📈❓ 6 Questions To Ask Before You Buy A Stock

Stat Of The Day

$18,118

On top of mortgage costs, the average homeowner pays $18,118 annually in "hidden expenses" according to a new study from Bankrate. That number is up 26% since 2020, and covers things like homeowners insurance, property taxes, maintenance costs, and electricity, cable, and internet bills. What states have the lowest (and the highest) hidden homeowner costs? Here’s the dish.

6 Questions To Ask Before You Buy A Stock

From

How do you determine the best stocks to buy right now? As you look to start–or build out–your portfolio, deciding what companies to invest in can be overwhelming.

But Karen Finerman, co-founder of InvestingFixx, HerMoney’s online investing club for women, (get your first month of InvestingFixx for free, here) says there’s a finite list of important questions to ask. She should know. Finerman co-founded the New York-based hedge fund Metropolitan Capital Advisors in 1992 and serves as its CEO. And, if you watch CNBC, you’ve probably seen her on Fast Money, where she’s been a panelist since the show launched in 2007.

Finerman has a list of six questions every person should ask before they invest. One of them is "What’s the management like?" When it comes to what you should be looking for, Finerman says humility tops the list. "I love the CEO who is sort of what I call an under-promiser and over-deliverer. They don’t want to sell this company too hard. They don’t want to set expectations too high. They never want to disappoint, they always want to be credible and the way you remain credible is, you tell the truth."

For the five other questions you need to ask before you invest in a company, click here.

This Week In Your Wallet

It was a double dose of big financial news on Wednesday, as new numbers on inflation showed a slight slowdown for May and the Fed announced it isn’t *quite* ready to cut rates. Consumer prices were up 3.3% for the month of May compared to a year earlier, down from April’s 3.4% rate, as the latest Consumer Price Index showed. Meanwhile, the Fed announced that while there’s been progress toward inflation goals, we aren’t out of the woods yet. "Fed policymakers still expect to cut rates later this year," reports NPR. "But forecasts released at the end of their two-day meeting show on average, policymakers anticipate just one quarter-point rate cut by year's end — down from the three rate cuts they were forecasting in March."

For Gen Z, white collar is out and blue collar is in, with a social media spin, natch. Enrollment in vocational programs for trades like plumbing, electrical and other hands-on jobs rose 16% last year to its highest level ever, according to The Wall Street Journal. Those in these fields are boosting their pay (and their celebrity status) by becoming influencers at the same time. For example, Lexis Czumak-Abreu is a 27-year-old electrician whose videos from the field (or the bucket truck) have millions of views and landed her deals with big-name brands. "Czumak-Abreu makes $200,000 a year from clicks and brand deals with companies like Klein Tools and Carhartt, though she continues to work, often seven days a week," the WSJ reports.

To tip or not to tip. That’s become the question for many Americans. In a recent survey from YouGov, more than half of respondents said they think it’s "acceptable" to skip the tip after experiencing "bad service." "There’s a common conviction held by some diners, who believe that by not tipping or doing so conditionally, they’re actually protesting a broken system," writes Ali Francis for Bon Appétit. "And maybe even forcing employers to pay their staff more." One of the big reasons some don’t tip is extra fees at restaurants. "My hope is that I’m pushing back on owners trying to get greedy," says Allen, a restaurant-goer featured in the story who won’t tip if his bill includes service charges. "I don’t do it to be mean to the server, but so that maybe they just stop [adding service charges]."

Things That Save You Money

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Looking to buy an electric vehicle? The rental car company Hertz has over a thousand of them listed for sale at $25,000 or less. An added bonus, most of them qualify for a $4,000 federal tax credit.

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Free throws = free burritos. As the NBA finals continue, Chipotle will be giving away free burritos when players head to the free-throw line and make their shots. Get all the details, here.

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Still making summer travel plans? Consider places where your dollar will go further. For example, as The New York Times reports, in Australia, the U.S. dollar is worth roughly $1.50, up 16% since three years ago. There are airfare deals to be had too, with certain roundtrip dates to the land Down Under at around $800 round trip.

When Ambition Goes Too Far

"I had to accept that I was climbing back down a ladder, but I was lit up by the work."

Ambition. It’s a good thing, until it isn’t. That was the case for Jennifer Romolini, who in her new book "Ambition Monster," chronicles how being overly ambitious made her so burnt out that she ended up literally losing her voice and her job.

In 2017, Romolini was on tour after writing a successful book. She was Chief Content Officer at a large media company, landed profiles in Cosmo and Elle, and was being asked to give speeches across the country. She thought she had everything she ever wanted, until she got a big wake-up call.

"I’m standing on a stage giving a keynote speech and my voice just goes," Romolini tells Jean Chatzky on the HerMoney Podcast*. "I had really burned out my vocal cords so much, and I had to go on complete voice rest for two weeks or I would risk not being able to talk again."

Romolini recovered and went on to set firm boundaries to spend more time with her husband and family, including not working after 3 p.m. so she could pick her daughter up from school. "I had to accept that I was climbing back down a ladder, but I was lit up by the work," said Romilini. "My ambition felt energetic and alive in a way that had not felt when I was pushing paper and putting out corporate fires."

Listen Now

The HerMoney Podcast is made possible by Edelman Financial Engines.

Ask Jean

Today's question comes from Colleen. She writes: What is the fastest and easiest way to build credit? I’m asking for my niece, who will buy a car after finally finishing her degree and starting a decent-paying job. She has never had a loan or credit card.

Thanks for your question, Colleen. When it comes to building credit as a young person, my advice for getting started is to look for what’s called a "secured credit card." A secured credit card allows you to put a credit card in your wallet without having a lot of income. More on them here.

As long as your niece charges a little bit and pays it off every single month, she’s going to build a good credit history. Here’s the thing though–it’s probably going to take 18-24 months to do so. Building credit doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. If she stays on track for the next couple of years, she should be good to go.

That said, your question included the words "fastest and easiest," so I’m guessing you don’t want to hear it’s going to take up to 24 months for your niece to build credit. In that case, I do have a couple of other questions–and potential suggestions–for you both. First, does your niece have a bank account? If she has a long-ish history with a bank, they may be willing to extend a loan to her for the vehicle she’s looking to purchase. Community banks and credit unions oftentimes have more flexible criteria when it comes to lending.

Next, you, or someone else with a good credit history, could cosign on the loan. This could be another opportunity for her to build credit, but keep in mind, if she runs into trouble with making payments, you (or another cosigner) will be on the hook.

Submit your questions to Jean here.

More For You To ♥

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