resolutions

Fitness For Your Body And Wallet: Shedding Pounds Without A Gym Membership

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New Year’s resolutions can be fantastic motivating tools, and many of us use that motivation to improve our health. Thirty-seven percent of Americans resolved to lose weight, while another 32% resolved to stay fit and healthy in the New Year. No one knows that better than the weight loss industry, which ramps up its marketing this time of year. You’ve no doubt seen offers for free months and other discounts at local and national gym chains. 

What these advertisements leave out is that gym memberships are still very expensive. Nationally, gym memberships average $58 per month. That’s bad enough before you start adding in contract initiation fees and other upfront charges. If you want to get fit, but don’t want to pay those exorbitant fees, there are a few strategies you can try. Give these budget- and body- friendly ideas a chance. It might help you along the path toward a happier, healthier 2017! 

1.) Diet

Honestly, it doesn’t matter how much you work out if you’re not eating well. You won’t lose weight. You’ll still also suffer the side effects of a poor diet, like low energy and high blood pressure. Trying to get healthy with just exercise is like trying to fix a heater by changing the thermostat. 

According to nutritionist Shawn Talbott, weight loss is 75% diet and 25% exercise. The biggest factor in losing weight is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is how much energy your body burns throughout the day. This is usually in the vicinity of 2,000 calories. Running a mile burns about 100 calories, or 5% of your BMR. Worse yet, exercise can have a paradoxical effect with a bad diet. After a vigorous workout, you’re more likely to snack. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’ve “earned” an indulgent reward after a run or bike ride. You can easily wipe out all the good you’ve done with a bowl of ice cream.
Use a calorie tracking app like Myfitnesspal to get a sense of where your calories are going now. You might be surprised at how much you can save with a few easy cuts! Diets don’t have to be extreme or restrictive to result in real, lasting changes to your body.

2.) Body weight exercise

One of the biggest reasons people give for joining a gym is access to strength training equipment. It’s true that cardio alone won’t help as much as strength training. It’s not true, though, that you need expensive machines for it!

Three simple exercises can help tone trouble spots and reshape your body. Planks work your core, arms and shoulders. Squats work your glutes and legs. Toe raises work your calves. You can find tutorials for these and countless variations online. The challenge is to pick a routine and stick with it.

Another direction for body weight exercise is yoga. You can find tutorials online for strength-building yoga you can do in your home at your own pace. This can be a lot less intimidating than a class because no one can see if you mess up. Lots of yoga poses work on muscle building and flexibility. These can help tone and shape your body, ensuring your weight loss focuses on fat, not muscle.

3.) Make your own groups

One appeal of a gym membership is the camaraderie formed by group exercise classes. The scheduling of a class forces accountability, and working together can make the exercise seem less taxing. You can get these benefits outside the gym as well!

If you have several friends also interested in fitness, start building fitness activities, like hiking, bike riding or running, into your regular social time. Instead of going out for coffee, go for a run together!

If you’re on your own, you can still find others who share your fitness goals. Use sites like Meetup to look for exercise groups that work at your skill level. If you’re completely new, now’s a great time, as there will be plenty of other people also starting a new fitness journey. If you’re looking to take your fitness to the next level, challenge yourself by joining an advanced running or biking group. You can get fit and make new friends at the same time, without spending a big chunk of change on a gym membership.

Your Turn: How are you going to meet your fitness goals in 2017? Share your best tips on how to beat the gym and get fit!

SOURCES:
https://breakingmuscle.com/learn/3-ways-to-build-lean-muscle-with-bodyweight-exercise
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/30/exercise-vs-diet-for-weight-loss_n_5207271.html
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/2015s-top-new-years-resolution-fitness.html

7 New Year’s Resolutions For A Richer 2017

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The New Year is a great time of renewal. That makes it a good time to make bold, decisive changes in your life. Leave behind the baggage that was 2016 and start fresh with a blank slate in 2017. If you’re looking for some resolutions to improve your personal finances, we’re pleased to offer seven ways to make 2017 the year of the dollar!

1.) Track your spending

If you’re looking to take your first steps toward financial literacy, figuring out where your money goes should be at the top of your list. If you don’t know where your money goes, it’s going to be tough to follow through with any other money plans. You may have a general sense of how much you spend, but after a month where you’ve recorded every dollar, you’ll have a much better picture. Using apps like Mint or Personal Capital can automate the process. You might even find that keeping track of what you do with your money encourages you to spend a little more judiciously.

2.) Make a budget

About 70% of Americans live financially spontaneous lives. They don’t make a plan for spending or saving. When asked why they chose not to do so, the most common response was that the family spent all the money anyway. This is a circular problem. If you don’t have a budget that includes setting aside money for long-term expenses and savings, you’ll end up spending all your money on unplanned things and events. The best way to stop the cycle is to sit down and make a budget that modifies your spending to be more in line with your priorities.

3.) Get out of debt

Easier said than done, right? However, there’s no bigger stumbling block to financial security and wealth building than debt. It’s hard to save for long-term goals when so much of your monthly income gets eaten up by interest and fees. There are a variety of methods you can use to help accelerate your payoffs. For instance, you can add an extra $50 or $100 to your credit card payments. Or, you can focus all your payment resources on the highest interest debt until it’s paid off and then move it all to the next highest for snowballing your way to freedom from debt.

4.) Start an emergency fund

The best way to avoid going into debt is to have some money on hand to handle the occasional, yet inevitable, emergency. Most Americans, though, can’t come up with $500 in such instances. Set a specific goal, like adding $10 per month to a savings account. At the end of the year, you’ll have more than $100 available in case something goes wrong.

5.) Start a retirement account

You can’t save for what you don’t think about. When retirement is years or decades away, it’s difficult to incorporate thinking about it into your daily routine. If you have a retirement account open, you’ll get monthly statements, which serve as reminders. The challenge, though, is taking that first step. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. While there are important differences between Roth and Traditional accounts, either one is better than no retirement savings at all. If your job offers a 401(k) matching program, sign up to get at least the full matching funds amount – it’s free money. Do a little bit of research, then open the account that seems like the best idea.

6.) Automate your savings

Saving money takes willpower. Because it’s hard to practice self-denial on a constant basis, that extra $5 you’ve earmarked for savings can very easily turn into a mid-morning coffee. Fighting that impulse is a constant struggle. That’s why it’s easiest to avoid the decision altogether. Change your direct deposit to put some of your paycheck directly into a savings account, where you won’t even think of spending it impulsively.

7.) Get educated

Knowledge is power, and that’s especially true in the world of personal finance. What you know about your money goes a long way toward determining how much of it you get to keep. There’s a lot to learn, but you’ve got a wealth of information at your fingertips. Resolve to read one personal finance article a week (subscribing to this Blog can be a great start). Not only will this give you good ideas for improving your personal financial situation; you’ll also spend more time thinking about your money. That will lead to positive results down the line!

Happy New Year from all of us at Destinations Credit Union. We hope you have a safe, happy, and prosperous 2017!

Your Turn: What resolutions are you making this year? Will 2017 be the year you join a book club, quit smoking or spend more time with your family? Let us know in the comments!.

SOURCES:
https://wallethub.com/blog/financial-new-years-resolutions/9202/
http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/money/13-financial-new-years-resolutions-you-should-make
http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/personalfinance/savingspending/budgeting/newYearsRes.php
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/16/so-what-percentage-of-americans-actually-keep-a-budget-gallup-results-may-surprise-you/


New Year’s Resolutions

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By the end of January, many of us will have forgotten all about our New Year’s resolutions. It can be difficult to change our lives, even when it’s for the better. Knowing this, we want you to know that, in your financial life, there are changes you can make today that will last the entire year. Here are three resolutions you can set today and some follow-up goals for the rest of the year. 

Today:  Save money automatically.  If you want to improve your net worth, build financial security or make a big purchase at this time next year, the easiest way to do so is simply to automate your savings. You can set up an automatic transfer to savings so you won’t be tempted to spend it. With many of our savings products, you can even access the money if an emergency arises. 

Later:  Set up an emergency fund.  How much do you have set aside for a rainy day or to cover the unexpected?  If an emergency came up, would you have to sell investments, cash in your retirement or borrow from family?  Make this the year for setting up your emergency fund.  You’ll eventually want to have at least six months of income put aside where you can get to it. for now, start with $1,000, a month’s income, or whatever feels realistic.  It might be difficult to get in the habit of saving money, but this is the resolution you’ll be really happy you kept if something unexpected happens. 

Today:  Pay down your debt.  If you’re struggling with debt, there are three basic solutions for paying it down, getting your payments under control and getting ahead of debt.  You can make more frequent payments, pay more each month or lower your interest rates. 

Paying more frequently makes sense if you get paid every two weeks: You might already know about the advantage of bi-weekly payments, which let you make the equivalent of an extra monthly payment every year.  If you’re already doing that or you don’t get paid on a weekly schedule, you can also increase the amount you pay every month. Even an extra $25 per month is $300 per year, and you can set up those payments automatically. Make sure you increase your payments the most on the bills with the highest interest rates first, even if they don’t have the largest balances. 

Finally, you can get ahead of your debt by lowering your interest rates. You can call the creditors who are charging you the highest interest rates and pay the bill, transfer the balanceto a credit card or loan with a lower interest rate, or see if they’ll offer you a lower rate due to improved credit. One way to make this work is to arrange a home equity loan at a lower fixed rate, then move your balances with the highest interest rates to the loan. 

Later:  Get control of your spending. It’s time to make a budget and stick to it. Build rewards into the budget so you’ll actually be happy to follow it. Take a look at what you use your credit cards to buy, then budget at least some money for those items or activities. You’ll never keep a resolution like “stop eating out,” but you have a good chance of keeping a resolution like “don’t go over the eating out budget.” This also gives you 12 chances to succeed: Every month you can do better than the month before. 

Today:  Make a drawer.  Many of us who have had the misfortune to act as the executor on a loved one’s estate have had the terrible task of finding all the savings, debts, insurance policies and other financial parts of their lives.  Don’t do this to whomever is taking over your life. Empty a drawer in your kitchen or study and put as many relevant documents in it as you can find.  Make a list of everything in the drawer and everything that’s missing. Put a copy in the drawer and another with your will so it’s as easy as possible for the grieving individual in charge. As with any sensitive, personal data, keep this information in a safe place that only you and the likely executor(s) of your estate will have knowledge. 

Later:  Fill the drawer. What’s missing from the drawer? Do you have a will? How much life insurance do you have?  Do you have enough savings to take care of your children? What about a plan for how they will receive that money? 
Talk to a financial planner and insurance specialist to make sure you’re set. With any luck, 2016 won’t be the year you need it, but if it is, it’ll be better for everyone involved if there’s a plan.
And that’s it … three things to do today and three projects to complete during the year.  None of them are out of reach, so you’re setting yourself up for success by making resolutions you can keep.