Author: josh

Managing multiple financial obligations can drain mental energy quickly. When due dates are scattered and balances vary, it becomes difficult to stay consistent. A single monthly plan brings order and structure, helping you regain control.  Why Multiple Payments Create Stress  When payments are spread across the month, it’s easy to lose track. Even highly organized people feel overwhelmed when juggling several accounts. This increases the risk of late payments, budgeting mistakes, and emotional frustration.  A single streamlined system solves this by replacing confusion with predictability.  What a Unified Monthly Plan Looks Like  A single monthly plan doesn’t mean everything is paid at once — it…

Monthly Plan  Managing multiple financial obligations can drain mental energy quickly. When due dates are scattered and balances vary, it becomes difficult to stay consistent. A single monthly plan brings order and structure, helping you regain control.  Why Multiple Payments Create Stress  When payments are spread across the month, it’s easy to lose track. Even highly organized people feel overwhelmed when juggling several accounts. This increases the risk of late payments, budgeting mistakes, and emotional frustration.  A single streamlined system solves this by replacing confusion with predictability.  What a Unified Monthly Plan Looks Like  A single monthly plan doesn’t mean everything is paid at once…

Improving financial health begins with one essential step: gaining clarity. Most people feel overwhelmed not because they lack income, but because they lack structure. When accounts, balances, and expenses are scattered, even simple decisions feel stressful. Building a healthier financial foundation requires creating a clear picture of your current situation — and committing to small, consistent steps forward.  Understanding Your Financial Snapshot  The most effective way to reduce financial stress is to understand exactly where your money goes. Begin by listing out every monthly obligation: balances, due dates, and payment amounts. Many people avoid this step because they fear the results, but clarity is always…

The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas, including Southern California and off the coast of Florida, as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because…

A Washington state resident is believed to be the first person to die from a rare strain of bird flu, but state health officials said Friday the risk to the public is low.The person, an older adult with underlying health conditions, was being treated for a bird flu called H5N5 after becoming seemingly the first known human infected by the strain, according to a statement from the Washington State Department of Health.The person from Grays Harbor County, about 78 miles (125 kilometers) southwest of Seattle, had a backyard flock of domestic poultry that had been exposed to wild birds, health officials…

If you’re planning to buy a home with less than 20% down—whether you’re browsing a house for sale in Seattle, WA or checking out a home in Austin, TX—you’ll likely encounter mortgage insurance in some form. Most buyers are familiar with borrower-paid mortgage insurance (BPMI), the monthly PMI you pay until you reach 20% equity. But there’s another option your lender may offer: Lender-Paid Mortgage Insurance (LPMI). LPMI can lower your monthly payment and eliminate monthly PMI charges, but it comes with long-term trade-offs. This Redfin article breaks down how LPMI works, how it compares to traditional PMI, who it’s…

In This Article Worried that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace lower- and middle-income jobs, and only create wealth for business owners?  Billionaire Ray Dalio argues that AI is making the bottom 60% of Americans more dependent on the top 1% to keep the economy afloat. He notes that 60% of Americans can’t even read at a sixth-grade level—how could they hope to compete in our increasingly knowledge-based economy?  Early warning signs only fuel these fears. A worrying report by J.P. Morgan notes the high unemployment rate among recent college graduates and weak job growth in many white-collar careers that AI…

In This Article This article is presented by Connect Invest. Office loan delinquencies are surging again. In September 2025, Fitch Ratings reported that U.S. office delinquencies jumped after a $180 million loan tied to Manhattan’s 261 Fifth Avenue defaulted—the latest in a string of commercial real estate stress signals. Nationwide, delinquency rates on commercial mortgage-backed securities rose by roughly 10 basis points to 3.1% in the first quarter of 2025, while the Mortgage Bankers Association logged higher delinquency rates across lodging and industrial loans in the first quarter of the year. Office mortgages that have been securitized into commercial mortgage-backed…

When you’re preparing to close on a home, you’ll receive several final documents outlining your loan terms, closing costs, and the exact amount each party must pay or receive. Two of the most important are the closing disclosure and the settlement statement (also called an ALTA settlement statement or, in older transactions, a HUD-1). Although the two forms often contain similar numbers, and those numbers must match, they aren’t interchangeable. A closing disclosure is a lender-required document that explains the details of your mortgage and must be delivered at least three days before closing. A settlement statement, on the other…

Traditional self-storage can feel inconvenient and impersonal. When you’re already trying to maximize storage for small spaces, the process of buying supplies, packing everything yourself, and hauling boxes to a facility across town can be time-consuming and physically exhausting. In this Redfin guide, we’ve teamed up with Clutter to walk you through a better approach to storing your belongings and simplifying the entire process. Whether you’re relocating to your new home in Lafayette, CA or simply looking for an easier way to protect the things you love in your cozy home in Atlanta, GA, modern storage hacks can help you…