Category: Be Prepared Financially

  • How to Make Retirement Savings Last

    How to make your retirement savings last About half of Americans have some sort of retirement account, according to the Federal Reserve Bank’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, and the median value of that 401(k) or individual retirement account runs around $65,000. The average American, who retires around the age of 63 or 64 and […]

  • How to Prioritize Your Bills During Challenging Times

    How to prioritize bills when you can’t pay them all If you’re scrambling to pay your bills each month, you’re not alone, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning how to best prioritize your bills during these times, can help alleviate some of those stresses. According to one report released in September, 46% of Americans were […]

  • Reassessing Your Budget Pie Chart

    As a financial literacy educator, I believe I must give all of the class attendees as many tools as I can that will help them. Among the first tools, they need to become financially successful is a budget. I know, I know, you are groaning at that word “budget” but I ask you to hang […]

  • 6 Easy New Year’s Financial Resolutions

    Last year was, well, rough with a pandemic, job losses, civil unrest and more. It’s no surprise that as we moved into 2021, nearly 40% of Americans expected they’d be in “survival mode” by 2021, according to the Fidelity Investments’ 2021 New Year Financial Resolutions Study. More than two-thirds of Americans faced financial setbacks in […]

  • Readjusting Financial Goals During Covid-19

    Here are some words and phrases being used frequently these days: “new normal”, “unprecedented” “like we’ve never seen before”, “in these uncertain times” and “uncharted territory”. None of us has ever lived through a global pandemic but we are learning how to adjust and shift with the times, but are we including our financial goals? […]

  • Money Memes and Lottery Woes

    Money memes were around before the pandemic but it seems that now they’re hitting a little close to home and sometimes they strike my nerves with a sharpened accuracy. You might chuckle if you’re not in financial distress…or flat broke.  My husband and I are careful budgeters and are being fastidious about watching our income […]

  • Disaster Preparedness and Your Finances

    September is National Preparedness Month, intended to promote family and community disaster preparedness planning. As summer winds down, we know to expect; wildfires in California; tornados and derechos in the Midwest; hurricanes on the Southern and Eastern shorelines. The news programs show survivors of these terrible events and our hearts break but we don’t think […]

  • Should I Consider Early Retirement?

    The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting some Americans to opt in to early retirement. An April 2020 report from the National Bureau of Economic Research that analyzed a survey of U.S. households found a “large increase” in the number of those who claimed to be retired — from 53% to 60% of people who were not […]

  • How Does Your Body React to Financial Danger?

    We are fully integrated, multi-dimensional beings and everything related to us, affects us.  It’s virtually impossible to separate our thoughts and actions from our bodies. If you lay down to sleep, your whole body follows; your ears and feet don’t rest while your knees and elbows stay up. When you eat, it’s not just your […]

  • Creating an Emergency Budget

    For millions of Americans, the financial impact of COVID-19 is just starting to be felt. Reduced work hours, temporary layoffs and other hardships have caused significant financial stress for people in every state. What can a family do if they are facing a financial crisis do to stay afloat? Managing a financial setback requires a […]