The week's best financial tips

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

Buying auto insurance for teens

Putting a teenager on the family's auto insurance policy is pricey, but it's less expensive than buying a separate policy, said Ann Carrns at The New York Times. Eighteen-year-old drivers add an average of 77 percent to their parents' auto insurance premiums, according to a recent study by InsuranceQuotes​.com. "While that's a big increase," 18-year-old drivers will pay an average of 18 percent more if they buy an individual policy, rather than staying on their parents' plan. In some states, the cost of individual coverage can be even steeper. In Rhode Island, 18-year-olds pay an average 53 percent more for a separate policy. "The good news is that a teenager's premiums should decrease gradually each year if he or she keeps a clean driving record." By the time the driver is 19, that individual policy will cost only 9 percent more than family coverage.

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Child-care costs on the rise

The surging price of child care is eating into parents' budgets, said Michelle Jamrisko at Bloomberg. Married couples who put an infant in a day-care center last year spent 7 to 15 percent of their income on full-time care, according to Arlington, Virginia–based Child Care Aware of America. Weekly nursery and preschool expenses for children 5 and younger rose almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2011, after adjusting for inflation, according to government data. The soaring costs may even be keeping some parents out of the workforce. Some 29 percent of mothers with children under 18 didn't work outside the home in 2012, up from 23 percent in 1999. Child care is "taking up more and more of a family's paycheck," said Anna Carter of Child Care Services Association.

ObamaCare penalty to increase

The penalty for not having health insurance is going up, said Kimberly Lankford at Kiplinger. If you didn't have insurance this year, the cost come tax time will be $325 per adult and $162.50 per child under 18 (with a total family maximum of $975), or 2 percent of your annual household income, whichever is higher. In 2016, the penalty jumps again, to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, or 2.5 percent of annual household income, whichever is higher. Experts say next year may be the "tipping point" at which your money is better spent on a policy than on a penalty. Open enrollment for individual health insurance runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31 for 2016 coverage.