare Your Options Starting a Tutoring Business Prema and her cousin, Preeti Choudhury, recently co-founded ScholarSpace, a tutoring center in the Bronx. Their goal is to provide tutoring and test-preparation services at affordable prices compared to their competitors. ScholarSpace’s two-hour-long sessions run as low as $5 an hour, though prices vary by grade. Prema and Preeti sensed a deep need from their community, which is mostly made up

We all have good intentions when we set out to buy a home and budget for it. We imagine getting paid the amount we’ve come to expect and we anticipate paying bills on time … until life happens and things change.  Careers change, things break down over time and pretty soon our monthly budget is a distant memory of good intentions. Maybe you’re looking to take control of your finances and you want to tighten up your budget and save some cash. Whatever the reasoning, saving money on your monthly mortgage expenses is possible. We’ve pulled together a few strategies you can try to do just that. What Goes Into A Monthly Mortgage Payment Monthly mortgage payments are typically made up of five key components: principal, interest, mortgage insurance (if you put less than 20% down), homeowners insurance and property taxes.  It’s important to note that actual costs depend on the lender and loan type and these are just a few examples of costs you might see on your mortgage statement. Principa

Those of us who have fond memories of opening stacks of presents under the tree on Christmas morning want to re-create that same magical feeling for our kids when the holidays roll around. We want their eyes to grow wide when they see what’s waiting for them to unwrap. We want their hearts to burst with joy when they find they got just what they wanted. What we don’t need, of course, is for our eyes to grow wide when checking our credit card statements and our hearts to sink with disappointment when realizing it’ll take months to pay down all the holiday debt. Fortunately, the solution to keeping the kids happy without going overboard with your spending comes down to an easy gift-giving strategy called the four-gift rule. What Is the Four-Gift Rule? The four-gift rule is super simple. It even rhymes, so it’s easy to remember. You focus your holiday spending on just four things for each child: Something they want Something they need Something to wear Something to read You

The U.S. government has pledged to spend $1 trillion to upgrade the infrastructure of the country, which will translate to 1 million jobs. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act aims to repair or replace roads and bridges, expand broadband coverage and improve transportation and water safety. That is the promise of a lot of work. The reality is that trucking, construction, warehousing, energy and transportation jobs are available NOW, and contractors are having trouble fill them. No college degree is needed. In some cases, workers need to acquire certification, which can be done at community colleges. In other cases, there is no certification or education needed, just a willingness to learn on the job and a few weeks to get trained. For example, a full-time truck driver averages more than $70,000 a year and it takes just two weeks to get a license to drive a big rig. Depending on the level of difficulty in performing the infrastructure job, you are likely to make at least $30,

The term “self-directed” gets a lot of mileage in the investment realm. But the one area where it requires special handling is in regard to a self-directed IRA.  There are plenty of investment accounts that are self-directed. For example, you can make your own trades inside a discount brokerage account . But a self-directed IRA is something completely unique. It’s self-directed because you choose the investments held in the account. But that’s where the similarities end. A self-directed IRA is much more specialized and holds greater potential for both risk and reward. Table of Contents What Is a Self-Directed IRA? Where Can You Find a Self-Directed IRA? What Can You Hold In a Self-Directed IRA? How Does a Self-Directed IRA Work? What’s the Difference Between a Self-Directed IRA and a Regular IRA? Advantages of a Self-Directed IRA Disadvantages of a Self-Directed IRA The Bottom Line on Self-Directed IRAs What Is a Self-Directed IRA? A self-directed IRA is a highly speci

“Looking to move? We will pay instant cash for your home! Call ……” You might have seen that kind of offer on a billboard or a homemade sign posted to a telephone pole. The concept has been around for years. Want to sell your home fast? There’s usually someone willing to buy it – as long as you’re willing to take less than market value. The newest take on this type of online house flipping is called iBuying – an automated, much more formal method of selling your home quickly. Many companies in the online real estate industry, like Opendoor, Redfin, Offerpad and Zillow have jumped in the iBuyer game, with mixed results. For Zillow, the results have been disastrous. The company shut down its iBuyer program, Zillow Offers, this month – less than two years after it launched – after buying thousands of homes above current asking price and losing $304 million due to the program during Q3 2021. So what does that mean for the iBuying business? Joshua Roberson is a lead data analyst at th

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest spending days of the year, and retailers are gearing up their deals to meet demand. While many Black Friday discounts tend to be on tech and home entertainment purchases, there’s no shortage of additional deals available across a wide spectrum of products. As such, if you’re looking to cut back on your small business or entrepreneurial overhead, the coming holiday weekend may be a prime time for you to save.  Manage Your Money Better With a High-Interest Checking Account Sign Up Today The Stats on Black Friday Shopping Though more and more people are opting for the comfort, warmth, and ease of online shopping, about 165 million shoppers are still expected to show up in person when the doors open on Black Friday this year. Between in-store and online purchases, American consumers are expected to spend over $990 billion . throughout November and December.  Despite the millions of dollars in “savings” Americans are expected to