Financial and Lifestyle Resources for Vermont

After many years of renting small apartments, my wife and I decided to take the plunge and buy our first house. As any new homeowners would, we have been nervously, excitedly, painting walls and undertaking little projects to make our home perfect for us, but the first big project now looms on the horizon—the heating system.

Now that the holidays are over, how is your credit card balance looking? This is often the time of year when people take stock of their debt and begin to despair. If that’s where you’re at, take a deep breath and keep reading for some simple tips that should help you get a good, quick start on getting rid of your balance(s).

There are many things to consider when purchasing a home—location, school district, neighborhood, affordability, and type (single family vs. multifamily) just to mention a few. Once you’ve found your perfect home, you must choose the best mortgage type—fixed-rate or adjustable. And then you can decide whether to buy points.

A payday loan is a short-term loan that is intended to be paid off with your next paycheck. Payday loans are often used by people who are short of cash to pay for emergency expenses. They are prohibited in many states because they are considered predatory loans that charge unreasonably high interest rates and fees, which make them very hard to pay off. Because they’re so hard to pay off, they can trap people in a cycle of debt for years. How can you avoid these loans when you really need the cash now? Keep reading.

If you’re struggling to make ends meet, make budgeting your New Year’s resolution in 2020. Budgeting isn’t a skill we’re born with. It’s something we’re taught, or we learn on our own. But with money being one of those things you aren’t supposed to talk about around the dinner table, it can be scary to ask for basic advice.

It’s hard to get through the holidays without hearing about Black Friday or Small Business Saturday, but in an increasingly online age, it’s Cyber Monday that offers the best deals (and you don’t have to wait in line). We rounded up some of our favorite Cyber Monday deals so you can save this holiday season!

Each year, millions of individuals flood the stores on Thanksgiving night, and into what we now refer to as Black Friday, to score awesome deals. The phrase "Black Friday" has a long history that hasn’t always been focused on commerce, and it is now followed by two other shopping-related holidays that encourage people to buy in different ways. How have these holidays evolved and how should you navigate them? Here’s a little advice.

The holiday season is heralded as a time of joy … and a time to buy. For those who have the means, it’s exciting to think about the new things you may get and the gifts you can give. For those who can’t afford holiday costs, it can be a time of anxiety and loneliness. For those who don’t have family or are going through their first holiday season without a loved one, it can be devastating.