It’s the dawning of a new year and you finally have some money to invest. Perhaps you just got a raise. Or, maybe an end-of-year bonus is burning a hole in your pocket. Either way, you need to be smart about investing if you want those extra dollars to count. Shutterstock The problem is, you have no clue where to invest your cash. While you’re aware of the myriad investing options available, the sheer number of possibilities is overwhelming. In the investing world, this is called “paralysis by analysis.” You spend so much time analyzing your options that you wind up putting it off and never investing at all. And eventually, the extra cash you set aside gets consumed by bills or unexpected expenses. In other words, life happens. 4 Investments You Should Absolutely Make in 2018 If you want to make sure your extra cash doesn’t disappear, you need to invest it right away. A certain amount of analysis is fine if it helps you find the right inv...
Selling your home—especially if you've never done it before—can be surprisingly time-consuming and emotionally challenging. Strangers will come into your home and poke around in your closets and cabinets. They will criticize a place that has probably become more than just four walls and a roof to you, and then, to top it all off, they will offer you less money than you think your home is worth. With no experience and a complex, emotional transaction on your hands, it's easy for first-time home sellers to make lots of mistakes, but with a little know-how, many of these pitfalls can be avoided altogether. Read on to find out how you can get the highest possible price for your home within a reasonable time frame—without losing your mind. Mistake No.1: Getting Emotionally Involved Once you decide to sell your home, it can be helpful to start thinking of yourself as a businessperson and a home seller, rather than as the home's owner. By looking at the transaction ...