Category Archives: Financial Advice

Keep or Shred: Spring Cleaning for Financial Documents

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Along with spring cleaning our closets and homes, it’s also important to take a look at that pile of papers gathering dust in the kitchen drawer or your home office. Are you holding onto financial documents that can be shredded, or should you continue to (carefully) keep those records on hand? Here are four types of financial documents and tips for whether to keep them or shred them.

Credit Card Statements: ATM or deposit receipts can be tossed after the transaction is recorded, but credit card statements should be kept until a payment is made and appears on the next statement. Receipts for anything purchased on your credit card should also be kept until the statement arrives so you can confirm you were charged the appropriate amount.

Student Loans: When you originally took out your student loan you were given a master promissory note. This document shows how you promised to pay your loan and any accrued interest and it should be kept securely until your loan is completely paid off.

Mortgage/Lease: Because many mortgage lenders now allow for electronic payments, most documents associated with your home will be available anytime on their webpage. However, if you have paper copies of your closing documents – you may want to file these away for safe keeping anyway, and to have a hard copy on hand. If you are leasing your residence, transaction histories may not be available online, so hold onto your lease and any record of rent payments made. That way if there is a dispute with your landlord, you will have the necessary detailed documents handy.

Car and Health Insurance: Many insurance companies will send policies via email or will allow you to create an account on their website and access your secure documents at your convenience. If this is the case, there is no need to keep any paper copies that are mailed to you. If there isn’t an electronic copy, file away your policy information until the next year when the new plan information arrives. Life insurance policies are an exception and should be filed away forever.

Article Source: Wendy Bignon for CUInsight.com

Financial Milestones Everyone Needs to Achieve

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Everyone has a different life plan and different expenses. No matter what that looks like, make sure you’re checking off these financial milestones.

Start saving for retirement.

It’s very important to start saving early for your retirement. You benefit more from saving early, and the longer you wait, you’ll have a lot less.

Pay off student loans.

Education is getting more and more expensive and the student debt crisis is consistently in the news as a serious problem. Some students have resigned to never paying their debt off and just perpetually rolling them over. Pay them off as soon as you can.

Establish a good credit history.

While you may have missed some payments when you were younger and made some mistakes with your finances, it is important to redeem them. Developing a solid credit history will help with big purchases and shows how responsible you can be with paying your bills.

Invest in more than a retirement plan.

Whether it’s something simple like mutual funds or something more advanced like stocks, it is important to have your money diversified in something beyond a basic savings account.

Maximize employer benefits.

If you work somewhere that provides you with perks, you should be using them to the fullest. Employer match accounts are effectively the closest thing to free money that exists, so the sooner you maximize your benefits, the better.

Have a positive net worth.

This is the moment that everything you earn becomes pure profit. There is nothing more exciting than when assets – liabilities = a positive number.

Buy your first home.

Buying a home is easily one of the largest financial obligations most people will experience, and it may determine your spending habits for the future.

Deciding when to retire.

There are quite a few things to consider when it comes to retirement, and they differ for everyone. Deciding when to collect social security, how much you need in savings, and how you plan to spend are just a few of the things you may need to think about.

If you need advice or help with putting any of these financial milestones in place for your lifestyle – contact First Financial! We can help you purchase a home, create and manage a budget, assist you with improving your credit score, consolidate your debt, and our Investment and Retirement Center can help you retire and invest with peace of mind.* Contact us today to get started.

*$5 in a base savings account is your membership deposit and is required to remain in your base savings account at all times to be a member in good standing. All credit unions require a membership deposit. Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers or attends school in Monmouth and Ocean County.

Article Source: Tyler Atwell for CUInsight.com

 

6 Tips for Making Fiscal Fitness Goals Stick

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A sporting equipment - two red dumbbells. Isolated over white.

If you often struggle with setting financial goals and making them stick throughout the year, try these six tips.

1. Use the SMART principle.

The acronym SMART is a good way to remember an effective strategy for setting your fiscal finance goals. Make them specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-specific. In other words, instead of deluding yourself that you’ll completely overhaul years of poor money management, start to tackle it in bite-size portions. Keeping goals specific also makes them seem more real and tangible than the undefined “improving my financial fitness.”

2. Incorporate the new practice into your routine.

Science shows we are creatures of habit. Once something is part of our routine, even if it’s an unpleasant task, we don’t seem to mind it as much. Getting to that point requires making a deliberate effort to incorporate new financial habits into your routine. To make this step easier, set up reminders on your smartphone calendar for specific times and dates you’ll set aside to address various aspects of your finances, whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly.

3. Keep doing it – repetition leads to habit.

The more frequently you perform a new financial task as part of your routine, the sooner it becomes a habit – something that doesn’t require any willpower. That’s the trick.

4. Don’t judge yourself for failures – expect them.

Half the battle of following through with new goals of any kind is how you handle failure. If we were to ask the people who succeed at sticking to their goals what their secret was, you can almost guarantee it involves expecting and accounting for failure. Instead of hoping you won’t fail, plan to fail. That may seem pessimistic, but it’s more realistic than thinking you’ll be perfect! After all, we’re just human. It’s what you do after you fall that makes the difference between permanent failure at financial goals and long-term success.

5. Give yourself some wiggle room to account for slacking off.

You should create some wiggle room into your fiscal fitness improvement plans. Round up or down, schedule a “slack” day or two, and don’t make plans that are too rigid or that depend too heavily on your own consistency. This will take some of the pressure off and allow you to move forward even if you are taking a step back every once in a while.

6. Hold yourself accountable.

Even as you expect to fail and leave yourself some room to slack off, don’t go to the opposite extreme of approaching your fiscal fitness goals without purposefulness. One of the best ways to hold yourself accountable is to make your intentions public and ask others to support you. There’s power in numbers. Just as it’s easier to commit to a 5 a.m. workout if you have someone by your side, it’s easier to change the numbers that determine your financial fitness when you use the buddy system.

Instead of refusing to make financial goals because you’ll inevitably fail, use the expectation of failure, along with these tips, to move beyond that cycle this year. Gradually and deliberately improve your financial well-being and turn that ship around toward financial success.

Article Source: Jessica Sommerfield for MoneyNing.com

3 Strategies for Helping You Change Your Financial Habits

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goals-and-accomplishmentsAre you hoping to change your financial habits? There isn’t any one-size-fits-all magic approach, but there are different strategies you can try out until you hit on something that works well for you.

Here are three strategies that can help you change your financial habits. Figure out which is likely to work best for you:

1. Try a Spending Detox

If spending is one of your big problems, you can actually break the habit by going on a spending detox. Try to go a month without spending on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. You can retrain yourself to dislike spending and prefer keeping your money.

This approach can even work with your long-term and short-term savings goals. Make sure you automatically contribute to retirement savings or to your travel fund during this time, but avoid spending money on unnecessary household goods, gadgets, or other items that do little more than clutter things up.

You might be surprised at how quickly you adjust to the new normal and develop new habits that are less about spending money.

2. Make Small Changes

Taking a drastic step doesn’t work as well for some people. If this describes you, then consider making incremental changes instead of doing something dramatic. This reduces the pain involved, and can help you make forward progress.

It’s a slower approach, but it can help you ease into your new habits. Savings habits are ideal for making small changes. If you want to get to the point where you are setting aside $350 a month toward retirement, you aren’t likely to be able to sustain that change all at once.

Instead, you can start with a smaller amount. Can you set aside $10 a week? This adds up to $40 a month. Look to take that first small step. Once you free up that money and become comfortable, start looking for ways to free up another $10 a week. It takes a little time, but you will eventually reach your goal.

From freeing up money to pay down debt to putting money toward a family vacation, the start-small approach can work well and help you change the way you manage your money.

3. Plan Ahead

One of the best ways to prepare your finances and change your habits is to plan ahead. Get in the habit of checking in with your finances once a week. Set aside time to look ahead to the bills you will need to pay and other financial realities.

When you plan ahead, you will track your spending better, create budgets, and naturally start to change some of your financial habits in a way that can benefit you in the long term. You’ll also end up saving yourself a ton of time and headache in the long run because you won’t need to deal with putting out all the fires either.

Article Source: Miranda Marquit for MoneyNing.com

5 Ways to Be on Top of Your Budget

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calculator and piggy-bank with glasses on white background

Be realistic. Keep going over budget on certain things? Maybe you didn’t allot enough money in those areas. If this is the case, try and find a happy medium that is more realistic so you can still cut back a little bit.

Be automatic. Are you having trouble saving? Do you have direct deposit at work? If so, figure out how much you want to put aside every month, and have that money automatically put into your savings account. This way, you can set it and forget it.

Be thorough. When you’re setting up your budget you may tell yourself, “I’m going to go out to eat twice a week.” Well That sounds great in theory, but what happens when you want to celebrate your friend’s new promotion? Where’s that money coming from? Make sure your budget includes some flexible money that you can use in different areas when needed.

Be patient. Don’t spend your entire monthly budget of any one area at the beginning of the month. Sure, that awesome new movie is coming out at the first of the month, but slow down. There’s probably some other things you’re going to want to do before the end of the month, so keep that in mind and spread your money out.

Be nice. You’re an awesome person who should be rewarded for staying on budget each month. Give yourself a little cash to splurge each month, even if it’s no more than an ice cream cone. Ice cream is awesome and so are you!

Article Source: John Pettit for CUInsight.com

3 Easy Ways to Make Money on the Side

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Woman Taking Dog For Walk On City Street

Who doesn’t love some extra cash in their pocket, especially after the expensive holiday season? When you’re focused on your full-time job, it can be hard to find the time to search for additional sources of income.

Here are some easy examples:

Tutor. Do you have expertise in a certain subject matter that you may or may not use in your current line of work? Whether you’re looking to help out younger students or adults continuing their education, you can put your knowledge to good use. Look into working with an established company like Kaplan for SAT preparation, or get certified through the National Tutoring Association or the American Tutoring Association. Obtaining a certification may be an extra step, but in the end if you are able to show you are legitimately trained, you will stand out as a professional and generate more business and more dollars.

Drive. Even if you haven’t used Uber, you have undoubtedly heard of the transportation network company. Offering consumers a safe and convenient way to get around town, Uber is an excellent way to bring in extra money in your spare time. According to the company, depending on your location and how often you work, drivers could net on average about $25.00 an hour. Another advantage of becoming a driver is the ability to set your own schedule. Many drivers have a full-time job and drive at their discretion.

Dog sit. Do you love dogs but don’t want to commit to owning one? Becoming a dog sitter is a great way to spend time with “man’s best friend” without the long-term responsibilities that come with adding a pooch to your family. Check out Rover.com, a resource that connects pet owners with people who provide safe and loving pet care. Like Uber, Rover allows you the freedom to make money on your own schedule. According to Rover.com, depending on how often you take in an animal and for how long, you could make upwards of $1,000 a month.

Article Source: Wendy Bignon for CUInsight.com