Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Your Financial Health

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Do you ever wonder how your financial pictures stacks up?  Are you on track to meet your goals?  What do you need to still do?  These and other questions are always on the many people’s minds.

I have discussed the importance of having an emergency savings, a budget to know where your money is going, great credit /score to have the best interest rates when you need to borrow and minimal high interest debt.  Check out some of my past emails for more information on these topics.

This is a great article Six Numbers Reveal the State of Your Financial Health. How well do your finances compare to these six areas?  All are important areas that should be goals for you to accomplish with your finances.

Financial Literacy Month Starts Wednesday!

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April is Financial Literacy Month and I want to spread the word so that everyone can understand and improve their finances.

For the month of April, we will be posting daily tips from my book Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day on Twitter, LinkedIn and my Facebook Fan Page.  We need you to share and repost to your connections and friends so that these simple tips spread across the internet. My goal is to increase my exposure and therefore increase the number of people who improve their finances.

Financial Literacy MonthFirst, remember to connect with me through social media – Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook Fan Page,  or you can forward this blog post to your family and friends for them to sign up for the newsletter.   Thank you for spreading the word.

We want everyone to have some extra cash this April, so let’s make it rain by sharing financial information that really works.

To purchase a copy of either of my books Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day or 111 Ways To Save

Watch for my first post on April 1st. 🙂

#JillRussoFoster  #30WaysToSave

What Are Your Financial Goals for 2020?

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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.

What Can You Do With $20.00

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In honor of Money Smart Week, let’s talk about cash. Do you have enough?  Are you living paycheck to paycheck? My philosophy about money is that is comes down to make choices that are right for you at this particular time of you life.  Let’s start with $20.00 cash.  What would you do?

A $20.00 may not seem to be a lot of money, but it can be.  If I gave you $20.00 bill, what would you do with it?

You could:

  1.  Deposit it to your bank account or open a bank account
  2.  Buy something
  3.  Give it to help someone or a charity to help others
  4.  Have fun by brightening your day

I bet you can think of more choices.  Your choices are unlimited.  But instead of think about one thing to do, how about thinking about multiple things to do.  You might be thinking that $20.00 is too little to do anything with, trust me it’s not.

What will $20.00 buy you:

  1.  Movie ticket and possibly popcorn too
  2.  Flowers for you or to give away
  3.  Picnic lunch on a nice spring day
  4.  Pay extra on a bill
  5.  Can of paint to refresh a room

My suggestion is to think about money is multiples.  In this case, it’s not $20.00 maybe it’s 2 $10.00 bills or 4 $5.00 bills.  Now what can you do with that?  Now you can select multiple things on your list.  Your choices are unlimited.  Instead of thinking it’s only $20, think 12 months ahead – that would be $240.  What could you do with that?

Finding extra money (no matter how small) can be put to good use.  The choice is yours – do you use it today or save it for tomorrow?

 

Finances and Money

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Finance and money is more than paying your bills on time.  Yes, this is extremely important – paying bills late may effect your credit and can cost you money with late fees / finance charges.  But there is more getting your finances organized.  Do you have the money to pay your bills each and every month?  You will want to have money for today and for the future.  Do you have goals you want to achieve?

There are many ways to deal with your finances and money and you have to find the plan that works for you.

The major parts of finances and money:

Determine your goals – what do you want in life?  Maybe a short term goal is having your month last all the way to the end of the month, or to be able to pay all bills in fulls each and every month.  What about long term goals?  How about saving for …. (insert goal such as paying for college, a car, home, vacation) all the way to financial independence.

Action plan – how are you going to achieve your goals?  Break this down into action steps, using the smart goal formula.  What is the first step you need to do to start down this financial road?  Maybe it’s starting to save … (insert amount every pay period).

Budgeting – now’s the time to put your money on the table.  How much money do you need to achieve your goals?  Start by tracking your net income and your expenses (every penny) to see where you stand.  Don’t think your have money to save, then you need to make changes to reduce your expenses and/or increase your income.  Remember that making a budget is not a one time thing, your are making a budget, review and sticking to it.

Savings money – break it down into manageable amounts and be realistic.  Your not going to be able to save $1,000 in a month, but your could start out by planning to save $20 or more per paycheck.  Automating your saving is the easiest and best way to stick with this goal – paying yourself first before you paying anything else.

Paying down debt – we all know that the finance / interest charges are the enemy of your budget.  This is money that could be used in other ways.  Don’t stick you head in the sand, we have all been there at one point or another.  Make a plan to payoff your debt – avalanche or snowball methods are way to start.

Take some time and take a look at your finances and start to deal with your finances and money to get on a path to achieve your goals.

This is very simplified and not all plans work for everyone.  Take the time to modify or find a plan that works for you and your finances.

If you want more information, please visit my website for my upcoming workshops.

 

It’s Time To Update Your Health Insurance

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It’s that time of year again for open enrollment for medical insurance. For Medicare you have until December 7 to make any changes to your secondary insurance and/or prescription coverage until December 15.

To enroll and/or make changes to your Affordable Care Act health insurance, you have from November 1 to December 22 in Connecticut. Check your individual state for your specific deadlines.

If you are coverage is through your employer, fall is typically the time to make changes as well.  Please check with your individual state or company for possible changes to the deadline date.

If you want some general questions to think about to compare your options, here are some that you can consider when making your health insurance selection that is best for you:

1.    What type of insurance is this?
2.    What is the monthly premium cost and how much am I responsible for paying?
3.     Are there subsidies available for us?
4.     Do I have out of network coverage?
5.     How much are the deductibles for both in and out of network care?
6.     How much do I have to pay to see a healthcare provider?
7.     Do I have medical coverage out of state and out of the country?
8.     Will I be able to use my current doctors?
9.     What additional benefits are included (prescriptions, dental, vision, etc.)?
10.   Are preventative visits (physicals, routine tests etc.) covered without a deductible?
11.   What is the procedure for going to a specialist and/or the emergency room?
12.   How are disputed claims handled?

Ask these and more questions to make sure you have all the information to make the most informed choice for you and your family. Mark your calendar today to do this during your open enrollment each and every year as medical plans changes and so do your needs. If you miss the open enrollment period, you can only make changes if you have a life changing event.

Christmas Holidays in July!

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Christmas Holidays in July! You may think I am going crazy but I have a plan. Now is the time to start to think about the holidays. You are at the mid-point of the year, which means there are 21 weeks to save between now and Black Friday.

This year Black Friday is November 24, Chanukah is December 13 and Christmas is December 25.

To stop the January debt hangover, start to save now and have the money you need by automating this process! Set it up once and then you will be at your goal in no time.

First determine how much you want to save and when you get paid (weekly, every other week, etc.).  Calculate the amount you will need to save based on the paydays between now and Black Friday. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings account for the day after your direct deposit.

Do this now and you won’t be scrambling in November. You will be eating turkey for Thanksgiving knowing that you are all set with the cash for the holidays and won’t have to start January off with your holiday debt.

 

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Change Is The New Normal

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To start, we have been making better food choices over the past few years. As we get older, I want to still be active and healthy. This is a journey with small changes happening. We are striving for 50% of our plate to be vegetables. Our proteins are certified grass fed meats and fish with no antibiotics and non-GMO all while staying within our food budget. We shop what’s on sale and plan our meals to get the most from our dollars.

It’s that time of year to plan our garden and have fresh picked vegetables right in our backyard, at a minimal cost for organic seeds. Love this part of summer!

Here are some of our favorites to get more organic vegetables into our meals:

•    Chicken Vegetable Soup making healthy bone broth with assorted vegetables.  This is great to have on hand when we are short on time for dinner – just heat and eat.
•    Lettuce wraps for lots of foods. Big leaf lettuce replaces the bread, wrap, taco and more. Inside can be anything from tuna to tacos – let your imagination run wild.
•    Fries are one of my stress foods. But as I make these changes, there goes the fried foods. Now we bake or grill vegetable fries. Try it – avocado fries are one of favorites, but you can use many other veggies.

We are changing our food for the better. This wasn’t done overnight, just small changes (or baby steps) to gradually improve our choices. Our first step was to eliminate trans fats/partially hydrogenated oils, then came nitrates and then GMO’s. This exercise was eye-opening when I went through our pantry and even more surprising reading labels at the store.

As you can see, we are eating more at home and taking meals/snacks from home.  Both are good things for our health and benefit our wallet too. More on the other areas of our lives that we have changed in the next issue.

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What’s More Important-Less Debt or an Emergency Fund?

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The age-old question of payoff debt versus an emergency fund – which is more important? 

If you have debt, then you know that the interest you are paying is a drain on your finances. You are correct, that interest is a waste of your hard-earned money. You know that you need an emergency fund and you have been meaning to start one, but you just don’t have the money.

Which should you tackle first? Let’s assume you have $500 in your budget to work with and we will look at a couple of scenarios.

#1 – You have debt totaling $10,000 and you are paying the minimum payment of $250 per month at an interest rate of 20%. It will take you 67 months (5+ years) and you will have paid back $16,750 ($6,750 in interest). That’s assuming you don’t take on more debt.

Then you put the remaining $250 to start your emergency fund.

#2 – You increase your payment on your debt to $500 per month. It will take you 25 months (just over 2 years) and you will have paid back $12,500.

You will not be starting your emergency fund until after the debt is paid. What would you do if an emergency expense happened? How would you pay for it?

As you can see, the answer is somewhere in the middle and you can think outside the box for faster results. You could look into reducing the interest rate on your debt – refinancing, balance transfer for a lower interest rate etc. The quicker you payoff the balance, the less you will pay in interest.

You need an emergency fund to be prepared for whatever happens in life. You will want to start to save something on a regular basis each and every month, even if you have debt.

 

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