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Create Better Spending Habits, Find Free Financial Resources for These Unprecedented Times. 

There are four decisions we can make with our money: save it, spend it, share it or invest it. Understanding these differences is important to managing our money well.

Apply proper money management to work towards getting out of debt, gaining control of your life, building positive wealth, and pursuing a larger vision of your future.


Inspirations

Americans are more burdened by student loan debt than ever. As of January 2020, the student loan burden in the US is about $1.6 trillion and rising, mostly because borrowers have been slow in paying down their loans and Among the Class of 2019, 69% of college students took out student loans, and they graduated with an average debt of $29,900. Meanwhile, 14% of their parents took out an average of $37,200 in federal parent PLUS loans. These are scary statistic, but the impact is real and you don’t want your kids to be one of the 45 million borrowers wasting all their learning at college worrying about the loan. This problem will only grow bigger as the next generation start going to college. One solution for new parents is starting an education fund for your children or a family member with a 529 Savings Plan where you make regular contributions toward college savings plan and to take it a step further, start small by teaching them money management using the different jars. When a child is saving money towards a large purchase such as sports equipment, it may make sense to open a savings account - Savings Jar. This account will earn a small amount of interest and provide a record-keeping system. When they are saving money towards a more long-term goal, such as college, it may make more sense to look at investment accounts – Invest Jar. These accounts will require longer-term commitments, but will yield larger interest rates. You can open and contribute to a 529 plan, Most of these Savings Plan offers multiple investment options—each carefully built with well-known mutual funds from multiple fund families intended to help provide diversification across stocks, bonds, industry segments, and investment styles. You can choose an age-based option, which automatically adjusts the asset allocation mix as the child nears college age, or you can choose a static portfolio that sticks with a particular investment strategy based on your goals and risk tolerance.

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With more work from home and fewer people driving, there are fewer accidents and many auto insurers are already cutting premiums on car insurance. If you haven’t been offered a discount yet, call up your provider, explain that you’re driving less or no longer commuting and ask for a cheaper policy. While you’re at it, review all of your insurance policies, from home to life, and understand what you’re paying for. Insurance policies are largely personal and one of the important factor influencing the insurance premiums is how much you drive. To get the best coverage for your specific situation, understand these factors and shop around, getting multiple quotes and reading your policy closely.

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In the past I have brought several items on each of my grocery shopping run that I thought I might need and only to stack them up or throw them, especially the items with shorter shelf life. In the last few visits to grocery store, I was again tempted with the flashing “For Sale” stickers, however avoided the temptation of buying things that I did not need at that moment. This has helped me develop good shopping habits and save money. So when it comes to grocery shopping, keep it low-cost by being mindful of what you’re putting in your cart. Best way is to spend few minutes to make a KISS (Keep It Simple, Sustainable) list; a list of items you absolutely need. Then, when you’re actually shopping, stick to the list and avoid impulse buys. KISS list can be further refined by sticking with simple recipes for now like earlier generations did with their cooking, and when it comes to flavor enhancers, pick out core condiments that are versatile and covers the basic elements of SALT, FAT, HEAT, and ACID — like Salt, Black pepper, Tomatoes, Lemons , and Olive oil — and can be used on multiple foods. Once you get into a habit of using a shopping list and sticking with it, the positive spending habits will go beyond just grocery shopping.

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With travelers staying close to home and airports turned into virtual ghost towns, rental car companies have taken a huge hit during the coronavirus pandemic. While some rental companies have filed for bankruptcy, some others started selling a large portion of its fleet at deep discounts to avoid one. If you are not sure how these cars have been used by the renters, most rental car companies have an incentive to maintain the cars well to preserve as much value in them as possible and to make sure their customers don't have issues with them, However it's still always better to get an independent inspection. Take advantage of these deep discounts,if you are actively looking to buy or have been holding off car purchase for better discounts. In addition to discounts take advantage of the good financing options

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High-interest debt are most commonly associated with credit card bills. After saving for the emergency fund, next thing to tackle should be high-interest debt. Eliminating high-interest debt have several benefits, including avoiding finance charges and the money saved can then be put into a savings accounts to speed up filling the Saving Jar goals.

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Due to the convenient nature of online shopping, it is very tempting to constantly visit your favorite online shop and during those visits, you would usually check “What’s new” and “Today’s deals” sections even if you’re not actively shopping, you might click few buttons and purchase those items. Those one-click options are also created to encourage compulsive buying. Before you know you will have tons of items where you spend real money that you wish you didn’t buy. How many times have you brought something and a day later you feel it was not needed, if you have buyer’s remorse every time you do impulse buying, you can avoid that by imposing a 24-hour limit on hitting the “Checkout” button after placing items in your cart. There is a good chance that you will feel that you don’t need them after all.

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