Advice by Michelle Singletary
Columnist
Young or old, personal finance is complicated. The knowledge and discipline needed to run your financial life can be overwhelming. How do you know if you’re on track? How prepared are you to weather an unexpected job loss or costly repair? Can you spot a scam? It’s hard to know whom to trust when so many people are after your money.
As The Washington Post’s longtime personal finance columnist, I’ve received hundreds of your questions, and I’ve compiled the most frequent ones in this guide. There’s advice for every decade of your financial life, from 20-somethings just starting out to retirees enjoying the fruits of their smart planning to advice that applies at any decade. Each stage involves making decisions that can affect your short- and long-term goals. Identifying your money milestones can help you spend less, save more and build wealth at any age.
[Post Reports: How to be smart with your money at every age]
Because some financial deliberations are ongoing, certain topics appear in multiple decades.
Articles by Michelle Singletary. Illustrations by Jordan Kay.
Design and art direction by Cece Pascual. Development by Jake Crump, Frank Hulley-Jones and Semanur Karayaka.
Audio production by Charla Freeland.
Robbie Olivas DiMesio and Suzanne Goldenberg were the lead editors. Additional editing by Adrienne Dunn, Shay Quillen, Virginia Singarayar, Rivan Stinson and Jay Wang.
Additional support from Matthew Callahan, Hope Corrigan, Maite Fernández Simon, Kathleen Floyd, Michelle Jaconi, Jordan Melendrez, Angel Mendoza, Gwen Milder, Sarah Murray, Amy Nakamura, Alexandra Pannoni, Sarah Pineda, Kyley Schultz and Sophie Yarborough.
