New Year’s Resolution #4

Last but not least… Here’s our final New Year’s Resolution for you to jumpstart 2014 with financial health. Cheers!

4. Contribute to your retirement. First, calculate how much you may need for retirement. There are lots of calculators out there like this one to give you an idea. Most Americans aren’t close to having enough. Make sure you’re not part of that majority!

Does your employer offer a 401k or another type or retirement plan? Ask! Don’t miss out on employer contributions if you have them. Other options include IRAs and Roth IRAs. These may be right for you. If you’re young and expect that by the time you retire you’ll be earning more than you are now, a Roth IRA may be your best option. Talk to a counselor to find out more.

Trying to put a little away each month but just can’t seem to save? Remember the direct deposits you can set up at work to save for that emergency fund? You can set up another for a retirement fund. Just talk to your HR team to make it happen. It’s easier to save money if you never see it come into your checking account in the first place!

That’s it.  Seem doable? We think so. It’s enough!

The majority of Americans don’t have a sufficient emergency reserve and too many have subprime credit scores that prohibit them from the best interest rates and other lines of credit. Start with that.

We at Emerge are always here to help when times get tough a few months down the line…when your car breaks or it’s time to pay for the summer trip or to buy all those school books. Life happens. But talk to a counselor and be prepared for the unexpected. Those resources are available to you 24/7. We look forward to walking through these financial resolutions with you this year!

New Year’s Resolution #3

We’ve resolved to setup an emergency fund and to stop throwing money at unnecessary fees. Now it’s time to work on credit – this one affects not only what you can do this year, but what you can do for years down the line. It’s a critical part of your financial life and shouldn’t be left for tomorrow. 

3. Don’t pay extra because of bad credit. It can take time to rebuild your credit history but it’s worth the effort. A bad credit score can increase your interest rates at best and at worst can prohibit you from getting a credit card, a mortgage, and more.

But where to start? First, get to know your credit score and how it’s calculated. There are lots of options for finding out your FICO score, which is a close estimate of your credit score. Check this monthly not only to monitor your progress but also to check for identity theft and fraud! As an Emerge member we have options just for you – get a free monthly FICO score from CreditSesame or a 20% discount on your score and analytics from myFICO. It’s only takes a couple minutes – get started today!

Now that you know your credit score, focus on what you can do to improve it. This infographic breaks down the five components of credit and how much they’re weighted. Where do you struggle? What are some small ways you could change your behavior that could improve one or more of these areas and raise your score? Pick one or two and decide how you’ll start. Over the next 6 months or so you may already see your score improve.

New Year’s Resolution #2

Our first resolution was to save up a financial emergency reserve. If you missed it, check below for Emerge’s tips on how much you need to save and how to do it. But for now, on to the 2nd resolution for 2014:

2. Stop paying fees. Not spending money is the easiest way to save it, so why pay unnecessary fees?

Check your accounts – are you getting charged for your “free checking” or for not having enough activity on your account each month? There are lots of credit unions and banks that offer truly free checking, just ask around.

Are you pulling money from ATMs all over town? Are you paying extra fees when you use an ATM that’s not your bank? Make sure you choose a bank with ATMs and branches where you spend the most time. If that’s not the case, consider changing banks. Or maybe you just need to spend 10 minutes researching the locations of in-network ATMs so you can plan in advance if you’ll need to take cash out. And, even after all that planning, check to see if your bank will reimburse you for out-of-network ATMs – many do, you just have to ask.

Do you always pay your bills on time? If not, you are probably racking up late fees unnecessarily. The beauty of bill paying today is that most companies accept online payment (some even charge you extra for paper bills!). Set up auto payments for your utilities, loans, even rent, so you never miss another deadline and get dinged by another late fee.

New Year’s Resolution #1

As promised – the first of four financial resolutions for 2014. Let’s get started!

1. Everyone needs an emergency reserve. But how much should you have? And how can you possibly save that much with everything else pulling on your wallet? Before worrying about the how, worry about the how much.

Rule of thumb: save what you would need to survive for three months. So, what do you spend in a month? On rent or mortgage, food, transportation, utilities, school, phone, minimum loan and credit card payments, and other non-negotiables. Got it? Now multiply that by three.

If your goal is to have that much saved by this time next year, divide that total number by 12. That’s what you’ll need to save each month. If you want it saved by the summer, divide it by 6.

But how can you save that much when you just can’t seem to keep a reserve after each paycheck? The easy answer is to spend less. But what if that hasn’t been working? Did you know you can ask your employer to set up a direct deposit (or multiple) to a separate savings account? Ask them to send a specific amount – $10 or $1000, whatever you decide – to a savings account from each paycheck. That way it never comes to your checking account and you’re never tempted to spend it! It earns interest while it sits in that separate account, ready for you when an emergency strikes.

Make 2014 your best financial year yet

5…4…3…2…1!

The ball drops. Friends, family, and all those folks on TV cheer for a fresh start in 2014 – “out with the old, in with the new!”

Each new year brings a sense of promise and of hope. The close of the year allows us to push the “restart” button – no matter the trials and tribulations of family and relationships, that light in your car’s dash that you’ve been putting off, or maybe the disappointment of your favorite sports team. It all begins anew!

And each year we make resolutions. To lose weight, to save money, to achieve a promotion, to read more. But if you’re like us, some of those resolutions seem to be repeated year after year…after year. Somehow they don’t quite stick. Maybe it’s because they weren’t realistic. But more likely than not, we made goals without planning how we would actually reach them or they were just too hard.

We’re all busy and we’re all human – we need to see progress quickly and we need to see it often. And we need it to be easy if it’s going to fit into our already hectic lives.

This year, let’s get back to basics. Let’s make it simple. Let’s set our financial foundation straight and do it painlessly.

Over each of the next four days Emerge will share one foundational thing we all can do to make 2014 a great year for our wallets.

Stay tuned for your 2014 Financial Resolutions!