Money Management

A family of four will spend around $4,400 for a four-night, three-day trip to Disney World. Keep reading to learn some of the easiest ways to save for it. 

A family of four can expect to pay between $3,800 and $4,400 for a four-night, three-day trip to Disney World in Florida. The precise total depends on factors such as whether a family travels during the peak or off season, at which Disney property the family stays, and whether they’re driving or flying to Orlando.

The $4,400 estimate is based on the following:

Roundtrip tickets from Chicago to Orlando (economy class)Four-night stay at Pop CenturyThree-day tickets to Disney WorldFood for three daysRental car

If you’ve been dreaming of taking the family to Disney, staying in a Disney hotel, and immersing yourself in the Disney experience, it’s good to know how much you’ll need to save up for the trip. But since we’re talking about kids here, we’re going to add in an extra $600 for miscellaneous expenses, like souvenirs, as well as an unexpected situation that might arise.

No matter how much money you earn, coming up with $5,000 might not be as easy as making a withdrawal from your savings account. If, like most people, you need a plan, we’ve come up with some of the easiest ways you can begin to tuck extra cash away today.

Padding the budget

Think of this list as a “choose your own adventure.” Some of the ideas are sure to be a better fit than others.

Switch to store brands

As someone who never ate a generic food product growing up, I entered adulthood believing that generics are inferior. Boy, was I wrong. After taste-testing store brands against the name brands I was accustomed to, I’ve found that I frequently enjoy the store brand more. For example, Aldi corn chips are heaps better than the Frito Lay chips of my youth, and store-brand dish soap works just as well as the soap I’ve always paid more for.

If you haven’t given generic products a try yet, now’s a good time to conduct your own taste-test. Don’t get me wrong. You probably won’t adore everything you try. For example, I have yet to find a generic cookie that compares favorably to Oreo. But that’s just me. You’ll create your own list of items that are better than the original and those that aren’t quite right.

Here’s the thing, though: If you dedicate yourself to buying generic, you’ll cut up to 40% of your weekly grocery bill.

Stop loaning the government interest-free money

Did you know the average tax refund this year was $2,753? While that’s a drop from 2022, it still represents money you could have kept in your checking account throughout 2022. Actually, it represents money you could have painlessly slipped over into your vacation account.

If you’re not sure how much you can keep out without getting hit with a tax bill next year, Intuit offers this W-4 calculator that allows you to try out different withholding scenarios to figure out where the sweet spot lies.

Order an energy audit

According to the Department of Energy, Americans spend an estimated $100 billion on wasted energy each year. Not only are we hit with higher utility costs, but we’re worsening the climate crisis by sending needless emissions into the atmosphere.

An energy audit provides a clear picture of where you’re losing money and what you can do to reverse the situation. Many utility companies around the country offer homeowners a free energy audit. A technician may not get into the nitty-gritty details with you, but they will provide general information about how you’re using energy. If you’re fortunate, they will also provide concrete ways to make changes. If not, there are plenty of online resources available.

If you’re already aware that you’re losing precious money due to energy costs, consider calling a certified home energy advisor in your area. An energy advisor will conduct a detailed audit of your entire home and offer solutions for each issue. According to BobVila.com, you can expect to pay anywhere from $208 to $675 for the service. While that’s a chunk of change for sure, what matters is how much it will save you throughout the year.

Shop for new insurance

Studies indicate that consumers can shave up to 19% off the cost of auto insurance, simply by shopping around for the best rate and then switching carriers. So, if you’re currently paying $1,200 to insure your vehicle, you’re looking at a savings of $228 if you can save 19%. And that’s just auto insurance.

Once you find a company you like, check their rates for homeowners or renters insurance, too. If you own a small business, you may even find that your new insurer can beat the current rate you’re paying for business coverage.

There’s nothing particularly entertaining about cutting costs. However, keeping your eye on the ultimate prize of a Disney vacation may take the sting out of the process.

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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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The recognizable home has been completely renovated and listed for sale. Read on to learn how to cover the mortgage. 

If you’re a fan of The Brady Bunch, you probably remember what the iconic house looked like. While many of the interior scenes from the popular 1970s sitcom were filmed on a soundstage, the property used for exterior shots for the show still exists in North Hollywood. After a massive renovation, the real-life version of the TV show property went on the market this spring. Find out how much you need to make to afford this incredible Brady Bunchesque property.

Here’s the story of a $5.5 million Brady Bunch home

The newly renovated home is located at 11222 Dilling Street in Studio City, California. With more than 5,000 sq. ft., the gorgeous mid-century property features five bedrooms and five bathrooms. It has big windows and soaring ceilings and is fully furnished with vintage-inspired accessories and furniture — move-in-ready for the bunch who buys it.

The entire property was renovated to be a near replica of the original TV set home that we all know and love. Purchased in 2018 by HGTV, viewers saw the home renovation process on HGTV’s A Very Brady Renovation. Along with cast members, renovation experts worked to transform the spacious, two-story property. The home was listed in May 2023 for $5.5 million and is under contract as of July 20, 2023.

What your mortgage payment might look like

While the home was listed for $5.5 million, Zillow estimates the property is worth $5,228,300. It’s worth noting that a home’s listing price or estimated home value isn’t a sure way to gauge a home’s value. Instead, a home appraisal is the best way to determine the value of a property.

For simplicity, we’ll assume a property value of $5.2 million. You’d likely need to finance your home purchase with a mortgage at that price tag. When buying a home, experts recommend making at least a 20% down payment to avoid private mortgage insurance (PMI) fees.

Home loan interest rates are constantly in flux. Factors like your income level, credit score, and debt determine what type of interest rate you’ll qualify for when applying for a mortgage. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis documents the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate over the last 30 years. At the time of writing, the rate is 6.81%.

I used The Ascent’s mortgage calculator to estimate the monthly mortgage cost for this home using a 6.81% interest rate. If you purchased The Brady Bunch home for $5.2 million and made a 20% down payment, you’d put down $1,040,000 and finance the remaining $4,160,000. The estimated monthly payment for a home like this is around $33,773, including estimated homeowners insurance and property tax expenses.

Before buying a home, no matter the price point, you’ll want to ensure you have extra money set aside in a high-yield savings account. You want to feel confident you can afford other necessary homeownership expenses like maintenance and repair costs. Being house poor is not ideal.

You can afford The Brady Bunch home with a $1.7 million salary

A mortgage payment of $33,773 is a massive monthly expense. You’d want to make sure you can comfortably afford it — so having a big salary is a must. Experts recommend spending less than 28% of your gross income on housing expenses. That $1.7 million salary leaves you with monthly housing costs of under 25%, to account for additional bills like utilities and other everyday expenses.

With a monthly mortgage payment of around $33,773, you could afford The Brady Bunch home on a $1.7 million annual salary. Your mortgage payment would be about 24% of your income — allowing you to pay your other bills while continuing to prioritize your personal finance goals. Of course, a higher salary would afford you an even more comfortable life.

Now you know what you’d need to make to live in a real-life version of The Brady Bunch home. Living here wouldn’t be cheap, but it would be a fantastic property to call your own.

Are you considering buying a home? Review our list of the best mortgage lenders to learn more.

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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.Natasha Gabrielle has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Zillow Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Costco sells a slew of wines through its private label Kirkland Signature. But are they worth the price? Find out if you should give Costco wines a tasting. 

Costco is the largest U.S. retail wine seller. In fact, in 2020, the last time the company reported its wine sales, Costco sold about $2.5 billion worth of wine, which made up roughly half its overall alcohol sales ($5 billion). A huge part of this uber-profitable wine cellar is the company’s collection of Kirkland wines, which include a variety of types from Cabernet Sauvignon to Pinot Grigio to Prosecco.

If you’ve never tried Kirkland Signature wines, it’s okay to feel skeptical, but trust me — if you want to save money on wine, without sacrificing on quality, Costco may be your new wine store. Here’s what you should know.

Costco privately labels the Kirkland Signature brand, but buys from noteworthy winemakers

In 1995, Costco created the Kirkland Signature brand to bring greater consistency to its products and help its members continue to save money. And though it might say “Kirkland,” many well-known manufacturers are the real face behind Costco’s products, such as Starbucks, Duracell, Huggies, and a few reputable winemakers.

For instance, according to Moneywise, one of Costco’s white wines is affiliated with the Francis Ford Coppola Winery — the winery of the filmmaker with the same name — and another with E&J Gallo Winery. Meanwhile, a slew of its wines are imported by Ethica Wines, the distributor behind many Italian wines we love, like Chianti, Barolo, Amarone, Brunello, and Prosecco. And finally, some of its reds originate with the celebrated winemaker Alison Crowe, who makes wine in Napa Valley.

Costco’s distribution connections also allows it to buy wine from numerous regions, such as Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Friuli Grave, and Toscana. In fact, Kirkland Signature has numerous types of wines you might not see under other private labels, such as Moscato D’asti, Côtes de Provence, and Prosecco Rosé.

It’s hard to beat Costco Kirkland Wines on price

Costco’s private Kirkland label allows it to sell great wines at a low price, often even lower than another private label and purveyor of great cheap wine: Trader Joe’s. In fact, I recently went out to my local Costco and Trader’s Joe’s to check prices. Here’s what I found:

Costco beats or matches Trader Joe’s on nearly every comparable wine except its Barolo, which is about 25% cheaper at Trader Joe’s. That said, as someone who shops at both stores frequently, I’ll admit that collectively Trader Joe’s offers more wines at lower prices than Costco, who also sells numerous pricy bottles from brands that aren’t Kirkland Signature. But if we’re just comparing private labels, Costco sells the cheaper wine.

Typical of Costco, you can also get a better deal on wine if you buy it in bulk. In this case, buying in bulk means buying box wine, which would cost between $12.99 and $13.99 for three liters.

That’s not to say that Costco has the cheapest wine among retailers (Aldi might hold the crown in that regard). But for the quality — perceived not only in taste, but in the many notable regions these wines come from — you’re getting a great deal.

Personally, I like the Chianti and Toscana, but I’m not a fan of Costco’s California wines, like the Cabernet Sauvignon, which has an odd aftertaste. But don’t take it from me — for the price, you can fit a few Kirkland wines into your personal finance budget and see if the taste matches the low cost.

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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 positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale, Starbucks, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Usually, you have to choose between an HSA and an FSA. But read on to learn about those rarer cases when you might be able to have both simultaneously. 

Medical bills can be burdensome, and it’s important to have money in savings to cover them. But sticking money in the bank to pay for healthcare costs is by no means your only option. There are different tax-advantaged accounts you can open to save for medical spending.

One such account is a flexible spending account, or FSA. With an FSA, you’re generally required to use up your plan balance every year or otherwise risk forfeiting your money. But the upside is that contributions are made tax-free.

You could also, if your health plan is eligible, save for medical costs in a health savings account, or HSA, which also allows for tax-free contributions. And HSAs don’t require you to use up your plan balance every year. In fact, you’re encouraged not to, because you can invest leftover funds to grow your balance into a larger sum.

HSAs are harder to qualify for than FSAs. With an FSA, anyone can participate. For an HSA, your health plan has to meet certain requirements.

This year, for example, your health plan needs to have a minimum deductible of $1,500 for self-only coverage and $3,000 for family coverage. Your plan also must have an out-of-pocket maximum of $7,500 for self-only coverage and $15,000 for family coverage.

You may be interested in opening an FSA and an HSA. For the most part, you can only have one at a time — but there is an exception to that rule.

You may be eligible for a limited-purpose FSA

Although you generally cannot save in an FSA and HSA simultaneously, you may be eligible for what’s known as a limited-purpose FSA if you have an HSA. A limited-purpose FSA allows you to set aside money to cover dental and vision expenses specifically. And in some cases, you may be able to use a limited-purpose FSA to cover general medical expenses once your deductible has been met.

However, this depends on the rules of your plan, and also whether your employer allows it. You’ll need to review your options with your benefits department if you’re interested in having an FSA and HSA at the same time.

Is a limited-purpose FSA even worth it?

A limited-purpose FSA could be worth it for one big reason: It affords you the opportunity to leave your HSA alone when dental and vision expenses arise. Remember, one benefit to saving in an HSA is that you get to invest funds you aren’t using so your balance can grow into a larger sum over time. And any investment gains you snag in your HSA will be tax-free, too.

So let’s say you open a limited-purpose FSA that only allows you to spend on dental and vision expenses, and you encounter a $500 dental bill. If having that account makes it so you don’t have to take a $500 HSA withdrawal, that’s an extra $500 you can keep invested.

Now, if you don’t anticipate having many dental and vision expenses, then a limited-purpose FSA won’t make sense, since that money will need to be used up within the year or otherwise be forfeited. But if you have reason to believe you might spend money on dental and vision expenses, then it could pay to open a limited-purpose FSA and contribute a small amount if that option is available to you.

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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 make a lot of money by investing, even if you’re only investing in small increments. Read on to learn more. 

Investing money is a great way to grow wealth. The problem, though, is that if you don’t have money you aren’t spending on bills, then you can’t get started. If you currently bring home $3,000 a month, but every single dollar of that $3,000 is earmarked for expenses, then investing isn’t going to happen for you.

But what if you were to tweak your spending ever so slightly so as to free up $50 a month? You might assume that a sum that small won’t really do you much good. But actually, you may be surprised at how much wealth you can accumulate over time if you commit to investing $50 a month for a 40-year period.

Small contributions can go a long way

Whether you’re investing in a taxable brokerage account or an individual retirement account (IRA) for retirement, time is really your greatest asset. Sure, it helps to invest as much money as you can. But if you give yourself a lengthy window of time to invest, you might do quite well for yourself even if you’re not investing so much money on a monthly basis.

So, let’s say $50 a month is all you can swing in your brokerage account or IRA not just at present, but over time. The stock market has, over the past 50 years, delivered an average return of 10%, as measured by the performance of the S&P 500 index. So, let’s say you load up on stocks and manage to generate that same return. If you invest $50 over 40 years at 10%, you’ll end up with around $265,000.

That’s certainly a nice amount of money. In fact, a recent study by Northwestern Mutual found that the average American has $89,300 saved for retirement. In our example, investing $50 a month over 40 years leaves you with about three times that amount.

It’s also worth noting that investing $50 a month means parting with $600 a year. Over 40 years, that’s $24,000. So based on the number above, you’d be looking at a $241,000 gain.

Ways to carve out $50 a month

At this point, you may be motivated to invest $50 a month, but you may be unsure as to how you’re going to find the money. Your first step there should be to do a deep dive into your spending and see exactly where your money goes month after month. Canceling one streaming service and skipping one takeout meal a month (not per week!) could free up $50, depending on what those things cost you.

Another option, of course, is to try to boost your income with a side hustle. Going that route might actually give you well more than $50 to invest with on a monthly basis. But if you don’t want to commit to a lot of side work, you may be able to do something like drive for a ride-hailing service a few hours a week to come up with the cash.

You might assume that to amass a nice amount of wealth, you need to invest a ton of money. But clearly, a $50 monthly commitment could do a lot of great things for your finances. And if you’re able to invest beyond that point, even better.

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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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