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You’ve heard the saying that timing is everything? While that may hold true for matters of the heart, it’s actually terrible advice to follow when it comes to investing.

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act, enacted in 2017, made major changes to the tax code that could have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Congratulations! Your hard work and contributions at the office have been recognized and you’ve earned yourself a raise. You might be tempted to start spending it right away, but this is probably a bad idea. Be cautious about raising your budget and lifestyle in a permanent way after getting a raise — it can make it harder to get ahead over the long term.

Are you in the final countdown to retirement? Congratulations! This can be an amazing time full of new opportunities. Put yourself in the best position possible for your next adventure with these seven retirement readiness tips.

By age 30, college grads with student loans have half as much saved for retirement as those with no loans, according to research from Boston College. It’s important not to sacrifice retirement goals at the expense of paying down student debt. But to do so, you need to step back and look at the big picture.

A report by Federal Reserve economist Joanna Stavins combined Equifax data with the 2015-2016 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) on how consumers pay for purchases. Comparing self-reported measures with objective data, she found that people tend to have fewer credit cards with higher limits than they report.

According to collegeboard.org, the average yearly full-time student budget for tuition and fees, room and board, books, and other incidentals at an in-state public four-year college is currently more than $25,000. For a private four-year college, that costs skyrockets to more than $50,000.

Sometimes small moves can yield big results. If you want to plan for a better, more secure retirement, start by increasing your 401(k) contribution by just 1%. You might be thinking that 1% can’t possibly make that much of a difference — but you’d be wrong.

Regrets can be hard to live with: I wish I hadn’t eaten that banana split; I wish I’d bought that sweater when it was on sale; or I wish I learned to speak French. But these are all mild regrets compared to what you’d feel if you didn’t make the best choices for you and your family when preparing for retirement.

Loss aversion sounds like a good thing — trying to avoid losing. What could be wrong with that? Unfortunately, if taken too far, it can actually be a threat to your long-term financial health. Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding potential losses over acquiring equal gains. We dislike losing $20 more than we like getting $20.