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The 4 Hidden Dangers Of Membership Club Shopping

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If you’re feeding an army or just a hungry family, you’ve probably been considering the benefits of membership in a shopping club like Sam’s Club, Costco or BJ’s Wholesale. On the surface, the membership decision seems like a very simple calculus. You take your projected savings from buying in bulk and subtract from that the cost of a yearly membership ($45 for Sam’s Club, $50 for BJ’s, and $55 for Costco). If that works out to be positive number, you should sign up.

This simple math, though, overlooks some of the more serious hidden dangers in signing up for a club membership. The availability of bulk goods can encourage different spending habits that may not be in your financial best interest. Before you sign up, remember these hidden costs.
1.) The extra cost of impulses
One of the most tempting Costco items is a drum-sized container of peanut-butter pretzel bites. In most stores, this might be an impulse item. It would be the kind of snack you’d pick up because you’re a little hungry or because you might have company later in the week. At ordinary snack food quantities, this indulgence will cost you a dollar or so. Because you’re buying in bulk, though, this splurge could easily run you $5. It’s a savings if it’s something you need, but for extra items, it’s just extra cost. Add up those extra costs over a whole shopping trip and ordinary impulse buys could eat a significant part of your grocery bill.
If you’re not used to shopping with a list, the extra costs involved in ordinary impulse spending can add up quickly. More than in other stores, you need to make a list and be a diligent, informed shopper before you set foot in a wholesale store. Do your research, make a plan and stick to it.
2.) The extra cost of cheap goods
Most people wouldn’t buy a big-screen TV on impulse. Something changes in the brain, though, when one appears on an end cap for a bit cheaper than they are at a conventional retailer. After an entire shopping trip of saying no, the willpower gives up and the credit card comes out. Suddenly, there’s a TV in the car.
The wholesale club model is to get people in the door with savings on everyday goods, wear down their resolve with an incredible array of goods, and finally hit them with high-margin goods like clothes or electronics. It works surprisingly well, even on smaller-ticket items like giant candy bars and holiday decorations. It’s a technique psychologists call “confuse and reframe.” It works quite simply.
The confuse part of the operation is the volume and price of goods. Most people have no idea how to adequately value a 20-pound jar of mayonnaise or a pack of 35 frozen steaks. Nor do most people have easy ways to categorize the thousands of products available at these stores. The brain’s natural response to this confusion is to look for shortcuts and the store provides them: price tags offer comparisons to other brands, shops, and products, showing the considerable savings available if the shopper buys now. That’s the reframe part of the operation. Having convinced the shopper that the appropriate frame is amount saved, that becomes the decision-making procedure.
It’s easy to say that those tactics won’t work on you, but studies say differently. These companies have spent lots of money designing a retail experience that gets you to spend big. They wouldn’t keep doing it if it didn’t work.
3.) The cost of missed sales
It can be easy to see an item advertised in one of these stores and assume it’s the best price you will ever find for the item. It’s frustrating, then, to go back the next week and see the product on sale for $25 cheaper. Yet this is very common, particularly with seasonal goods that need to be sold by a certain date.
In many cases, these stores will be happy to honor the sale price and refund the difference — but only if you ask for it. Because all transactions are linked to a membership card, it’s far easier for the store to see that you purchased an item and issue a refund. They’re counting on the bulk effect to create less frequent trips so customers won’t see these new sale prices. Shopping at a conventional retailer means more chances to price-check goods.
4.) The cost of waste
If you’re trying to encourage your family to try new things, you know there are going to be some foods they just don’t like. If you’re shopping at a conventional retailer, you might waste a half-pound of asparagus when it turns out your youngest just can’t stand it. If you tried that same experiment while buying from a wholesale store, though, you might end up throwing out several pounds of fresh produce.
Even when buying tried and tested staples, beware the perishable item. If you’re buying something that can spoil in bulk, you’re taking the risk that you’ll have something to do with it before it goes bad. You can minimize this risk by having a plan in place to deal with the surplus. This plan can be as simple as putting it in the freezer or sharing excess with neighbors, friends, and family members.
You can also focus your stock-up efforts on non-perishable goods. Buying things like medications, spices and paper goods in bulk can let you take advantage of the economy of scale without worrying about spoilage. Many of these goods also offer the deepest discounts.
Wholesale stores offer the chance for incredible value, but they also invite some risk. Whether membership is worth it to you or not depends on the kind of shopper you are. If you’re a diligent planner and a seasoned researcher, you can save a lot on things you need. If you tend to make impulse buys, then let the buyer beware.
SOURCES:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/6-rules-shopping-warehouse-stores-152550021.html

Cash Flow Budgeting: A Fast, Flexible Way To Fix Your Finances

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You’ve heard it from a million places: Budget your money! Make a firm plan and stick with it. It’s the pathway to prosperity!

For many people, though, that advice just doesn’t resonate. They feel constricted by a budget. Keeping cash in separate envelopes makes them feel like they can’t have a life. It takes too much planning and too much rigid denial. They break their budget and sometimes wind up in serious financial trouble.

Other people have an inconsistent cash flow, making creating and keeping a budget difficult. Maybe they’re freelancers who work gig-to-gig. Maybe they’re in commissioned sales. Maybe their hours fluctuate month-to-month. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to make a detailed plan when your bottom line changes every month.

The answer isn’t to give up on budgeting. The collective wisdom, that monitoring your expenses and income streams is the way to stability, still holds true. It might just require a different approach to budgeting: cash flow focus.

Cash flow focus is the strategy used by most businesses. They pay their fixed costs, and whatever is left is used to grow the business. You can manage your finances the same way. Just follow these four steps:

1.) Automate your savings

Even if you disregard everything else in this article, implementing this one tip can be life-changing. Figure out how much of your income you can save, then take that out as soon as you get paid. You can set up monthly transfers from your checkingaccount to your savings account. You can also divide the money between the accounts on a per deposit basis. How you choose to do so is less important than doing so.

Like the saying goes, pay yourself first. This savings provides you the flexibility to cover big expenses or make major purchases on your schedule. It’s the single most important step in any budget, but it’s even more important with cash flow budgeting.

When you automate your savings, you remove the money you saved from consideration. You can’t spend it; you’ve already spent it on savings. The importance of this kind of savings will become more clear once you see this budget in action.

2.) Pay your needs and your priorities

Make a list of your essential expenses each month. Include your rent or house payment, your car loan and your utilities. Also include your student loan payments, your insurance and other necessary expenses. These are your “fixed costs.” They get paid after your savings contributions are made.

Next, make a list of your priorities. Include your charitable contributions, vacation savings and retirement account contributions. These are your “growth expenses.” They get paid after your fixed costs.

If you don’t have enough money to make these bills, you don’t need a better budget. You need to lower those bills or increase your income. No amount of spreadsheet magic will change that bottom line.

It’s helpful to automate savings for these expenses, too. That way, you never get caught short on these bills. Transferring this money to a special savings account can be a helpful way to ensure you don’t spend it.

3.) Spend the leftovers

This message may sound peculiar for personal finance advice. Remember, though, that you’ve already automated your savings. What you’re spending here is the leftovers – the extra that’s left at the end of the month.

Spend this money however you like – don’t worry about putting this much in entertainment and that much in travel. Just keep track of how much you’ve spent so you don’t accidentally overdraft your account.

This approach allows you to go out or indulge in a latte. You don’t have to worry about including it in your budget. Your spending habits might change as the month goes on, just like a business. If you know there’s a big outing before you get paid again, you may want to save some money for that. You don’t need to say that you can’t go because you didn’t budget for it.

4.) Roll over what’s left

If you’ve worked in a big business, you’ve seen departments desperately spending at the end of the fiscal year. Departments buy cases of pens and paper, knowing that they’ll lose whatever they don’t spend. Fortunately, you’re more flexible than a big business. You don’t have to spend it all. If you have money left over at the end of the month, then you have more to spend the next month.

If you have a month with slightly higher expenses, you can cover it from a previous month’s slightly lower expenses. Your spending will change from month to month, as might your income. So long as you keep the former smaller than the latter in the long run, you’ll be fine.

That’s what cash flow budgeting is about: flexibility. You don’t have to write your unbudgeted spending purposes in stone. You don’t have to mess with cash envelopes or other strategies. You can spend when you have money and save for when you don’t.

If you’re thinking about adopting a cash flow budget, Destinations Credit Union can help. A friendly, knowledgeable representative can walk you through the savings tools you need. You can automate your savings, flex your spending, and build toward financial security. Call, click, or stop by today to find out how!

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Three Tricks To Retire Rich

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The difference between working yourself to death and retiring to live a life of comfort is smaller than you think. We like to believe in the simple caricature that rich people retire rich and poor people don’t retire. The truth is, much of the difference between retiring and continuing to go to work every day comes down to a few simple choices. Let’s take a look at three tricks that separate the successful retirees from the workers who are too insecure to retire:

1.) Timing your retirement

Investment professionals like to tell you that successful investment is about time in the market. Timing the market, they insist, is far less important. That’s true for putting money in. The more time you have to take advantage of the power of compound interest, the better off you’ll be.

When it comes time to retire and start making withdrawals, though, timing does matter quite a bit. Consider identical workers who made the same median income. Each saves 10% over their 35-year careers. Yet, they end up more than $200,000 apart in retirement savings.

How? One retired during the height of the Great Recession in 2009. The other waited four more years until 2013 when stocks had rebounded. It’s not just that stock prices rebounded during that time. It also gave the one who worked longer four more years of buying dirt cheap stocks that shot back up in value.

The lesson here is simple: if the market is down, keep working and investing. Wait another few years for things to rebound and reap the rewards. If our early retiree worked four more years, his retirement savings would have doubled. Market prices tend to even out over time, so prices that are low now will return to normal. Waiting until they do can make your retirement much better.

2.) Don’t over commit, especially when things are good

You may already know you should save between 10 percent and 15 percent of your income. Aim to split your savings between conservative and aggressive investment options. However, many people forget one important part of that split: some part of your aggressive investment needs to remain in cash.

As stock prices rise, you need to be leaving yourself more and more cash on hand. This is so you can take advantage of the inevitable retraction that follows these expansions. “Buy-low, sell-high” isn’t a well-kept secret. But it’s still sound advice for retiring with enough money to support a luxurious post-work life.

How much cash should you keep in your aggressive investment portfolio? The frustrating answer is that it depends on a variety of factors. If you’re not heavily involved in your portfolio, you likely don’t need to keep more than 5 percent cash in your account. If you’re an active participant in your retirement investments, keeping a little more cash on hand isn’t a bad idea. This will let you pick up undervalued stocks and reap the profits of your savvy judgment.

3.) Get professional help

Spectrum Group conducted a survey of households with more than $1 million in net worth. They found that only 20 percent of them see themselves as experts on investing. About 40 percent of respondents are adviser-assisted or adviser-dependent investors. That means they consult with a financial expert before making most of their investment decisions. Another 30% are “event-driven.” They get professional help before major life milestones, like retirement or home-buying.

There seems to be one big difference between millionaire investors and less successful ones. The millionaires recognize their weaknesses and find help to compensate. They devote their effort and energy to what they’re good at: their job or small business.

There’s no harm in getting some help for your retirement savings plans. Our knowledgeable representatives are standing by to assist you with opening or funding an IRA, rolling over a 401(k), opening a certificate, or saving money in any one of a dozen other ways. Call, click, or stop by Destinations Credit Union today!

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Fall Into Tax Planning!

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The leaves are changing. The nights are getting longer. There’s a cool breeze blowing and apples are falling off the trees. Everyone knows what that means: it’s tax planning time!


Remember, no one can offer you accurate tax advice without a careful review of your finances. If you have questions about filing your taxes, you should speak to a tax planning professional. For most people, though, a little bit of knowledge is enough to get started paying less to Uncle Sam and keeping more in your retirement fund.

While most people don’t start thinking about their taxes until February or even April, the best time to make changes is this year. If you haven’t thought about your taxes since you paid them in the spring, you’re still in good shape. For most tax matters, changes made by December 31st are assumed to be in effect for the whole year. Let’s look at four areas of tax planning you should aim to tackle as quickly as you can.

1.) Make any necessary changes to your retirement accounts

If there’s anything that is further off than tax planning, it’s retirement planning. Still, one of the most compelling reasons for making contributions to your retirement is preferential tax treatment. For starters, you should be contributing the maximum to either a Roth or a Traditional IRA.

From there, it gets a little trickier. If your income dropped this year, say, because you or your spouse lost your job or had a significant reduction in hours, you might not get much benefit out of the tax deduction that is presented by a Traditional IRA. You can take this opportunity to switch a portion of your Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Essentially, you’re “paying” the tax on a portion of your IRA in a year when it won’t cost you as much, then switching it into a tax-free growth account.

You also need to make sure you’re contributing to your employer’s 401(k) program. Those contributions are also made pre-tax, so you can deduct your portion of the matching funds from your tax burden. If you haven’t been contributing, see if you can make “catch-up” contributions to take advantage of the preferential tax treatment.

Regardless of how you save, you could be rewarded for it. New this year is the Saver’s Tax Credit, which offers a sliding scale of tax breaks based on your income and how much you save. Investing in an approved retirement vehicle like a 401(k) or IRA can let you deduct as much as 40% of your contribution from your tax bill.

2.) Spend your “use-it-or-lose-it” funds

Many employers offer plans like Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). These programs also offer preferential tax treatment, but many of them empty out at year-end whether you’ve used the funds or not. These programs are a great way to save for unplanned medical problems, but if you were lucky enough to avoid those costs, you’ll need to spend that money before it goes away.

There are a few common tricks you can use to spend the money without wasting it. Obviously, if you’ve been putting off a minor medical procedure (a mole removal, an eye exam, new contacts) that’s the easiest place to spend. Otherwise, you may need to get creative. A few staple goods are FSA eligible. Over-the-counter painkillers, first aid kits and supplies, and some disaster preparedness supplies are generally eligible for reimbursement. Consider getting first aid kits as Christmas gifts for young children or donating them to community programs.

3.) Plan your charitable contributions

If you’re going to donate to a charity, you can give in a way that maximizes your tax benefit. One of the easiest ways to do that is to give stock. Not-for-profit organizations don’t have to pay the capital gains tax, so they can sell it for the full amount. This means you get to take credit for the full value of the gift. This is also true if you plan to give real property (houses, buildings, land, etc.) or use another complex giving strategy to maximize the value of your contribution.

However you give, make sure you keep detailed records about your gifts. You want both a receipt from the organization and another form of proof, like a copy of a check or a bank record. Not-for-profit organizations are almost always overworked and understaffed, so counting on their bookkeeping can sometimes be an exercise in frustration. Keep your own records just to be sure.

4.) Investigate early tuition payment

You or your child may have a big tuition bill coming due in a few months. If you wait to pay that until February or March when it comes due, you may miss out on a chance to cash in on the American Opportunity credit. The plan replaces the Hope credit and allows for a $2,500 deduction and as much as a $1,000 credit for eligible expenses for four years of undergraduate study.

If you are a student filing for the first time and don’t have much of an income, paying your Spring tuition now could result in a $1,000 check right around the time spring break rolls around. Because the American Opportunity credit is a highly-charged political issue, it’s entirely possible it will be repealed next year, so you may miss out on the possibility to claim it if you wait.
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If you’re thinking about your tax future and need help, Destinations Credit Union is right beside you. Our team of dedicated representatives is standing by to help you start saving for retirement or saving money for education.  Call or stop by Destinations Credit Union today!
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Card Security Breaches: Why They Occur And Who’s To Blame

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It seems like there’s another financial disaster at every turn lately. Target’s card databases get hacked. Heartbleed puts your passwords at risk. Home Depot’s credit card numbers are compromised. JP Morgan Chase’s credit information is breached. Shellshock threatens the integrity of the Internet. It’s enough to make you long for the days of the corner store keeping credit on a sheet of graph paper.


To better understand how these things happen, let’s first take a look at the steps involved in a financial transaction. Then, we’ll see where vulnerabilities exist. Finally, we’ll check out a few strategies you can use to keep yourself safe.

When you swipe your debit or credit card at a terminal, the only thing you see is an approval screen. Behind the scenes, the process from the moment you swipe a card to leaving the store with your purchases is complicated. And you want it to be that way. A less complicated process would remove many layers of security.

First, there’s an “authentication” process. The point-of-sale terminal in which you swipe your card reads the card’s information from the magnetic strip, encrypts it, and sends it to a payment processing center. This facility streamlines the data into a format your issuing company can understand and sends it along. Your card network company – Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc. – validates the legitimacy of the information. You may be prompted for some information, most commonly your billing ZIP code. This is done to help authenticate the card.

Second, there’s the reconciliation process. This is usually done at the end of the day for most retailers. The retailer sends all the day’s receipts to a payment processor, which then sends them to the issuing institution – the credit union, bank, or credit card company. That institution debits its member or customer accounts for the amount of the transaction, then sends that money to the payment processor, which sends it to the retailer.

This is an explanation of how things work in a very simplified example, but it gives you an idea of the complexity that’s involved in the process of paying with a card. While it’s a lot of steps, it’s the best system that the brightest minds in the financial industry could develop. Unfortunately, each step also introduces a layer of vulnerability.

The encryption protocol for card authentication can be busted (that was, in part, what Heartbleed was about). The retailer’s receipt records they use for reconciliation can be hacked (like what happened to Target and Home Depot). The bank can have their register of accounts hacked (like JP Morgan did). So many layers of complexity create more possibilities for hackers to compromise sensitive information.

You might notice that there’s only one step in the process that involves Destinations Credit Union or its computer systems. That comes at the very end of the process, when customer records are debited for purchases. In the latter example, the only victim of that theft was a big Wall Street bank. In such cases, the kind of hacking hardware and know-how that is required to orchestrate such an attack are expensive. Because credit unions are smaller and less centralized, they’re much less likely to be targeted by this kind of attack.

That’s not to say Destinations Credit Union doesn’t take cybersecurity seriously. We keep up-to-date with the latest in computer hardware and software to make sure our members are secure against illegal access. We also have to adapt to a world where everyone else doesn’t follow those same values. That means we have to adjust our security protocols to cover for the failings of other parts of that big, messy system.

We’re all in this together. The convenience of the modern economy makes things better for everybody. If you go on vacation, you don’t have to fuss with traveler’s checks or currency exchange troubles. You can take your debit card or credit card and spend just the same. Electronic record keeping helps financial institutions keep costs down and we all benefit from a growing economy. If we want to keep getting these benefits, we all need to put the work in to make sure our networks are secure. Here are five small tips to make your little corner of the Internet more secure.                                                 
  1. Install updates for your computer, tablet, and mobile phone regularly.
  2. Don’t open suspicious e-mails or questionable links.
  3. Don’t install software you don’t recognize.
  4. Monitor your financial statements closely to check for unauthorized activities.
  5. Get an anti-virus program and run it regularly.                      
            If you follow these five steps, you can help make the Internet a safer place for people to share things they love and buy things they need. You can help make sure the big system of merchants, processors, and institutions keeps chugging along while providing benefits to everyone.

7 Ways To Save Without Suffering

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We all know we should save more money than we do. Whether we need to pay down debt, build an emergency fund or save for retirement, we need to cut spending and increase our savings. It’s the only way to build financial security.

Yet before considering what to cut back on, try these handy tips to save money without noticing the difference.
1.) Stop subscription music.

If you pay for a subscription Internet radio service like Pandora or Spotify, you’re probably overpaying for music. The same is true if you’re paying on a per-song basis through a service like iTunes. Consider, instead, buying CDs. You can find Imagine Dragons 2012 project Night Vision for under $5 on Amazon, or the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack for less than $8. Streaming music services have cut the bottom out of the physical media market, and you can pick up the savings. Just copy the songs to your computer and transfer them to your mp3 player, and you can jam out for less.
           
2.) Cut back on cable

Take an honest look at how many movies you watch in a month. If you’re paying $15 a month for HBO or a similar fee for another premium channel package, you’re paying for a lot of content you probably never watch, and the overall selection is limited. For half the price of HBO, you can subscribe to Netflix or another streaming service and get a lot more viewing options. You could even go with Amazon Prime and get free two-day shipping on all your purchases while getting access to a fairly hefty video library.
           
3.) Time your vacations to travel for less

Summer tends to be the most popular travel time for tourist-happy destinations like Miami and New Orleans. If you’re planning a trip to one of these stops, traveling between February and April can save you money on your hotel reservation. Hotwire, the hotel booking site, sees an average decline of 30% at tourist locations during the off-season.
           
4.) Swap to an off-brand cell provider

You can cut down your cellphone bill considerably by switching away from a big-name carrier. If you’re on Sprint, AT&T or Verizon, you can save a considerable chunk by switching to a brand like Cricket, FreedomPop or Straight Talk. These carriers buy time in bulk from the major companies and resell it at a discount. They don’t subsidize phones or maintain well-staffed stores, so their costs are lower. You can get unlimited talk and text for one line for less than $15, and data, if you need it, for less than $20 for a 2 GB per month plan. These services don’t always travel particularly well, so if you need your phone while far from home, they may not be right for you. Still, at that price, it can be hard to say no to savings on a phone bill.
           
5.) Start reading paper books

Just like the streaming service has cut the core out of the price for physical media, the popularity of e-readers has done the same thing to the dead tree pulp market. This is particularly true in used books, where time-tested classic paperbacks can be had for as little as a penny. More current and popular titles, like John Green’s The Fault in our Stars, can be had on eBay for under $5, compared to the $10 for an ebook. Cheaper still, head over to your local library to get your fill of new releases, old classics and great books you’ve never heard of.
           
6) Check out Amazon Subscribe and Save

For commonly used goods, like tea and coffee, Amazon’s Subscribe and Save function can cut back on the time and money you spend shopping. If you go through a 72-count box of K-Cups every month, you can save $2 per month off your coffee bill by scheduling automatic deliveries of your java through Amazon. A dedicated tea drinker can save $1 per month on a 160-count box of Yorkshire Gold. With free shipping for orders over $35 (or if you have Amazon Prime, as mentioned above) and automatic ordering, this system can be your set it and forget it path to savings.
           
7.) Get rebate shopping!

For costs you can’t avoid, like groceries, it’s best to avoid as much pain as you can. That’s where online rebate apps come into play. Newly released iBotta, available for iOS and Android devices, offers a list of participating retailers and a list of rebates, usually between $.25 and $1.00. One of the most popular is a $.25 rebate on a gallon of milk – something you’ll likely buy anyway. After you finish shopping, you take a picture of your receipt with a smartphone or tablet and upload it to iBotta. They confirm your purchase and credit your rebates, along with bonuses for regular redemption, referring friends, and completing other challenges. iBotta can be an easy way to knock $5-10 off your grocery bill.
Bonus Tip:  Sign up for a Kasasa Rewards Checking with Destinations Credit Union and get paid to have your checking account…every extra dollar helps.  You can even open a Kasasa Saver Account and have your rewards automatically swept into your savings each month!
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Social Security Calculators: Planning Retirement to Win

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Effective retirement planning is a simple equation. You have to make sure your passive sources of income meet or exceed your monthly expenses. For most of your income, like your retirement accounts, certificates and investments, that income is easy to calculate. You know the rate of return and you know the amount you have saved.

One potential source of retirement income that’s a lot harder to predict, though, is Social Security. While it shouldn’t be your only source of retirement income, Social Security benefits can provide an added layer of comfort to your retirement. Planning around them, though, requires knowing the amount of your benefit.

That can be a tricky process. The complex web of contributions and regulations can make figuring out your monthly benefit a nightmare. You may need something stronger than a COLA once you’re done working your way through the nightmare of acronyms and bureaucratic doublespeak that make up Social Security laws.

Fortunately, this part of your retirement planning just got a lot easier. A new wave of apps called Social Security benefit calculators can simplify the process dramatically. They couldn’t be much easier to use.

Just input your yearly income, your age, and the date of your retirement. The program takes that information and generates a monthly benefit for you. Some of these programs even include an inflation adjustment tool to let you see how your benefit may change in response to changing economic conditions.

Basic calculators, like those available from the Social Security Administration, will do that and nothing more. These more advanced utilities will let you adjust the information you get based upon a variety of factors. This helps you to visualize the kind of portfolio performance you’d need to supplement your Social Security income.

More than figuring out how much your benefit will be, though, these utilities let you fiddle with numbers to see how to best optimize your Social Security benefit. By changing your retirement date, modifying your income and/or shuffling other variables around, you can see how your retirement income will change in response to your decisions. These adjustments can help you make an informed decision about how and when to retire.

More to the point, these tools will help you make the difficult decision about when to claim Social Security. The monthly benefit you and your spouse will receive increases every year between the time you turn 62 and the time you turn 70. The caveat to this increase is that you’ll likely have less time to spend it. Balancing these demands can be made easier with a calculator tool.

But keep in mind, there are more than a few hazards to making firm plans using one of these utilities. Even the best Social Security benefit calculator can’t predict the future. Social Security regulations are a hot-button political issue. Things like cost of living and inflation adjustments can change in response to political as well as economic circumstances. If these regulations change, so will your benefit.

Social Security itself is always in jeopardy, too. It’s the single largest expenditure in the federal budget and it comes under fire every year. If you build your retirement around Social Security income, you might be in trouble as government budgets get tighter.

Also, remember that these tools are for informational purposes only. You shouldn’t interpret these results as a guarantee of benefit. Many personal circumstances are considered when figuring your benefit and no calculator can capture them all. Treat this information as a useful planning guideline, but not as a contract.

The most basic planning tool is offered by the Social Security Administration. It’s regularly updated and provides the most direct pipeline to the byzantine network of regulations that govern Social Security. While it doesn’t allow you to customize your results much, it’s a good introduction to planning.

Probably the best tool of the bunch is SSAnalyze! SSAnalyze offers the greatest range of flexibility in input options. It allows you to set a range of life expectancies, adjust for changes in income (if your spouse was to retire early or you were to go part time), and account for a large number of household arrangements (domestic partnerships, blended families, and so on). SSAnalyze! has a little bit of a learning curve, and anticipating the results can be daunting, but the flexibility of this powerful tool makes it a great resource for retirement planning.

No matter the result you get from your experience with a Social Security calculator, it’s only one part of the retirement planning package. You need to take this information and add it to the list of things you know about your retirement options and plans. If you want personalized financial advice that uses that information to get you on the path to your truly golden years, speak with a representative from your credit union today. The trained financial service experts there can set you up with a range of savings and investment instruments that will let you enjoy the retirement lifestyle of your dreams. Call or stop by Destinations Credit Union today, and get on the path to your financial future.

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Still Not Saving? You’re Not Alone!

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We like to think of ourselves as learning animals. We take our lived experiences, extract valuable lessons from them, and use that information to improve our daily lives. This is how we get better at doing things over time.

However, a recent survey from Bankrate.com shows that we haven’t yet learned the lessons of the Great Recession. While Americans paid down their debt in the months since the recovery, a shocking 26% of Americans still report having no emergency fund. Another 24% have less than three months living expenses saved. Only 23% of survey respondents have the recommended 6 months living expenses saved.

It’s not for lack of caring. The same survey reveals that 60% of Americans don’t feel comfortable with their current savings position. We all know we need to save more, but we still don’t actually do it. Why is that?

Many experts say the problem is there’s just not enough money left at the end of the month for savings. This is true no matter how much you make; fewer than half of people with incomes more than $75,000 have that 6-month cushion. Rebecca Kennedy, the founder of Kennedy Financial Planning in Denver, says that after utilities, rent, and other expenses, there’s no money left over for savings.

Not having an emergency fund is like walking a tightrope without a net. No one likes to think about it, but what you would do tomorrow if you lost your job, wrecked your car, or had to miss work due to illness? In 2008, the answer provided by many would have involved tapping into a home equity line of credit. But, when house prices began falling and interest rates rose, these people had to rely on expensive debt to finance their lifestyles. That forced them to postpone retirement, miss vacations, or compromise on educational plans for their children.

You can avoid this problem. It may seem impossible to create an emergency fund, but there are always ways to squeeze a few extra dollars out of each month. Consider these seven ideas:

1.) Start small. If you save $5 a week for four years, you’ve got an emergency fund of just over $1,000. That’s a great start to a rainy day fund, and you can do it by giving up one vending machine soda a day. Many people stash every $5 bill they get in a coffee can or store all their loose change. You might also consider a 52-week plan where you save $1 the first week, $2 second, and so on. These incremental steps can make a big difference in the long term – at the end of a year, you’ll have saved almost $1,400.

2.) Take on a second job. It’s never fun to leave one job and head to another. Remember, though, that you’ll have to work fewer hours to build a savings than you would have to work to pay down debt. Don’t limit your search to part-time jobs. Consider freelancing, taking surveys, babysitting, or selling tupperware. You don’t need to finance another lifestyle. You just need to make enough to start a savings fund.

3.) Pay yourself first. Think about your savings as another bill. This mode of thinking prevents you from treating the money as discretionary and frittering it away on impulse buys and luxuries. Make your savings as important as your house note, car payment, and utility bills.

4.) Automate it. Consider setting up a Club Account or a savings account with direct deposit. This step ensures you’ll remember to take the savings out of your budget each month. You’ll also be earning a little bit of interest on your savings to help you on your way. These savings products have the flexibility to allow for immediate withdrawals if you need it, but are limited by law in how many withdrawals they allow. This means your money is there when you need it, but far enough away that you won’t be tempted to spend it.  With one of Destinations “Kasasa” rewards checking accounts, your rewards can automatically be swept into a high-yield savings account.

5.) Put luxury in the back seat. Whether it’s a fancy coffee drink, a pack of cigarettes, a fast food meal, or the latest cell phone, things we don’t need will consume much of our income. You don’t need to give up your vices all together. In fact, financial expert Candice Elliot compares these choices to dieting. Repeated denials can drain our will-power, leading us to snap back harder. The answer may be to cut back on our consumption instead. Go without your Starbucks on Friday or wait 6 months for the price to drop on a gadget. Put the difference into your savings account.

6.) Look at recurring expenses. If you’re honestly spending everything you get on your monthly bills, it may be time to look at them. Consider cutting your TV services or switching to a pre-paid cell phone plan. Simply giving up a premium movie channel for a year could save you as much as $240. Now that Game of Thrones is over for the season, do you even need it? These don’t have to be long-term choices. Your goal should be to make temporary sacrifices to ensure yourself against future loss.

7) Don’t spend it. Your emergency fund should only be used for actual emergencies. Ask three questions before you take even a dollar out of your emergency fund. Is the thing I’m paying for absolutely necessary? Is there nothing I can cut back on this month to pay for it? Do I have to pay for it right now? Unless the answer to all of these questions is yes, leave the money where it is.

SOURCES:

http://www.wtop.com/675/3649150/Americans-arent-saving-enough-money

Early Retirement Costs You Might Have Missed and How to Save for Them

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Retiring early is the dream. You get to spend more time with your family and enjoy your hobbies while you’re healthy enough to do so. You can say goodbye to the workaday world and begin your permanent vacation. 

Maybe it’s less of a dream and more of a necessity. Maybe health problems like chronic pain or arthritis, are forcing you to consider giving up your career before age 65. Perhaps your children need you to help with caring for your grandchildren. 

Whatever your reason for retiring early, a new study released on 6/12/14 by Fidelity Investments warns it will cost you in ways you might not expect. According to the study, early retirees can expect to pay an extra $17,000 per year in medical expenses. The reason? Medicare coverage gaps. You give up your employer-provided health insurance when you retire, and Medicare doesn’t kick in until age 65. This means you’re on your own at a time when your health care costs are near their peak. 

Insurance companies charge older policyholders higher premiums, which means a they’ll claim a bigger chunk of your retirement money. As a savvy credit union member, you know the advantages of planning ahead for your golden years. Let’s look at a few ways you can avoid sticker shock at your retirement party: 

  1. Short-term insurance One popular option is to look for an emergency-only or high-deductible insurance plan (HDHP). These plans feature inexpensive monthly premiums, but offer little in the way of coverage. These budget-friendly insurance options are great if private health insurance is too expensive. You can expect to pay for a variety of costs out-of-pocket. Routine, preventative, and non-emergency medical procedures will be your responsibility. A regular checkup will cost at least $75 and the costs can escalate if your doctor orders tests or other procedures. You may also pay full price for prescription drugs. This option is best if you’re retiring just before age 65. You can afford a few months of risk before Medicare coverage starts. However, you’ll still want another savings option to help with massive medical bills. 
  2. Open a savings certificate for major medical expenses You likely use savings certificates (similar to CDs at a bank) to keep an emergency fund on hand. These savings instruments are ideal for building up money in case of a rainy day. You may want to create one specifically for your health care costs. You’ll want to keep this money separate since you’ll have different needs for it. A sudden, unexpected medical bill is different than needing a new car. You’ll likely have a little more time to pay your medical bill. Many hospitals are willing to work around your financial situation. A 6- or 12-month certificate provides the perfect combination of accessibility and growth. Once you turn 65, you can add your remaining funds to your other retirement savings or even use it to finance a vacation! 
  3. Open (and use) a Health Savings Account A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a special tax-advantaged account for your savings that allows you to defer taxation on the money. The idea is that the money you spend on health care costs shouldn’t be taxed. So, you can save money to pay premiums, deductibles, and other healthcare-related expenses. These accounts have been growing in popularity this year. If your family insurance plan has a deductible of $2,500 or more, you can open an HSA. You can contribute up to $6,450 to your HSA per year, tax-free. Many employers also provide matching contributions to HSAs as part of their benefits package. While withdrawals from your HSA are allowed only for medical expenses, this rule is waived for people 65 or older. While non-medical withdrawals are taxed, the money still grows tax-free. Many financial planners are advocating the use of HSAs as a kind of “shadow IRA.” With them, you reduce your current tax burden while saving for retirement. 


Planning for your future health care costs can be scary, but it’ll be much scarier to go into retirement unprepared. Sit down with a representative from your credit union today to discuss how you can save for your health care in retirement. You’ll thank yourself later. 

SOURCES: 
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf http://online.wsj.com/articles/health-savings-accounts-can-double-as-shadow-iras-1401481345
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fidelity-analysis-reveals-extra-health-care-costs-in-retirement-for-couples-retiring-before-age-65-savings-for-those-who-delay-2014-06-12 
http://www.sentinelsource.com/business/financial_news/hidden-cost-of-early-retirement-medical-bills/article_791fce9c-584c-5245-84c2-0c7746b7523e.html

Fireworks and Finance

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As we get ready to celebrate our Independence Day here in the United States, I got to thinking about how fireworks can be both celebratory and explosive.  You must learn how to handle these explosives and take great care in order to avoid personal harm. 

Our finances too can be something to celebrate when we learn how to handle them and are careful to protect ourselves.  If you don’t really understand personal finance, you should take the time to educate yourself.  Look for people you trust and who manage their money well.  Ask for their advice.  Go online to personal finance sites and blogs to learn more – Destinations Credit Union has great resources on our website including “On Your Way” (geared toward young adults), as well as this Blog.  We also have some great tools, such as Money Desktop, to help you manage your money better.

You must protect your credit rating in order to make life easier (and cheaper) in the long run.  The better your credit rating, the better your interest rates on loans.  If you destroy your credit by borrowing too much and not paying on time, you may eventually not be able to borrow at all, or be forced to borrow at exorbitant rates from payday lenders.  That can cause your whole financial picture to blow up.  We all need credit from time to time – to buy a car or a home in particular.

If you find you’ve already blown up financially, Destinations provides free unlimited financial counseling through a partnership with Accel Financial Counseling.

Care for your financial well-being as you would for your family or your health.  You’ll find you’ll be celebrating your own Independence Day – financial independence and a more comfortable future!

Carol Szaroleta
Destinations Credit Union