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download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. One year ago, we moved from a tiny, rural town in Texas to a suburb of Salt Lake City. We made the move to be closer to extended family, but a major sticking point was the increased cost of living. The complexity of the so-called simple lifeMany of the costs of living in rural Texas were unseen. So while certain budgeting items were cheaper in rural Texas, life is simpler now — even if it costs a little more.

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Now, we're saving $1.2 million and investing in real estate to retire early. Another alluring aspect of real estate was that elements of the investment were under our direct control. Yieldstreet is one of the best real estate investing apps for those interested in real estate and alternative investments. A balanced approachWhile building up our real estate portfolio, we've continued to save in our 401(k) and Roth IRA accounts. There are no guarantees in investing, and we didn't want all of our proverbial eggs in the real estate basket.

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My husband and I are looking at houses to buy, but we both have variable income. We then decided how much of that income we were comfortable devoting to a mortgage payment (including insurance and taxes). Equipped with our monthly payment number, we could play with the other variables in the housing equation: the mortgage rate, the home price, and our down payment. When toying with the numbers, we realized that a larger down payment dropped our monthly mortgage amount significantly. So we've decided to sell our two rental properties to have a larger down payment and a lower monthly payment.

Persons: We've, I've, wouldn't, We're, we've Organizations: Service Locations: Wall, Silicon, Paducah , Texas, Salt Lake City , Utah, Salt, Texas, Salt Lake

After our car insurance premiums doubled, we looked at how much each provider would cost our family. See Insider's picks for the best cheap car insurance for teenagers »1. I got quotes from multiple carriers and eventually went with Allstate's car insurance, as they offered the best bundle with our homeowners insurance policy. Others were more punishing — the Liberty Mutual car insurance quote went up by $140 a month. Progressive went up by $116, though they offer a teen driver discount for customers of a year or more.

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The way I shop, budget, and save now is drastically different from when I started my personal finance journey. These had a lot of helpful information about how to stick to a budget, pay off debt, and put our needs before our wants. The main takeaway was "spend as little money as possible." When you can't afford anything beyond food, rent, and tuition, making spending decisions is easy — the answer is always "no." I realize now that it probably would have been easier to focus on making more money instead of squeezing the life out of every penny.

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A large part of the discrepancy between my advice and my parents' comes from the recent tectonic shift in the college landscape. In light of these changes, here is the educational advice I am giving to my children. Most of our dreams cost money. In fact, students in 7% of college majors would be better off financially if they had skipped college and gone straight into the workforce. I tell my children that they don't necessarily need college to have a career — but they do need an education and a plan.

If you're in debt or need help with your taxes, you can often get free help. Some situations may require the help of a financial advisor, and a fee-only advisor can be a good choice. Whether you simply don't want to pay for a help or are unable to, there's good news: Expensive professional help isn't the only way to solve your financial problems. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling provides credit counseling for any income level. Investing for retirementThe Financial Planning Association allows financial planners to provide free advice for families experiencing cancer, households needing help after COVID-19, and more.

Financial experts highly recommend term life insurance for young families with dependents, especially when one spouse is a primary breadwinner. Having a life insurance policy on a non-working partner allows the other to outsource some of these domestic responsibilities. Too many Americans are underinsuredIn a study by the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, just 52% of Americans had life insurance in 2021, down from 63% in 2011. If the answer to either of these questions is yes, getting a term life insurance policy is worth considering. I'm thankful that my two friends were wiser than I was at 27 and got term life insurance to protect their young family.

But when the pandemic hit I put off my trip, and my travel fund sat in a high-yield savings account. It was earning the highest interest rate of any savings account I could find at the time — a whopping 1.05%. Why not put my Italy fund in a brokerage account and get the double-digit returns I can in the stock market instead of 1% in a 'high-yield' savings account? I knew better than to put my vacation money — money I knew I'd be spending in the next two or three years, max — into growth stocks that are designed to be held for at least five years. Despite the small returns, I'll definitely be using a high-yield savings account for all future Italy savings.

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