Money Management

Sharing a phone plan with someone else can be cheaper than going it alone. Here are some of the lowest-cost two-line options. 

Making a two-line cellphone plan fit into your finances can be tough when major carriers are asking $75 or more per line for their top plans. But you don’t need to empty your proverbial piggy bank to give you and your partner (or whoever else you’re sharing with) a reliable wireless plan.

I checked half a dozen of the largest providers looking for the best deals. Here are the cheapest two-line family plans I found.

Cheapest two-line family plans

The most affordable two-line family plans are prepaid options from Cricket and Mint Mobile. These are good options if you don’t need unlimited data.

Cricket 5 GB Plan

Price: $60 a month ($30 per line)

Includes: Unlimited talk and text, plus up to 5GB of high-speed data each. No mobile hotspot data included.

Details: This is a prepaid plan that you pay monthly. Taxes are already included in the price.

Mint Mobile 5 GB 12 Month Plan

Price: $360 paid annually ($30 a month, or $15 per line)

Includes: Unlimited talk and text, plus up to 40GB of high-speed data each (then unlimited data at a lower speed). Also includes up to 5GB of mobile hotspot data, as well as free calls to Canada and Mexico.

Details: This is a prepaid plan that you pay annually. Taxes and fees are extra. You’ll need to activate each Family Plan line separately, then connect them in your Mint Mobile account.

Cheapest two-line unlimited plans

If you regularly hit your data cap, an unlimited plan could be the better option. Note that most “unlimited” plans have caps on high-speed data and will slow your speeds if you use too much.

Mint Mobile Unlimited 12 Month Plan

Price: $740 paid annually ($60 a month, or $30 a line)

Includes: Unlimited talk and text, plus up to 40GB of high-speed data each (then unlimited data at a lower speed). Also includes up to 10GB of mobile hotspot data, as well as free calls to Canada and Mexico.

Details: This is a prepaid plan that you pay annually. Taxes and fees are extra. You’ll need to activate each Family Plan line separately, then connect them in your Mint Mobile account.

T-Mobile Essentials Saver

Price: $90 a month ($45 per line)

Includes: Unlimited talk and text, plus up to 50GB of high-speed data each (then unlimited data at a lower speed). Unlimited 3G hotspot data included, but no high-speed mobile hotspot data. Also includes unlimited talk, text, data (up to 128 kbps) in Canada and Mexico.

Details: This is a postpaid plan that you pay monthly, and it requires setting up autopay. Taxes and fees are extra. The plan might not be available for the same price in all locations.

Cricket Unlimited + 15 GB Hotspot

Price: $90 a month ($45 per line)

Includes: Unlimited talk, text, and data, and up to 15GB of mobile hotspot data each. Plan also includes unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada. Additionally, get a complimentary subscription to Max with ads, as well as 150 GB of cloud storage.

Details: This is a prepaid plan that you pay monthly. Taxes are already included in the price.

How you pay your phone bill matters

Beyond choosing your plan carefully, how you choose to pay for that plan can also impact how much you save. For example, most providers offer discounts for setting up autopay and/or paperless billing.

Additionally, paying with the right rewards credit card can have some big advantages.

1. Rewards

A competitive flat-rate cash back rewards card will earn at least 2% back on purchases, including cellphone bills. But that’s not even the best you can do. Some cards offer bonus rewards on cellphone plans, with the best offering 5% back.

It’s especially easy to earn big on wireless costs if you own a business, since several great small business credit cards offer this bonus category. However, you can also find a few personal rewards cards that will give bonus rewards on cellphone bills.

2. Cellphone insurance

Another increasingly popular credit card perk is cellphone insurance. Basically, if you pay your cellphone bill with an eligible credit card, you could get reimbursed if your phone is damaged or stolen. Most cellphone insurance perks will have a yearly cap and small deductible to use them, but this could easily be worth hundreds if something happens to your phone.

There are lots of ways to cut down your cellphone bill, from picking the right plan to choosing the right payment method. Staying connected doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank.

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Getting a personal loan makes sense in a lot of situations, but not always. Watch out for these indications you shouldn’t take out a personal loan. 

A personal loan can be a great way to borrow for essential purchases you have to finance over time. With a lower interest rate than your typical credit card plus a fixed schedule for repayment, you can go into a personal loan knowing how much you’ll pay over time. Plus, your financing charges will likely be affordable.

But while taking out a personal loan can be a good financial move if you’re doing it for the right reasons, there are also some circumstances where you should just say no to a personal loan. Here are four signs that this type of borrowing would be a bad idea for you right now.

1. You don’t know how you’ll make the monthly payments

You should know exactly what your personal loan payments will be upfront. As such, you’ll want to make sure you can comfortably afford to pay them from your checking account each month. If you’re late with your payments, you could face late fees and damage to your credit. Before signing on for a personal loan, consider your whole budget and all your other expenses.

2. You’re borrowing to fund something you can’t really afford

Borrowing for something you can’t pay for all at once can make sense. But, there’s a difference between borrowing for something you can’t pay for upfront and borrowing to buy something you can’t really afford.

It would be reasonable, for example, to take out a $25,000 personal loan to upgrade your kitchen if you make $75,000 a year, take a five-year loan, and make monthly payments of $531 (assuming your loan has a 10% interest rate). You’d pay a total of around $6,870.57 in interest and your monthly payments would account for only around 8% of your monthly income. This isn’t too bad if you don’t have a lot of other debt.

It would not, however, be reasonable to take out a $100,000 loan on a $25,000 income to put in a luxury kitchen. Even if you found a lender willing to allow you to take out a 10-year loan, the monthly payments would still equal $1,321.51 — or more than half of what you make in a month. And you’d get stuck paying over $58,000 in interest on the loan, which is more than double what you earn in a year.

To make sure you aren’t buying something that’s actually unaffordable for you, aim to keep your total debt payments (including all other debt plus your loan) below about 36% of your income. Look at the total interest you’d pay over time and make sure it seems reasonable to you. And try to stick with a loan that has a repayment term of five years or fewer to keep costs down over time and avoid sticking your future self with bills for too many years into the future.

3. You’re making an unnecessary purchase with the personal loan

Taking out a personal loan to buy something you don’t really need is a red flag as well. There’s nothing wrong with sometimes splurging on unnecessary items — but only if you can pay cash for them. You don’t want to buy something that’s not necessary and not only waste the money for the item, but also make the purchase more expensive by adding interest charges onto what you’re paying.

If something is a true splurge and you don’t really need it, wait to buy it until you can save up for it.

4. You are hoping to get a mortgage soon

Finally, if you’re hoping to take on a mortgage loan in the near future, avoid taking out a personal loan. Your loan will increase your amount of debt and make mortgage lenders nervous you’re getting in over your head with borrowing. This could result in you not being approved for a home loan, or a lender charging you a higher rate. You don’t want to risk that when a mortgage is such a big loan you’ll have for decades.

If any of these four signs apply to you, avoid getting a personal loan. Instead, either save up for the item you need or wait until you can find a more affordable option that won’t leave you struggling to pay or stuck with unnecessary debt for decades.

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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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You can get a good idea where you stand financially by keeping tabs on a few key numbers. Here’s what they are and how to find them. 

It can be hard to know where you stand when it comes to your personal finances. After all, there are tons of different things you have to manage, from your bank accounts to your brokerage accounts to your credit cards and more.

The good news is, you can get a good idea of how you’re doing with our money — and where you need to improve — if you know just four key financial numbers. Here’s what they are.

1. Your credit score

Your credit score helps determine if you can get a loan, what rates you’ll be offered, and which credit cards are available to you. If you want to rent an apartment or sign up for utilities or get a cellphone, you’ll have a credit check. And almost a third of employers do credit checks on at least some of their workers.

Since your credit score is used for so many things, you need to know what your score is. You can check it online for free from Discover even if you aren’t a cardmember. You can check your full credit report for free weekly (with the information used to determine your score) at AnnualCreditReport.com.

If your score is below 700 or so, you won’t be offered the most competitive rates. You can improve your score by paying off debt to keep your credit use below 30% of the total credit available to you, making on-time payments, and making sure you have a good mix of different kinds of loans.

2. Your net worth

Your net worth is equal to your assets minus your liabilities. To calculate it, add up the value of everything you own and subtract all your debts. For example:

If you own a house worth $400,000, a car worth $30,000, have $20,000 in a brokerage account, $10,000 in a checking account, and $30,000 in personal property, you would have $490,000 in assets.If you owe $320,000 on your mortgage, $10,000 on your car, and $2,000 on your credit cards, you’d have $332,000 in liabilities.Subtract your liabilities from your assets to find that your net worth is $158,000.

Knowing your net worth is important because it measures how much you own or how much wealth you have. It should start lower and increase over time as you pay down debts and acquire more valuable assets.

3. Your retirement savings goal

It’s important to know how much you need to save for retirement so you can ensure you have financial security as a senior. Social Security typically only replaces about 40% of your pre-retirement income. Experts recommend replacing around 80% of income at a minimum in retirement. So, you need savings — and you’re more likely to have the funds you need if you set a goal early and work toward it.

You can set a quick retirement savings goal by estimating that you need 10 times your final salary. Figure out how much your final salary will be by taking your current salary and adding 2% per year to it for each year until your expected retirement age. That’s likely to be around how much you earn, so multiply that number by 10 and set that as a savings goal.

Once you have your big goal, you can use calculators at Investor.gov to estimate how much to save and invest each month. The earlier you start saving for retirement, the more time your savings will have to grow with the power of compound interest.

4. Your debt-to-income ratio

Finally, it’s important to know your debt-to-income ratio. That refers to how much you owe relative to your earnings. Figure out the total amount of your minimum monthly payments on credit cards, your mortgage, your car loans, and any other debt you owe, and then compare that to what you earn. Say, for example:

You bring home $5,000 a monthYou have a $2,200 mortgage, a $55 monthly credit card bill, and a $300 car payment so your total debt is $2,555 a monthYour debt-to-income ratio is $2,555/$5,000 or about 51%

Ideally, you’ll keep this ratio below 35% so you have plenty of money left over to save and spend.

Knowing these four numbers can help you to identify where you’re doing well and where you can improve. If you have a high debt-to-income ratio or a low credit score, for example, you may want to focus on paying down debt. If your net worth is negative, repaying loans and acquiring more assets will help.

So, calculate each of these four numbers today, set goals to improve them if you need to, and then track them over time to monitor your progress.

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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.Discover Financial Services is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Christy Bieber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Discover Financial Services. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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I don’t keep any more money than I need in checking accounts. Find out what I do with the rest of my money instead. 

Growing your wealth over time is always a smart goal. But, despite my interest in improving my personal finances, I’m not interested in having a bigger checking account balance in 2024. There’s a very simple reason for that.

Why I don’t want a bigger checking account balance in 2024

I have no interest in keeping extra money in my checking account because this account just serves as a holding station for my money before it goes elsewhere. Checking accounts don’t usually pay any interest, or if they do, they pay a tiny amount. And if you spend money from your checking account by writing checks or using a debit card, you typically don’t earn any rewards.

As a result, there’s no real benefit of putting any more money than is necessary into them. I have my paychecks deposited into my checking account, but then most of the money is moved into other places where it can benefit me more. My checking account balance shouldn’t grow because I only keep the money in there that I need to pay my bills. It’s only in there temporarily.

I keep a little cushion of about $1,000 in my checking account to make sure I don’t overdraft if I forget about a payment. But that amount doesn’t need to grow either, as it’s unlikely that I’d forget about more than $1,000 worth of transactions.

Here’s where my money will go instead

Rather than letting my checking account balance grow bigger, I arrange to have my money moved into better places where it can do more for me — and where I’m not going to be as tempted to spend the cash on other things.

As soon as my paychecks hit my checking account, I move a good amount of the money out of it and into my brokerage account, where I can invest it and hopefully earn a generous return that helps my wealth grow. I also move some money into savings to accomplish short-term goals. If I end up making more money this year, which I hope to do, I’ll increase the amount I move into my savings and brokerage accounts. So, while those account balances will grow, my checking account balance won’t.

I also set up automatic bill payments to come out of my checking account, including for the credit cards I use to make just about all of my purchases. If I decide I want to increase my spending this year because I’m making more money, the extra cash for that will also disappear from my checking account as soon as the credit card balance is due.

The bottom line: There’s no reason to keep more money in checking than you need to pay for upcoming bills. Like me, you may want to keep a cushion in this account to avoid overdrafts, and then set it up so your payments and investments come directly out of checking. Don’t keep extra cash there or try to grow your checking account balance since your money can be better used elsewhere.

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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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More than 6 in 10 households are homeowners. Should you join them and purchase a home of your own? 

Homeownership has long been sold as the American Dream. While high mortgage rates and limited inventory may make that dream feel impossible, the reality is that many Americans already own their homes. You may be shocked at the number of households that live in a home of their own rather than renting.

Here’s how many Americans are homeowners

According to the Federal Reserve, the homeownership rate in 2022 was 66.1%, up slightly from 64.9% in 2021. While this may seem like a substantial number of people who own property, it’s 3 percentage points lower than the percentage of households who owned their own homes in 2004.

Unsurprisingly, homeowners are not distributed evenly among different age groups. Seniors aged 65 and over are far more likely to own their place compared with their younger counterparts. In fact, homeownership rates steadily climb with age, with those under 35 having by far the lowest rate of homeownership. This makes sense as older people have had more time to save and acquire the money, credit score, and income needed to qualify to buy a home.

There are also racial disparities, with white Americans significantly more likely to own their properties compared with people of color. While the ownership rate among white Americans was 72.7% in 2021, the homeownership rate among Black Americans was just 44%. Sadly, these disparities are largely caused by a legacy of racial discrimination, as well as by continued racial inequalities that persist to this day.

Should you become a homeowner yourself?

Joining one of the majority of Americans who own their own home may seem like an attractive prospect if you’re eager to set down roots.

Buying a home can be a smart financial investment as well, with homeowners typically ending up with a higher net worth than renters (although that may also be explained by the fact that people with more money and financial knowledge are also more likely to buy homes, so it’s only natural they have more assets).

But, purchasing a property isn’t always right for everyone. It makes sense to buy a home only if:

You plan to remain in the property for several years.It’s not significantly more expensive to buy than it is to rent a comparable property where you live.You can comfortably afford the mortgage payments, with total costs including your home loan not exceeding 30% of your income.You have money in savings to cover closing costs, moving expenses, and ongoing costs of being a homeowner, including handling maintenance and repairs.

If you’re in a strong financial position to do so, joining the majority of your fellow Americans in owning the place you live can be a good choice. Just remember to stick within your price range, research your mortgage options carefully, and buy a home for the right reasons — because you want to, not because you feel pressure to jump onto the bandwagon and do what other people are doing.

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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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