Monthly Archives: October 2018

If you’re trying to get your finances straight and you’re completely intimated with the work ahead, take it one step at a time. Commit to just 15 minutes of financial literacy a day!

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Here are some essentials I wish I would have learned in high school and I think should be taught today:

1. How credit cards and interest rates work
2. How to balance a checkbook
3. Budgeting basics
4. The Power of compound interest
5. How to build credit
6. Investing and stock market basics
7. How to start a business

Let’s try to make a positive difference in our students’ financial futures now by teaching our children financial basics – and to advocate for more financial education in schools.

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Many of us hate calling a plumber for help. Most plumbers are honest professionals, but we worry that a few might try dodgy tricks to overcharge us. So just placing the phone call make us uncomfortable. The only way to feel good about calling the plumber is to learn:

• The kind of tricks you may run into
• How to spot the tricks
• How to find a good plumbers and get value for your money.

1. Working unlicensed and uninsured
2. Estimating a job sight unseen
3. Lowballing the bid
4. Padding the estimate
5. Showing up uninvited
6. Using bait-and-switch tactics
7. Pushing you for cash
8. Bringing in extra workers
9. Charging high rates for the first hour
10. Pushing you to pay before the work is done

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Each of these products is essential to the financial stability you will need through all of life’s ups and downs. Being money smart is about more than having a budget and eliminating dumb purchases. It means creating a financial foundation that will carry you and your family comfortably through whatever life throws your way. To find lasting financial security, you need these 10 products.

1. A fee-free checking account
2. A debit card
3. A high-yield savings account
4. Health insurance and a health savings account
5. Homeowners or renters insurance
6. Auto insurance
7. Disability insurance
8. Life insurance
9. A retirement fund
10. A college savings account

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New investors fall into some common traps. But you can avoid them if you understand and remember these fundamentals. Beginning investors don’t realize what they don’t know. It’s all unfamiliar territory, so it is natural to feel a bit unsure about selecting investments for a portfolio. A little education can go a long way toward making you feel more comfortable in your investing decisions, though. Following are eight fundamentals that will get beginning investors started.

1. Savings erode if you’re not investing
2. Don’t put it all in stocks
3. Don’t try picking stocks
4. Choose index funds
5. Keep fees low
6. Expect market declines
7. Don’t let financial pressure build
8. There’s no need to go it alone

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A report you’ve probably never heard of can alert you to problems in your banking history. Here’s how to get a free copy. Unfortunately, that account likely will not appear on your credit reports. Instead, it will show up on your checking account reports. What is a checking account report.  According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), if no bank or credit union  has ever reported negative activity associated with checking accounts in your name, you probably don’t have a checking account report. According to the CFPB, those companies are:

1. Certegy Check Services
2. ChexSystems
3. CrossCheck
4. Early Warning Services
5. Global Payments Check Services
6. Telecheck Services

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Keep these items in your car, and they will protect you from snow, cold, and ice. Many are use throughout the year. Many of these items are useful in any season or climate.

1. Hand warmers
2. Emergency escape tool
3. Reflective safety vest
4. First-aid kit
5. Folding shovel
6. Kitty litter
7. LED road flares
8. Insulated blanket
9. Extendable snow brush and ice scraper

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Decluttering your home? Earn money as you give new life to these unwanted items. Consider these seven types of items you might not have realized were worth anything – and learn some of the best places to sell them.

1. Calculators
2. Home appliances
3. Old electronics
4. Kids toys
5. Luxury handbags and clothes
6. Books
7. Gift cards

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These smart tactics help you plan holidays that focus on the fun and avoid a holiday debt  hangover in 2019. Purchases get more expenses every year. Can we really afford to celebrate the holidays? Good question. If it took months to pay off last year’s holiday purchases, this year try to create a holiday that is merry, bright, and debt-free.

1. Get real about your finances
2. Use those rewards
3. Become a deal sleuth
4. Find money in your budget
5. Set giving ground rules
6. Make a list and stick to it
7. Keep receipts
8. Know your triggers
9. Make some gifts
10. Get smarter about wrapping
11. Rethink food purchases to save money
12. Don’t limit yourself to retail
13. Check your gift stash
14. Regift
15. Don’t overdo the décor
16. Hit the after holiday sales
17. Rethink holiday travel

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Many consumers routinely waste hard-earned cash-often without realizing it. Here’s how you can break this costly cycle. Unnecessary expenses can eat away at your bank account without providing you any real benefit. Taken one by one, these everyday spending errors might seem small. but they can add up to thousands of dollars wasted each year. Following are seven examples of how people waste money every day – and how you can avoid these bad habits:

1. Paying ATM fees
2. Not unplugging idle electronics
3. Not using a gym membership
4. Paying for services you don’t use
5. Subscribing to magazines
6. Wasting food
7. Stopping a convenience stores

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