Financial services recommendations by travelquicks.com: You save the most money by paying down your highest interest rate debt first, no matter what type of debt that it is. Credit card debt is bad debt because the interest rates are typically so high, often 20%+ or more. Credit cards make financial institutions a lot of money because most people don’t pay off their debt each month, so the debt grows. Student loan debt is somewhere between good debt and bad debt depending on 1) the interest rate 2) if you’ve used student loans to fund a degree that helped you get a job or a more lucrative career. If you haven’t yet taken out student loans, it’s worth thinking really hard about whether or not they’re worth it. If you’ve already taken out student loans and the interest rate if above 5% then you should consider student loan refinancing and other ways for you to reduce student loan debt. See extra details at fake bank statement.

Perhaps you just had a baby and want to ensure their future in case the worst happens. Many parents seek help for college savings for children and setting up estates that can convey wealth to future generations. The approach to investing at or during retirement is different than that of a young worker. As you near retirement your risk tolerance level will change, and your style of investing should change as well. Perhaps your company is offering a too-good-to-resist early-retirement package, and you want to make sure the money lasts.

Gold has historically been an excellent hedge against inflation, because its price tends to rise when the cost of living increases. Over the past 50 years investors have seen gold prices soar and the stock market plunge during high-inflation years. This is because when fiat currency loses its purchasing power to inflation, gold tends to be priced in those currency units and thus tends to arise along with everything else. Moreover, gold is seen as a good store of value so people may be encouraged to buy gold when they believe that their local currency is losing value.

This is not only a way to make money but also to save money as a student. If you look at it in a different way then you are making money with every purchase you would have made anyway, whether it be 10% or 0.5% cashback. There are a number of cashback sites out there which pay you the commission they otherwise would have earned. We recommend signing up with Top Cashback, Quidco.com and Swagbucks which are free and offer the best selection of retailers and exclusives.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to every investment. If you are opposed to holding physical gold, buying shares in a gold mining company may be a safer alternative. If you believe gold could be a safe bet against inflation, investing in coins, bullion, or jewelry are paths that you can take to gold-based prosperity. Lastly, if your primary interest is in using leverage to profit from rising gold prices, the futures market might be your answer, but note that there is a fair amount of risk associated with any leverage-based holdings. (For related reading, see “Has Gold Been a Good Investment Over the Long Term?”).

The United States is primed for supercharged growth. The recently enacted $1.8 trillion fiscal stimulus package provides another big shot in the arm for the U.S. consumer. And this stimulus comes at a time when the economy should already be re-accelerating as vaccines become broadly available around the middle of the year. With the economy reopening more-completely, we look for pent-up demand to drive a strong bounce in the service sectors. Demand for air travel, for example, is likely to overshoot as families go on vacations again. There is already evidence of this re-opening theme in the data, with sharply higher travel bookings scheduled more than 90 days into the future. Real GDP growth of 7% looks possible for 2021, which would be the best calendar-year outcome since 1984. The good news is that there is spare capacity to absorb much of this above-trend growth. We look for the Fed to keep its benchmark rate at zero until late 2023 or early 2024, which should slow the rise in 10-year yields from here. The industry consensus for GDP and corporate earnings growth is now uniformly optimistic. Rather than focusing on benchmark U.S. equity market exposure—which skews heavily toward the 2020 COVID-19 winners such as mega-cap technology stocks—we continue to see bigger opportunities in the cheaper and more cyclical areas of the equity market. These securities have generally been performing strongly over the last two quarters, but we believe still trade at attractive relative valuations.

It’s difficult to imagine that you can go wrong by embracing simplicity in your financial life. Even if the investments in your accounts were to hit a rough patch, you’d still save time, money, and energy, freeing your mind so you can focus your attention elsewhere. A minimalist perspective can make for a more efficient — and elegant — investing and financial planning experience, and it’s an approach I hope people will embrace in 2021 and beyond. Discover additional information at travelquicks.com.