Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Ways To Lower Your Heating Bill In The Winter

It’s winter here in the northeast, but you wouldn’t know it by mother nature.  The greater New York City area ended up with the tenth warmest January on record.  Personally, we had one snow storm and few days close to 60.  But there is still February, March and maybe April to get some winter cold, snowy weather. 

Here are some tips to save on your heating bill:

  • Can you lower your thermostat?  You can do this all the time or certain times of the day.  For certain times, think about your schedule – Can you lower it when you are out and no one is home? At night when you are in bed?
  • Do you have a fireplace(s)?  If the answer is yes, is your damper closed when your fireplace isn’t in use?  This can let cold air into your home (and warm air escape).  Remember to open the damper before you start a fire.
  • You know how nice it can feel with the sun shinning in on a bright sunny day.  It’s a favorite for our dog to lay down inside in the sun.  Well that’s really great in the day, but what about the night? Close your blind / drapes to keep the cold air out.  You can lose as much as 10% of your room’s heat during the night.
  • Check for drafts.  Yes, it’s winter but there are so many drafty spots on the inside of your home that you can fix from the inside.  Think windows and doors (sealing unused windows with plastic film),  electrical / cable outlets (outlet sealers), and check around your pipes (spray foam insulation).

These are some of the things that we do around our home to keep pour heating bill as low as possible.  There is more to do outside, before the weather gets cold.  Check out this past newsletter with those tips.

Automatic Transfers To Save More

savings-automatic

Have you struggled to save money because there never seems to be anything left over?Big surprise! We tend to spend the money we have in front of us. Getting a raise never seems to help, because that money disappears, too. There’s always something we think we need or want right now.

The best way to grow the money in your savings account is by setting up an automatic deposit from your paycheck. That way you never see it to spend it. If your company doesn’t offer this, that’s not a problem. Have an amount set up to be transferred automatically from your checking account to savings on a regular basis. The benefits here are that you are saving without any effort on your part and the money isn’t in your checking account to tempt you.

In addition, don’t have your saving account linked to your checking account on your ATM card.  Why you ask?  It’s too easy to transfer the funds without any thought.  Also, you might want to have your saving account at another financial institution.  You can access when you need the funds, but it isn’t that easy – so you will have time to think about withdrawing the funds.

Start to put your savings on automatic pilot today.

Understand Your Credit

Let’s talk about where your credit is today.  Those of you on my newsletter list should have recently pulled your January credit report.  What are you hoping to accomplish?  Do you want better credit?  Do you want to be able to get financing when you need it at a reasonable interest rate?  You can do this and it is possible.  If your credit isn’t where you want it to be, you can change it.  There’s no magic want and it can’t be done overnight (and you can pay someone to improve your score), but you can see improvements in a relatively short amount of timchoicese.

Here are some credit score tips:

  • Always pay at your bills on time.  If you don’t have the money to pay your bill when it’s due, make at least the minimum payment required, so as not to be late.  If it’s the timing that is an issue, change the due date.  Many companies will do this very easily.
  • Pay down your debt.  Reduce the total amount your owe on credit.  Make a plan to pay it down and stick to it.
  • Watch your spending.  If you can’t afford something, determine is it a need or a want.  Needs are must have such as food, clothing, shelter.  Wants are your desires, you can live without but would be really nice to have, but maybe you need to set a goal to get that want in the future.

All this over time will improve your credit and thereore credit score.  The thing to remember is the newer credit counts more than item from the past.  So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Our January Rituals

It’s that time of year that we evaluate many things in our lives:

January is a month that we analyze our bills, We review all bills and if necessary, we take action.  It could be as simple as comparison shopping, reviewing overages and more.  One thing we have done was to review our homeowners insurance and make some changes.   We replaced our home’s roof last fall, that qualified us for a credit on our homeowner’s insurance.  We made some other small changes.  All that resulted in a $500 premium savings.

As we reviewed finances, we made a decision to close some accounts that were no longer used, cancelled memberships / subscriptions that we didn’t use.  We transferred some debt to a zero percentage interest rate credit card.  If you do this make sure you payoff the balance before the zero percentage expires.  We have taken the balance and divided it by the number of months.  We make that payment or more each and every month.  We updated our phone and mail preferences so that we receive less unwanted mail and phone calls.  For links to these companies visit my resources page.

While we are preparing for our taxes, we are reviewing paperwork.  That means filing, scanning and shredding.  Be sure to check with your tax preparer about what documents should be saved and for how long.

At this time of year, we update all passwords.  You never want to use the same password for your accounts – accounts should have there own unique user id and password.  Yes, it can be a pain to remember.  But if someone get access to one of your accounts, you don’t want to give them access to everything.

What do you do annually in January?

Mark Your Calendar

Have you wanted to visit a National Park?

We have been to a few and have so many more on our bucket list.  Many are free but some of the big ones charge an entrance fee.  Every year the National Parks Service offers free days and they are wonderful way to take advantage and see a park on your bucket list and save money.

So mark your calendar, here are the 2020 dates:

Monday, Jan. 20 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Saturday, April 18 — First Day of National Park Week/National Junior Ranger Day

Tuesday, Aug. 25 — National Park Service Birthday

Saturday, Sept. 26 — National Public Lands Day

Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Day

Enjoy

What Are Your Financial Goals for 2020?

What is it that you want to achieve with your finances?  Is it to have an emergency fund?  Is it to save for a specific goal such as a down payment on a home / car?  Do you want to save more for retirement?  Whatever you want you can achieve it.

Start by writing down your goal (in a SMART format).  Then break it down to manageable steps.

For example, I want to save $500 by the end of the year – that’s

  • that’s $41.67 per month
  • that’s $9.62 per week

Now think of ways to find that money to save

  • could you bring your lunch / coffee to work one day a week
  • could you add an extra week between haircuts / manicures (if you do your nails every other week that’s 26 times a year, switching to every three weeks would be 17 times a year – that’s a savings of 9 manicures)
  • could you cancel or reduce your unused memberships / subscriptions
  • could you research lower costs for utilities / insurance
  • could you eliminate a fee (bank account, credit card and more)

With this in mind, you could find the $9.62 a week to save to meet your goal.

Remember that breaking it down to manageable steps is key so it doesn’t seem so over whelming.

Let me know what your financial goal is and maybe I can help you break it down in to smaller steps.

Your first credit report of 2020

This month use Experian

Hello, it’s Jill again, reminding you to get your finances in order so you can start the new years off right.

How to Order Your Credit Report

The only authorized source for your report is AnnualCreditReport.com. You won’t be charged and they won’t force you to sign up for “credit monitoring”. It’s yours to review by law. Learn more.

Visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com:

  1. Select your state, then click Request Report.
  2. Fill out your information, then click Continue.
  3. When it asks you to select a service, select Experian.

Not comfortable ordering online? There are other ways to order your report:

  • Mail your postal order by downloading the form at AnnualCreditReport.com
  • Call in your order at 1-877-322-8228

What should you do with your report?

  • Review it for accuracy!
  • Follow the instructions to correct any errors.
  • And, always remember to keep copies for your records.

Were you hoping for your credit score instead? Try CreditKarma.com. It doesn’t give you a FICO score, but it comes close. And, there’s no charge for you. CreditKarma funds their service through website advertising.

P.S. I’ll send you another reminder in April for your next report of the year.

My Year’s Recap

2019 has been a year of cleaning out for us.  We have eliminated lots of items from our home by recycling / tossing, selling, donating and more.  Each and every month we have gotten rid of items – everything from paperwork (which was scanned and originals shredded) to unused exercise equipment to streamlining our clothing.

Here are some of the specifics we did:

  • Donated formal attire to the local high school formal attire club, work clothes to Dress For Success and more
  • Sporting Equipment to the local sports drive
  • Books to the Library Book Sale fundraiser
  • Cell phones and accessories to Cell Phones for Soldiers
  • VHS movies to local senior living facility
  • Tools and ladders to Habitat for Humanity Restore
  • Old sheets / towels to the animal shelter
  • Electronics to the Salvation Army
  • Stuffed animals to the local thrift shop
  • Office supplies to several non-profits based off their wish lists
  • Clothing to the local food / clothing bank

Sometimes this seemed like a never ending project, but there has been much progress.  For more information and ideas on what to do with your stuff, please visit my Resources page.

Here’s to a more organized 2020!