“The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate, you may not have access to the middle-class life that the college degree once provided.” This statement is from President Joe Biden on August 25, 2022, the day of the release of one of the most important bills of his term: the Student Debt Relief Plan. A long-awaited bill that offers partial forgiveness of exorbitant loan debt that has skyrocketed for decades. It’s a response to the longstanding failure to increase state support through Pell Grants. Source: CollegeBoard, U.S. Dept. of Education Students in the U.S. leave college or universit ..read more

Good preparation, speed and a dose of luck. These are the three factors that financial expert Ricardo Tunnissen believes are critical to successfully buying and renting out an apartment. In his guest post for BudgetBakers, he shares how he became a first-time home buyer in Germany and how much money he makes renting out his apartment. Are you considering buying a property in order to rent it out? Then take a look at this example from Germany and learn how to prepare yourself, how much money you can expect to make and what risks the project might entail. Good preparation   In 2017, R ..read more

Rents are soaring. Nationwide, they just topped $2,000 on average for the first time, up nearly $300 (11,6%) from a year ago. In some cities, such as Miami, Tampa and Austin, the increase was as high as nearly 50%. Economists and politicians have therefore declared a national rental housing crisis. Today’s price increases are having a significant impact on the budgets of most Americans – especially since the beginning of the year. In the first six months of 2022, the average US household spent 33.1% of its budget on rent. Sounds like a lot? It is. Financial experts say that tenants should ..read more

You’ve probably heard that the world is in the midst of a global housing crisis. You may have noticed it yourself, if you’ve been in the market for a new home, or even just a rental. Houses are in short supply, while prices are sky high, and the cost of borrowing is through the roof. How many “it’s really high” analogies can we possibly burn through to say that housing is getting expensive?  Yes, it’s a Housing Crisis While the specifics of the situation will be different in every country, every state, and almost every city, the general picture around much of the world is the same. This ..read more

Your budget is suffering from ever increasing costs and you want to know how to save on rent? You’re not alone. Housing costs are the single largest expense for most Americans – especially since the beginning of the year.  In the first six months of 2022, the average US household spent 33.1% of its budget on rent. According to a new study from HouseCanary, that’s an average of $2,495 for a single family home; 13% more than in 2021.  Price increases extend to all types of rental housing, especially 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, which are the most in demand.  Average rents per apa ..read more

Our customers at BudgetBakers are, we feel confident in saying: very disciplined in their personal finances. And yet, there are some budgeting failure scenarios that are almost impossible to avoid. This will be a light hearted post about 11 of those budgeting fails. Plus some budgeting pro tips. Ever done an epic fail of budgeting? You’re not alone! Let’s dive in… Another Fancy Cocktail Oh, who among us hasn’t been there? Walk into the club/bar/venue with a budget for 2-3 small beers, and walk out with a hole in your budget the size of a large keg of imported beer. It’s well known that alcoho ..read more

Open any newspaper to read about how spending habits have changed over the past few years. They will tell you that spending on in-person retail, restaurants, and services were all down massively in 2020 and slow to recover since. Spending on movie streaming services, on the other hand, skyrocketed. One thing they probably won’t mention is one of the emerging leaders in terms of spending among zoomers and millennials: video games.  In this post, we’re going to talk about how the gaming industry makes money, and how much typical gamers spend on gaming. Then we’ll share some budgeting ..read more

Written by Leonie Bauer, business journalist and finance specialist at BudgetBakers. 9.1% – That’s the current average inflation rate in the US as of June 2022. It indicates how much more expensive commodities are now, on average, compared with 12 months ago.  Energy and food prices in particular are rising rapidly. According to the Consumer Price Index, groceries account for 10.4 %, and energy for as much as 32.9 % of inflation.  However, these data are based only on the inflation rate of an average American. That doesn’t mean that your personal inflation is equally high. On ..read more

Recently economic news has dominated the popular media. We’ve talked in depth about inflation, and provided resources to help you learn more about it. Now talk has turned darkly to rumors of a recession. While this is a critical economic topic that everyone should understand, the media does a pretty poor job of educating the public on what a recession actually is, how we know we are in one, and what that might mean for ordinary people.  Key Takeaways for this post:  Recession is a political concept, not just an economic one Recessions occur when an economy produces less over ..read more

For our second post detailing the financials of a real Airbnb, we turn to a real member of the BudgetBakers team who owns an Airbnb in Prague, our home city, and who helped us develop our Airbnb Revenue Calculator.  They have graciously shared their statistics to give us a sharper picture of what the economics of Airbnb look like. Here’s what they had to say:  Hi! I started my Airbnb listing about 7 years ago, when I got the opportunity to buy a studio flat in the same building where I was buying my first family home. Let’s go over some of my experiences, from the personal perspectiv ..read more