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Want a New Electric Vehicle? Here’s a Good Reason to Lease Instead of Buy

By Money Management No Comments

Want to buy a new EV in 2024? If you’re worried about EV tax credits and range anxiety, leasing a new EV could be a better deal. Learn more about leasing EVs. 

Image source: Getty Images

If you’re thinking about buying an electric vehicle in 2024, you might be wondering how much EV you can really afford. There are EV tax credits of up to $7,500 for buying a new EV, and up to $4,000 for buying a used EV, but not every new EV qualifies for that full amount of tax credits.

And if you buy a used EV, you might have concerns about the quality of a used EV battery that already has thousands of miles on it. What if there was another way to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, without the long-term commitment of buying an EV? Well, there is: it’s called leasing.

Leasing a vehicle is nothing new in the auto industry; for many years, car shoppers have had the option to lease instead of buy. But some electric vehicle leases might be better than buying, depending on your car shopping needs.

Let’s look at the biggest reason to lease an EV instead of buying one.

The top reason to lease an EV: Try before you buy

Leasing an EV lets you try a new electric vehicle without a long-term commitment. Many people are curious about EVs, but have concerns like range anxiety, lack of public charging stations, and whether EVs hold their value as well as gas-powered cars. Buying an EV with so many unknowns could feel too risky.

When you lease an EV, you can get a shorter-term commitment. Some typical auto leases run from 18-36 months. Here are a few car companies that offer EV leases:

Hyundai: Lease a 2024 IONIQ 5 SE Standard Range starting at $343 per month for 36 months with $5,008 due at signing.Polestar: Lease a 2024 Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor starting at $349 per month for 27 months with $5,349 due at signing.Volvo: Lease a 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge starting at $483 per month.

These lease offers were valid as of Jan. 15, 2024 but may expire, and might not be available in all states. Exact terms of an auto lease will depend on the dealership and your car’s MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). But leasing an EV might give you a lower monthly payment than you could get from buying a new EV and getting an auto loan.

Do EV leases get the full EV tax credit?

Another fun fact about leasing an EV is that leased electric vehicles qualify for the full $7,500 of the new EV tax credits. If you buy a new EV, you might only get $3,750 of that EV tax credit (or less) because of federal rules about where the EV was built and where its battery materials came from.

When you lease an EV, you (as the customer) do not get the $7,500 tax credit directly. Instead, the car dealer gets the $7,500 credit and (ideally) passes on the savings to you, in the form of a discount on the price of your leased vehicle. For example, Hyundai and Polestar both advertise their lease prices as including a $7,500 discount from the EV tax credit.

But just like the price of a lease, whether or not you get a discount for the leased vehicle’s EV tax credit is ultimately up to the dealership. Some dealerships might even mark up the price of the leased vehicle before they discount it, which means you don’t really get that full EV tax credit.

Leasing an EV: Pros and cons

Leasing an EV has potential advantages and drawbacks.

Leasing an EV: Pros

Your monthly payment on a lease might be lower than buying a new EV: For example, if you bought a new Volvo C40 Recharge (MSRP $53,600) with a $12,000 down payment and an auto loan of 48 months at 7% APR, you’d have a monthly payment of $996. The lease price starts at $483 per month.You don’t have to worry about used EV depreciation: By leasing a new EV, you get the newest EV technology, the newest EV batteries, and you’re not on the hook for maintenance, repairs, or depreciation if the EV loses a lot of value while it goes from “new” to “used.”No repair costs: With a lease, your repair and maintenance costs are typically covered by the dealership. But you still have to buy auto insurance.

Leasing an EV: Cons

You don’t own anything after the lease is up: With a lease, you make a trade-off — you get a (ideally) lower monthly payment and lower costs of ownership, but you don’t actually own the car in the end. When you buy a car, you can pay off the auto loan and own the car, with zero monthly payments. Leasing a vehicle is like renting an apartment, instead of building equity in a home of your own.You might owe extra money: Lease terms typically require you to drive the car only for a certain number of miles, like 10,000 or 12,000 miles per year. For every mile you drive over that limit, you’ll have to pay a fee — such as $0.25 per mile. You can also be charged a fee for extra wear and tear on the vehicle. Also, insurance for leased vehicles can sometimes be more expensive than purchased vehicles.

Bottom line: If you’re curious about EVs, and you don’t mind the complexities and possible downsides, leasing an EV could fit your budget and avoid the risks and commitments of buying an electric vehicle. Be sure to get quotes from car insurance companies before you lease an EV.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
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Crowded Cabin: Here’s How Many Travelers Plan on Booking Business Class in 2024

By Money Management No Comments

Business class and first class are in demand this year. Check out recent data on how many passengers are planning to upgrade to the premium cabins. 

Image source: Getty Images

Flying in a premium cabin is worlds apart from flying in economy. An economy ticket gets you from point A to point B, but feeling as if you need a foam roller and a nap. A business-class ticket gets you there while sipping pre-flight champagne and stretching your legs in a lie-flat seat.

So it’s understandable why many travelers are prioritizing a nicer seat for their upcoming trips. Skyscanner’s Travel Trends 2024 Report found that 38% of U.S. travelers plan to upgrade their flight to business class or first class this year.

Booking business class or first class is well worth it, especially when you have a long flight ahead of you. It can also be costly, with airlines often selling these tickets for thousands of dollars. And since it appears these seats will be in demand in 2024, they could get even more expensive.

But there are ways to book business class and first class without wrecking your travel budget and your finances as a whole. Here are the best strategies to fly this way at a reasonable cost.

Book your airfare with travel rewards

Most airlines give you the option of paying for a ticket with either cash or miles. If you have enough miles, booking this way can save you a lot of money. For example, business-class seats that cost $3,000 to $4,000 may be available for 50,000 to 75,000 miles. Parting with miles that cost you nothing is clearly preferable to parting with your hard-earned cash.

You do need to have enough miles to afford a ticket, though. While you can earn miles through the airline’s frequent flyer program, it takes a while to build up enough for a business-class flight. A better, faster option is using travel credit cards.

Instead of only earning miles when you travel, you can earn them every time you use your credit card. Many of these cards also have sign-up bonuses, such as 60,000 to 100,000 miles, available for new cardholders. Travel cards, and the generous sign-up bonuses they offer, are how I pay for most of my business-class flights.

Be flexible about when and where you fly

If you want to go to a specific destination on a specific date, there might not be any cheap business-class options. If you’re flexible about either of those, you’re much more likely to find a deal.

Whether you’re paying in cash or miles, prices can change quite a bit just by adjusting travel dates by one or two days. Try to maintain at least some flexibility in your travel plans. For example, look at flight costs first, and then request time off at work for the dates with the lowest prices.

You can save even more if you’re open about where you go. Flight prices, including for business class and first class, are normally much cheaper when visiting places with a low cost of living. Try an “everywhere” search, where you set your destination airport and explore options from there. Skyscanner offers this, and it reports that one in two travelers start their flight search without a destination in mind.

Start shopping early and set up price alerts

You’re more likely to find a good deal on a flight if you start early. Research by CheapAir.com found that the “prime booking window” is 1.5 to 5.5 months before you plan to travel, at least for destinations in North America.

When you give yourself plenty of time, you can also wait to see if prices drop. Flight prices can go up and down over time. But you can’t capitalize on this if you’re booking at the last minute and need to take whatever’s available.

Many travel booking sites even do the work for you by offering flight alerts. You let them know when and where you want to travel, and they email you when prices drop. Some also provide prediction tools to show you when prices will likely be at their lowest.

See if you can upgrade an economy ticket

You’re rolling the dice with this method, but it’s almost always cheaper to upgrade from economy to business class than to buy a business-class ticket from the beginning.

If business-class upgrades are available, airlines may provide an upgrade option when it’s close to the date of the flight. Upgrades normally work in one of two ways:

Flat fee: The airline offers upgrades at a fixed cost. If you want it, you can buy it at that price.Bidding: The airline allows passengers to bid on an upgrade. If your bid is accepted, you pay that amount, and you get a business-class seat.

Bidding is a bit more complicated. But airlines that have bidding systems also let you know how likely it is that your bid will be accepted, based on the bid amount.

It’s exciting to fly in style, and travelers have taken notice. While it looks as if more travelers will be buying up business-class and first-class seats this year, there will still be plenty of opportunities to snag a deal.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
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Opened a Store Credit Card During the Holidays? Here’s Why Canceling It May Not Hurt Your Credit Score

By Money Management No Comments

Store credit cards aren’t the best. Read on to see if you should close yours — and how that might impact your credit score. 

Image source: Getty Images

At this point, a lot of people are assessing their holiday debt and coming up with plans to pay it off. While doing your shopping this past season, you may have opened a store credit card. It’s common for store cards to offer a nice discount on your initial purchase, and that’s something you may have taken advantage of to reap savings.

In hindsight, though, you may be regretting your decision to open a store credit card. Not only do these cards come with limited usage (you can usually only swipe them at the retailers that issued them), but they tend to charge exorbitant interest rates. So you may not want the temptation to rack up a balance.

If you have a balance already, your best bet is to knock it out as soon as you can. From there, you may want to cancel your card as soon as it’s paid off.

Closing a recently opened store credit card could be a smart move if it helps you avoid added spending. And the good news? It might not even do damage to your credit score.

Closing a recently opened account may not be a problem

You may have been told that closing a credit card account has the potential to hurt your credit score. And in the case of a long-standing account with a higher credit limit, that might be true.

The length of your credit history makes up 15% of your FICO® Score (the most commonly used credit scoring method). So if you’ve had a credit card for 15 years and decide to cancel it, that might eventually bring your score down.

However, closing a credit card may not have a near-term impact on your credit score. Even if you close your credit account, it can remain on your credit report for up to 10 years. And as long as that account is listed there, it’s factored into the average age of your credit history. In this case, we’re talking about a short-lived account, so that may not be such a big factor either way, but it’s something good to know.

Credit utilization is something to be mindful of

Another big factor that goes into calculating credit scores is utilization, or the amount of available credit you’re using at once. And under the FICO scoring model, utilization constitutes 30% of your score — twice the impact of the length of your credit history.

If you close out a store credit card, you lose spending power. That could also drive your credit utilization upward.

Let’s say that across all of your credit cards, you owe $3,000 on a total credit limit of $10,000. That’s 30% utilization, which is generally favorable for your credit score. Above that level is where things get dicey and your score might start to decline.

Well, if you cancel a store credit card that’s contributing $1,000 to your $10,000 limit, you’re down to $9,000 in total spending power. A $3,000 balance puts you at 33% utilization instead of 30%. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s not as great.

If you’re doing a good job of paying off your credit cards on a whole, and you’re not carrying a particularly large balance relative to your total credit limit, then canceling a recently opened store credit card may not hurt your utilization. Otherwise, just be mindful of this pitfall.

That said, if you’re convinced your $1,000 store credit card limit is going to drive you to rack up an extra $1,000 in debt that takes you a long time to pay off, then you may be better off canceling. A $4,000 balance (your existing $3,000 plus an extra $1,000) brings your utilization up to 40%, which is a worse scenario than the 33% we just talked about.

Should you close a long-standing account with unfavorable terms?

We just learned that closing a recently opened credit card account shouldn’t really harm your credit score if that card didn’t have such a high credit limit. But what about an account you’ve had open for a long time — one that does give you a lot of spending power?

In that case, credit score damage could ensue. So for the most part, the only reason to really close a long-standing account is if you’re not using your card and it’s charging you an annual fee.

Otherwise, it pays to put a small recurring charge on that card and pay that bill every month. Doing so should be enough to keep your account active and keep your credit score from falling.

Of course, there are other things you can do to keep your credit score in good shape. These include paying bills on time and keeping existing credit card balances low. But all told, hanging onto a recently opened store credit card probably won’t do much good for your credit score. So if you’re worried that it will tempt you into extra spending that ends up being costly, you’re probably better off closing out that account.

And while you’re at it, you may want to pledge to steer clear of store credit cards altogether, which means not opening one during the next holiday season.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
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What to Do if You Missed Open Enrollment for Health Insurance in 2024

By Money Management No Comments

If you missed open enrollment, don’t panic; you can still get health insurance in 2024. See how to get a special enrollment period or other options. 

Image source: Getty Images

The last day of open enrollment for health insurance in 2024 was Jan. 16, 2024. Open enrollment is an important time of year because it lets people choose their health insurance plan for the next 12 months. Most people who have health insurance at work sign up for insurance and other employee benefits during open enrollment. But if you missed open enrollment, you could be facing some costly consequences.

Let’s look at what it means to miss open enrollment, and what options you have to get health insurance.

How health insurance open enrollment works

Open enrollment is an official period at the end of the year (typically Nov. 1–Jan. 15) when people can sign up for new health insurance or make changes to their current health insurance plan. If you don’t have health insurance through your job or your spouse’s job (such as self-employed people and small business owners), you can get health insurance on HealthCare.gov or other state-based insurance marketplaces.

If your personal finances or health situation have changed in the past year, open enrollment is your opportunity to maximize your employee benefits. If you’re self-employed, open enrollment is your opportunity to find a better health insurance plan or make other financial moves like opening a health savings account (HSA).

But no matter how you get health insurance, try not to miss open enrollment. Missing open enrollment can undermine your financial security for the year ahead. Going without health insurance in America can be financially ruinous, and bad for your life expectancy.

You missed open enrollment: Now what?

Here’s what it means to miss open enrollment: You were eligible to sign up for health insurance at work (or via HealthCare.gov for people who don’t have job-based coverage) but you forgot to fill out the application or missed the January deadline.

Missing open enrollment is an unusual situation. Most employers give people lots of notice and reminders about open enrollment, and HealthCare.gov sends multiple reminders via email and text to finish your application. But sometimes, mistakes happen. If you’ve been going through a stressful time in your life, you might have forgotten to apply for health insurance.

Fortunately, even if you missed open enrollment, you still have a few options for getting health insurance.

1. Special enrollment period with qualifying life event

Even though open enrollment is important, it’s not the only time of year when people can get health insurance. If you missed open enrollment, you can change your health insurance anytime if you or your family have experienced big life changes called “qualifying life events (QLEs).” Having a QLE lets you get a special enrollment period to change your health insurance anytime — even if you missed open enrollment.

Here are a few examples of QLEs that let you change health insurance with a special enrollment period:

Losing job-based coverage (such as quitting a job or getting laid off, and you decide not to use COBRA to keep paying for your old job-based insurance plan)Getting marriedGetting divorced or separated and losing health insurance coverageHaving a baby, adopting a child, or placing a foster childMoving to a new home in a new ZIP code or countyHaving a big change in household income that could make you gain or lose eligibility for Medicaid or state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage

Open enrollment is not an ironclad, one-size-fits-all situation. Life happens. If you change jobs, change marital status, welcome a new family member, or have other big life changes throughout the year, you can still change your health insurance.

2. Other situations to get a special enrollment period

Along with qualifying life events, there are a few other special situations that can let you get health insurance outside of open enrollment. If any of these complex circumstances caused you to miss open enrollment, you can still qualify for a special enrollment period. Here are a few examples:

Unexpected hospitalization, temporary cognitive disability, or other incapacitationNatural disaster (FEMA-designated incident that is eligible for public assistance or individual assistance)Technical errors on HealthCare.gov that prevented you from enrollingBeing found not eligible for Medicaid or CHIP after open enrollment ended

Sometimes for people with complex situations, even if you miss open enrollment, it’s not too late. Check HealthCare.gov to see if you qualify for a deadline extension to get health insurance.

3. Short-term health insurance plans

If you’ve missed open enrollment and your life circumstances don’t allow you to get a special enrollment period, you might want to consider a short-term health insurance plan. But beware: These plans are not available in all states, and they have some big limitations that could make them a bad deal — or they may even not be an option for you at all.

Short-term health insurance plans don’t have to comply with the rules of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, a.k.a. “Obamacare”). This means the coverage isn’t as good as the plans on HealthCare.gov. The premiums with short-term health insurance might often be cheaper, but that’s because short-term health insurance plans don’t cover a lot of care.

For example, short-term health insurance often does not cover:

Maternity careMental health servicesPre-existing conditions (you can even be denied coverage, depending on your health)Highly expensive care (there are lifetime limits to coverage)

If you miss open enrollment and have no other options, short-term health insurance can be better than nothing. But try to get a better health insurance plan as soon as you can.

Bottom line: Missing open enrollment is stressful, but it doesn’t have to ruin your year. See if you qualify for a special enrollment period based on recent life changes. Or consider a short-term health insurance plan as a last resort.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Opening Your First Brokerage Account in 2024? 4 Features to Look For

By Money Management No Comments

Investing is a great way to grow your money. Read on for tips on finding the right brokerage account this year. 

Image source: Getty Images

Now that a new year has kicked into gear, it’s time to start tackling some of your financial goals. And one of yours might be to begin investing for the first time.

To do that, though, you’ll need to find the right brokerage account. And with numerous options to choose from, that can be tough.

One easy way to find a brokerage account is to simply ask friends and colleagues what platforms they use. But from there, you can narrow down your choices by focusing on these four features.

1. Commission-free trading

It used to be that every time you bought or sold stocks in a brokerage account, a fee would apply. These days, that’s rare.

Certain brokerage transactions may trigger a fee, such as trading ETFs, depending on your brokerage. But buying and selling stocks shouldn’t be one of them.

2. Fractional shares

Many brokerages now allow you to buy shares of stock on a fractional basis. That’s an important thing when you’re first starting and may not have all that much money to invest with.

Fractional investing means buying portions of stock shares instead of full shares. And it could be instrumental in helping you build a diversified portfolio.

Right now, as an example, Netflix is trading at about $480 per share. Meanwhile, let’s say you’re opening a brokerage account with $500 and are interested in owning Netflix. If you’re forced to buy a full share, that means your entire portfolio will mostly consist of a single stock. That’s not great. If your brokerage lets you buy shares on a fractional basis, you could buy one-fourth of a share of Netflix and put your remaining funds into different companies.

3. A platform that’s easy to use

You shouldn’t have to feel as if you need an online course or an advanced degree to use your brokerage account. Many trading platforms are easy to navigate and very intuitive, and that’s something you should seek out.

If you find that using your brokerage account is a frustrating experience, you may be less motivated to add money to it over time. You may also fall into the trap of not checking in on your investments because you don’t want to deal with hiccups. But in reality, you should be checking your brokerage account about once a quarter to make sure your portfolio is balanced.

4. No inactivity fees

Some people buy and sell stocks daily. Others might do nothing in their accounts for months on end.

The latter is something you should give yourself the option to do. To that end, aim for a brokerage account that won’t charge you for not engaging in transactions. You don’t want to be dinged simply because you weren’t able to add money to your balance or you didn’t want to buy or unload any assets for a period of time.

Choosing the right place to invest is the first step toward growing wealth in 2024. Keep an eye out for these features when exploring your brokerage options. With any luck, you’ll soon get into the habit of investing regularly, which could really do a world of good for your personal financial situation.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Didn’t Max Out Your HSA in 2023? It’s Not Too Late

By Money Management No Comments

You may have more time to contribute to an HSA than expected. If you’d still like to add to your 2023 total, keep reading to learn more. 

Image source: Getty Images

Healthcare is an expense that can arise at any time. So it’s important to be prepared for it all the time.

To that end, you have choices. You could put more money into your savings account so you’re equipped to deal with medical bills as they happen. But if you’re eligible for a health savings account, or HSA, then it pays to contribute, since those accounts are loaded with tax breaks that a regular savings account won’t offer.

For one thing, the money you put into an HSA goes in tax-free. A $1,000 contribution will mean not paying taxes on $1,000 of your earnings.

Another nice thing about HSAs is that you can invest the money you don’t need to use right away. Investment gains in an HSA are tax-free, as are withdrawals for qualified medical expenses.

As is the case with other tax-advantaged accounts, like individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s, HSAs have contribution limits that can change from year to year. In 2023, HSA limits were as follows:

$3,850 for self-only coverage for those under 55$4,850 for self-only coverage for those 55 and over$7,750 for family coverage for those under 55$8,750 for family coverage for those 55 and over

If you didn’t max out your HSA in 2023, you may be kicking yourself now for losing out on the tax break. But there’s some good news: You still have time to contribute to your account.

You have until April to fund last year’s HSA

Some tax-advantaged accounts require you to make contributions during the calendar year they apply to only. For example, for money to count toward your 2023 401(k) plan, funds needed to hit your account between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2023.

HSAs work differently. So do IRAs, incidentally. With an HSA and IRA, you have until the following year’s tax-filing deadline to finish making contributions. So if you put money into your 2023 HSA by April 15 of this year, it’ll count toward last year’s tax bill.

To put it another way, let’s say that last year, you had self-only coverage and were 30, and you put $2,850 into your HSA. If you put another $1,000 into that account between now and April 15, that contribution will shield another $1,000 of your 2023 earnings from taxes.

Were you eligible for an HSA in 2023?

You may not have put any money into an HSA last year thinking you weren’t eligible. In 2023, health plans were HSA-compatible if they had a minimum deductible of $1,500 and an out-of-pocket maximum of $7,500 for self-only coverage, or a minimum deductible of $3,000 and an out-of-pocket maximum of $15,000 for family coverage. The limits are a bit higher this year.

Take a look at your health plan from 2023 and see if it qualified for an HSA. If so, it’s not too late to fund that account — even if you contributed nothing last year.

Meanwhile, it pays to start working on your 2024 HSA contributions if you’re eligible for one of these accounts this year. That’ll be the case if you have a minimum deductible of $1,600 for self-only coverage or $3,200 for family coverage. This year’s out-of-pocket maximums are $8,050 for self-only coverage and $16,100 for family coverage.

HSA eligibility can change from one year to the next. So even if you couldn’t contribute in 2023, it doesn’t mean an HSA is off the table in 2024. Take a look at your plan details so you know for sure.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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