Ben Edwards's Blog: Money Smart Life

If you’rea parent of a young athlete you know that the costs of playing a competitive sport seem to never end. Saving up money ahead of time to cover the cost of youth sports is important so your kid can keep playing the game they love.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the amount of money we spend on our kids athletics and a few months back I shared a bunch of tips for cutting costs on sports equipmentand fees. Today here are sometips forsaving and managing the money needed to fund their athletic...

Were you ever paid for good grades when you were a kid? I was reminded of my elementary years when I read about the good grades reward program that Discover is offering to students.

When I was a kid I didn’t have many ways to earn money so the $5 an A that my parents paid me definitely motivated me to earn good grades. Our report cards came home four times a year so it was a chance for me to earn $160 over the course of a school year. I worked really hard to make sure I could get all A’s. If...

Can you think back to a year when you learned quite a few life lessons? I’ve had some years where I learned a little about myself and life and then I’ve had some where I’ve learned quite a deal. I don’t know how your 2015 went but I chalk mine up to having learned a lot about life.

Only one of these has to do specifically with money so if you’re looking for money lessons come back another day.

1) Strive to Find Balance

Life puts many demands on you and if you don’t plan balance into your rout...

As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good idea to evaluate your health situation — especially as it relates to insurance — and make a few moves that can save you money. You might be surprised at your options, and you can improve your financial situation with a little help from some of these moves:

Change Your Health Plan

The end of the year is when many companies go through open enrollment. This means that you have the chance to change your health plan. Don’t just keep things the same be...

Does open enrollment seem to sneak up on you every year? Your human resources department sends out an email announcing the enrollment period and before you know it you’re scrambling to make your selections on the last day before the open enrollment deadline.

You’re going to be stuck with most of these choices for a whole year – why not take a little extra time to research your options ahead of time so you can understand your potential choices and make the best decision for you?

Health Insuran...

Who doesn’t want to be skinny? On January 1st you or someone in your family is probably going to make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Your goal may to lose a certain number of pounds but what you’re picturing is a “skinny you”, right?

Sorry to say but I’d be willing to bet that you’regoing to weigh more on January 1 than you do right now in the middle of November.

So let me give you a head start on your New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Rather than waiting until January 1st when...

There is a health insurance alternative available that wasn’t getting much attention in the media prior to the implementation of healthcare reform. But now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or better known as Obamacare, has become a law the land, health sharing ministries are rising as viable alternatives to the health insurance exchanges.

What a health sharing ministry is

A health sharing ministry is exactly what the term implies. It’s a group of people, bonded by faith, who participate in...

There’s an ongoing debate as to which is the better choice, whole life insurance or term life insurance? For most people, term life insurance is your best choice. In fact, in most cases, it’s not even close.

Here are the reasons why we think term life insurance is your best choice…

It Costs a Lot Less Than Whole Life or Other Investment-centric Policies

Life insurance agents love to sell whole life policies and other investment-centric insurance products on the investment provision. It provid...

Part-time jobs are the traditional route for college students to take when they need to make money. But a viable alternative might be to start your own part-time business instead.

Part-time businesses can offer a number of advantages over part-time jobs:

Since it’s a business and not a job, you can have more control over your schedule You might have the talent to make more money in a business than on a job The experience you gain could help you no matter what career you ultimately go into It...

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” – Jonathan Swift

Everyone says that you should be debt-free.Inside, you probably already know that. After all, there are so many benefits to being debt-free that it doesn’t take a financial expert to figure out that your life will be better without debt that it is with it. But that begs the question: why isn’t everyone debt-free.

I’m going to speculate that knowing what’s right isn’t sufficient to motivate most people to do anything,...