Do not raid your retirement accounts

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I caught a glimpse of the Today show the other morning.  They were featuring a ‘Money 911’ section with 3 financial experts – Jean Chatzky, David Bach and Carmen Wong Ulrich.  The 3 experts answered a variety of questions, mostly about mortgages.  Ann Curry, the host of the show, mentioned one question that never got answered, so I thought I would take this opportunity to answer that question, in case anyone else was watching and needed the answer.

A viewer asked, “Should I use my 401k to pay down my mortgage?”  The answer, “Absolutely not.” Read more

Reduce Your Debt and Save for Emergencies at the Same Time!

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Our Money for Life Coaches get a lot of questions about how to prioritize spending, how much should be spent in each budget envelope, etc.   In the last couple weeks, the most frequent question seems to have been, “Should I work on eliminating my debt first, or building my emergency savings?” Read more

June 2009 Release: New Feature in Beta – Debt Center!

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We rolled out an update this month to all of our users with a new beta feature that will help you manage your debts and create a plan to pay them all off! Read more

“If you have debt, go on an all-out war to get rid of it!”

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Justin and his family

Justin and his family

In response to our online request for success story submissions, Justin (from Lubbock, Texas) sent us the following statement:

Before Mvelopes, we used the manual envelope system.  Every month, we spent 6-8 hours setting up the envelopes, analyzing the previous months, etc.  Mvelopes has not only allowed us to take this time down to 30 minutes per month, but has given me and my wife a way to see eye to eye.  At a moment’s glance, we can see how much we have in any given category.  There is no more arguing, no more saying “There is no money for that,” etc.  Mvelopes has not only helped our finances, but also our marriage.  Thanks, Mvelopes!

I had the privilege of speaking with Justin today to get more information from him.  I asked him several questions, he answered the questions, and our conversation appears below: Read more