We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence. Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
How We Make Money.
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here’s an explanation for .
Editorial Integrity
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
How We Make Money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Avery: We just bought a house and we are getting ready to have a baby in July. We’ve never actually seeked financial help before so this is a first for both of us as well. It’s a little shocking how much it costs to kind of stockpile the things that you need. Baby clothes, diapers, furniture for the baby room. I think until you’re actually buying that stuff you don’t realize how expensive it is.
Greg: Avery is an accountant so he knows how to stick to a financial plan. Once he has one he and Kim will be in great shape. Their main financial priority is setting up an education fund for their new baby.
Avery: Both of us are still paying off our student loan debts and so the fact that we’re still paying those off is a bit frustrating. We don’t want to pass that down to our children. We’d rather try to help them as much as we can.
Greg: Their student loan debt isn’t actually a priority right now. A lot of it is very low-rate and even the highest-rate loan that they have is a federal loan which offers a lot of flexibility that’s is valuable to them right now. I’m giving them a plan that is scalable. They plan on having more children in the future so I want to make sure they have a plan that will grow with their family.
Greg: Hi Avery, how are you today?
Avery: Good, how are you?
Greg: You know, first off, you’ve got a lot of excess cash piled up, particularly in that non-interest checking account. So in terms of working with that, first step would be open up and fund Roth IRAs for both you and Kim.
Avery: OK.
Greg: Right from the get-go one of your financial goals was getting an education fund started for the new baby. Get a 529 college savings plan going and then make monthly contributions. Do not compromise your retirement savings in order to do the college savings.
Avery: OK. It was a weight taken off knowing that we don’t have to feel pressure about the debt. You get so stuck in your own world that you don’t know if you’re in a good place or not, so I think seeking advice really helps gain perspective.
Share