One in six U.S. students failed to reach the baseline level of proficiency in financial literacy, and overall, American students fall in the middle of the pack globally, performing on average just behind Latvia and just ahead of Russia. In 2016 survey, Connecticut ranks near the bottom for financial literacy in the U.S. with the state continues to receive an “F” from the Center for Financial Literacy. Republican state Sen. L. Scott Frantz said, “you have generations of kids graduating without a clue about managing their personal finances. It doesn’t have to be anything more sophisticated than how to balance a checkbook, understanding a credit card and interest rates, being aware of the marketing tactics that credit card institutions use. It’s an area that we need to improve upon significantly going forward.”
5 Quick Ways to Save Money on Groceries
Food is the core expense for every family and it is also one of the biggest expenses to optimize for way to cut cost. You can go to the realistic coupon guide for everyday people to save money that don’t require a lot of work. The goal of this guide is to show how technology has made using coupons an effortless part of your shopping routine. With a clear and simple breakdown of where to find coupons and how to use them along with an updated list of ten of the best and easiest-to-use apps, this resource can help anyone incorporate couponing into their life.
In addition, there are some other quick way to cut on food expenses. Personal finance blogger Erika Torres offers 5 tricks to save money on groceries:
- Shop the weekly sales
- Create the meal plan
- Stick to a list
- Eat leftovers
- Have no-meat meals
2016’s Best and Worst Cities at Money Management
With only two in five adults saying they maintain a budget and keep close track of their spending and nearly one in four confessing to not paying their bills on time, the personal finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst Cities at Money Management. In order to identify where Americans are best at handling their personal finances, WalletHub’s analysts compared 2,570 cities based on eight key metrics. Cupertino, CA takes the top spot overall for cities whose residents have the best money-management skills. Boone, N.C., has the highest mortgage debt-to-income ratio and the highest car-loan debt-to-income ratio. You can also see where your city ranks at WalletHub report. (wallethub.com)
Meet the Couple Who Retired in Their 30s to Travel the World
The Daily Mail pieces together the details from personal finance blogger Jeremy Jacobson and his wife Winnie Tseng from their blog Go Curry Cracker. Three years ago the couple quit their job with enough saving to travel the world in their 30’s. What’s their secret? “There is really only one thing that determines how quickly you could join us on the road: Savings Rate.” The couple was able to achieve a 70% saving rate after down-sizing the lifestyle and shunning consumerism. They built up a sizable investment portfolio after 10 years of frugal living. And when their investments became large enough and began returning decent dividends, they retired. Now their nearly one-year-old son Julian also joins along on the journey abroad. (dailymail.co.uk)
Why You Might Want To Re-Think A 529 Plan
The most popular way to save for college is the Section 529 College Savings Plan. But financial planner Michael Smith makes the case for why 529 plan might not be the best choice. The reasons are that 529 plans lack flexibility, have higher expense ratio fees and is vied as child’s asset by some schools when obtaining the financial aid package. Alternatively, you can invest the college fund in an outside low cost index fund that’s considered as parent’s asset or discuss with your child about choosing a lower cost school. (forbes.com)
More Expensive to Visit Disney World
Plan to take your family for a trip to Disney World during July 4th or Christmas season? You might be better off to schedule your visit to the theme parks during non-peak periods. Christopher Palmeri writes that Disney’s six parks in Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California, are raising the cost to visit its theme parks as much as 20 percent during the busiest times of year and lowering them on typically slow days. Disney is expecting bigger crowds once the upcoming Star Wars theme park expansion is completed. With the dynamic pricing, customers are financially incentivized to choose less-busy days and Disney will make as much money as possible on days when the park is full. (bloomberg.com)
8 Rules to Financial Freedom
Investment advisor Mickey Kim summarized the concept of mapping financial freedom on an index card that first pioneered by Harold Pollack. Follow these 8 simple rules to achieve your financial freedom:
- Strive to save 10 percent to 20 percent of your income
- Pay your credit card balance in full every month
- Max out your 401(k) and other tax-advantaged savings accounts
- Never buy or sell individual stocks
- Buy inexpensive index funds
- Make your financial adviser commit to the fiduciary standard
- Buy a home only when financially ready
- Insurance—make sure you’re protected
(ibj.com)
Don’t Delegate Your Life Decisions to Someone Else
Author Ramit Sethi makes a case in his newsletter to not get an MBA unless it’s in the top 5 school. Sometimes heading to graduate school might be the right decision, but don’t waste a lot of money and time for a chance to delay what to do with your life. “What’s really going on is our tendency to delegate our life decisions to someone else – in this case, a business school. It doesn’t cost $150,000 to figure things out.” Make sure you “investing” in your career for the right reason, not just using it to procrastinate major decisions in life. (lifehacker.com)
3 Social Security Mistakes to Avoid
Personal finance writer Dan Caplinger says: “Most Americans rely more on Social Security for their income than on any other source. That makes it absolutely crucial to avoid making mistakes with your benefits. Yet with so much confusion about how Social Security works, it’s easy to fall into a trap without even realizing it.” He shows us 3 key Social Security mistakes to avoid:
- Thinking there’s a one-size-fits-all strategy for when to take benefits
- Ignoring potential benefits for your family
- Not keeping up with law changes
(fool.com)
New Generation Are the Luckiest Crop in History
New generation in America today are the luckiest crop in history. As usual Warren Buffet released his annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders and he has a message to a broad audience to reject the economic pessimism that candidates espouse during election year: “As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history. American GDP per capita is now about $56,000.” Berkshire and America in general will continue to benefit from the “all-powerful trend” toward more productivity that has made the country great. Buffet wrote that over the course of his lifetime the nation’s economic output has risen six-fold per capita, “a leap far beyond the wildest dreams of my parents or their contemporaries.” (berkshirehathaway.com)
Using These 4 Great Apps To Save on Groceries
One of the biggest expenses for any family’s monthly budget is grocery. Here are 4 great apps to help you save on groceries and they are all free.
- Checkout 51: Check available rebate offers then send the ones you like to your phone. Snap a picture of your receipt when you buy the item, and the rebate is automatically added to your account. Once you reach $20 in rebate funds, you can request a payout check.
- Coupon Sherpa: New coupons are added daily, and the app sends you reminders to use these digital coupons when you’re in-store. It also displays the expiration dates prominently.
- Ibotta: Get paid to grocery shop with this rebate app, which works in a similar way to Checkout 51 but pays out at $10 instead of $20. Use the two in combination to maximize your savings.
- Cellfire: Save your store loyalty cards right to your smartphone, then “clip” digital grocery coupons that you add to your cards. Simply show the cashier your phone when you check out and the savings are automatically applied to your total.
Quick Way to Help Protect Your Identity for Free
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 17.6 million persons, or about 7 percent of U.S. residents age 16 or older, were victims of identity theft. In fact, two thirds of the victims experienced a direct financial loss, while 14% of which lost $1,000 or more. But there is an easy and quick way to help protect your identity for free. By law, each year you are entitled to see your own credit report from the three major credit bureaus. The only requirement is you have to ask for it. So make sure to request your annual reports for free at www.annualcreditreport.com. With the report in hand, you can check for any suspicions. Forbes personal finance contributor Laura Shin advises, “if you believe you’ve been a victim of identity theft, file reports with the Federal Trade Commission and your local police, close the affected accounts and follow the steps on IdentityTheft.gov. Keep records of all your correspondence until the matter is fully resolved.” Alternatively, you can check your free credit score and free report online at CreditKarma and can dispute directly from its site. (forbes.com)
How Best To Withdraw From HSA Account
Health Savings Account (HSA) is the best saving vehicle for health-related spending with triple-play tax benefits: Save money on a pre-tax basis, earn interest on the funds, and withdraw the money tax-free. To take advantage of HSA you have to understand more about it.
Forbes contributor Nancy Anderson shows you how best to withdraw funds from HSA account for medical expenses. There are two main ways to withdraw:
- Using HSA debit card that comes with your account
- Paying out of pocket then get reimbursement back from HSA account
Make sure you save all your receipts for tax report later on. The main advantage of a Health Savings Account is tax savings, and if you have the savings capacity and want to max out the tax savings, you want to fund the HSA to the max. For 2016, the annual limit is $3,350 for individual coverage and $6,750 for family coverage.
Improve Your Credit Score by 100 points
Having a perfect credit score of 850 is a dream for many people but, of course, not a lot of people will ever get it. According to Fool.com, only 1% of the population has that perfect credit score. Don’t fret if you are not one of them or will never be one of them. If you have an excellent but less than perfect credit, you can still pat yourself on the back. There are tips or ways that you can apply to improve your credit score, whether yours is bad, good, or excellent. Is a 100-point improvement realistic? Rod Griffin, director of public education for credit bureau Experian, says yes. “The lower a person’s score, the more likely they are to achieve a 100-point increase,” he says. “That’s simply because there is much more upside, and small changes can result in greater score increases. It’s harder to improve scores when you already have a strong credit history.” Here are three ways to improve your credit score by 100 points from NerdWallet:
- Knock the errors off your credit reports
- Pay your bills on time, all the time
- Don’t go anywhere near your credit limit
Adjust the Way You Think to Find Financial Freedom
Some people may earn a high income, but that doesn’t necessarily make them wealthy. Economist Jay Zagorsky found that people with high IQ scores missed payments and maxed out their credit cards more often than those with slightly above average intelligence. The problem stem from the faulty mindsets. To increase your wealth you need to change the way you think first. As personal finance blogger Michael on Financially Alert explains: “Finding financial freedom really comes down to 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. So, guess where you should focus your efforts? By raising your standards, you immediately begin to impact the quality of your thoughts (psychology). In fact, if you only concentrated on becoming financially alert, you will find yourself naturally adjusting your mechanics automatically.” (financiallyalert.com)
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