The Secret to Keeping Your New Years Resolution

With 2014 quickly approaching many of us will once again participate in that time old tradition of creating a long list of New Year’s Resolutions.  This is the year that we are going to make our list come to fruition! But wait, isn’t that what we said last year and maybe the year before too? 

The reality of resolutions is that they rarely come with the practical instructions to truly get us to incorporate change into our lives.  It is easy to say that this is the year that I will get healthy and fit.  Having an actual plan for getting out of bed each morning to go to the gym is a different story, not to mention figuring out what actually happens at the gym!  The same can be said for getting more financially fit.  Yes, I want to start budgeting, yes I want to save more and spend less but how, how do I make that happen? Well, hang tight because I am about to let you know in on the secret!  Are you ready?

The truth is (insert drum roll…), there is no secret.  There is no magic solution to getting more fit (either physically or financially).  It is a slow process, putting one foot in front of the other.  We have to pick one or two things that we can reasonably change and the success from that will help encourage us to take on other applicable self-improvements.  Below is an example about a small change I made that really added up!

I have a 3 year old son which means, I need to budget for childcare.  Because I write checks to his preschool and childcare providers I originally thought the best place to leave the funds for these expenses was in my checking account. In developing this plan I wish I had anticipated the potential drawbacks.  You see, my checking account really serves as a transactional account; money comes in and money goes out.  Sometimes it seems that money goes out faster than it comes in!  With the convenience of having a debit card, the funds are, figuratively, always in my pocket and I use this account for my everyday spending. If I am at the grocery store picking up cereal and almond milk, I am not thinking about paying for childcare; I am thinking about tomorrow morning’s breakfast.  The downside, however, was that I was often actually spending the money designated for childcare. 

After a few months involving lots of stress because of those $27 overdraft charges, I realized that this method was not working for me or my budget.  This situation served to reinforce what I already knew: to save money I need to put it in its own place.  Now every time I get paid, I put money specifically designated for childcare into a separate account where it stays until the very moment the check needs to be written.  Thankfully with the addition of Mobile Banking it is easier than ever to quickly transfer those funds to my checking account.

In the end, this was only about relocating already designated funds. What simple change will you make in this New Year? 

3 Non-budgeting tips that save you money

 

Budgeting is a tough undertaking. Here are three tips that only vaguely have something to do with money but will help you save or pay off debt more effectively, whether you are updating your budget as much as you should be or not.

1. Organize your electronic documents: As more and more of our life is going electronic, it's becoming more and more important to have well organized documents in your computer. That electronic files take up less space in your home than physical files doesn't mean they are any less significant or any less important to sort in a way that makes sense. Taking an hour to organize your computer folders can really help make it easier to find things. If you set up budget ledgers or save documents to one place, it will be a lot easier to go back and find them, or keep using them later. Each person will organize files differently, but I find that I want to create a subfolder if I have more than a dozen or so documents in a file, whether it be by location, vendor, account, or by time period.

2. Set recurring calendar events: If you have a smart phone and you haven't already, start looking at your Google Calendar, Outlook calendar, or any other online calendar attached to your e-mail client. Most major e-mail providers do offer this service, and it can be indispensable. Even if you don't have a smart phone, you can still use these calendars, and they can prove very useful. That's especially true for things that happen monthly, like (ahem) bills. Setting a reminder to pay your bills for the fourth Sunday of every month, or every other Friday (on your payday) can give you that friendly reminder that can save you money on late fees. If you can train yourself to do it this way, you may find that you don't need the event reminder anymore. Still, it's better to start off having it and not needing it than the other way around, right?

 

3. Shop with a menu in mind: I have tried shopping with lists and with menus. I have discovered that menus make my life easier. Simply put, take breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Sunday through Saturday, and figure out what you're going to make. Once that is complete, you simply have to figure out what ingredients you're going to need. This helps me not only ensure I have all my ingredients, but it also limits the choices I'm forced to make during the week. I find that, too frequently, when I have to choose what I'm eating for dinner the day of, it adds stress to my day and I resort to take-out. Not only is that expensive, but it's also frequently unhealthy. A bonus: I am much less likely to waste when I'm planning a menu. If I know one recipe calls for potatoes, I may include another recipe with potatoes on another day, and make sure I have those ingredients too.

What tips do you have? Care to add additional detail or offer a different point of view? I'm all ears!

Four ways to spot and avoid internet scams

Internet scams can be a scary thing, especially if you aren't sure how to tell if something is a scam or a legitimate opportunity. They can cost you money, or worse, can compromise your identity, leading to identity thieves taking credit out in your name, which can take several years to fix. Fortunately, internet scams are some of the most avoidable, if you know what to look out for, and how to avoid them entirely:

1. Be weary of e-mails that require IMMEDIATE ACTION!
If a company you do business with sees an urgent problem with your account, they will call you. If you receive an e-mail from a company you do business with in which it provides a link for you to click and asks you to sign on to take immediate action, chances are good that you have yourself a Phisher. Phishers send out e-mails to hundreds of thousands of people, hoping to get even a small fraction of a percentage of people responding.

These e-mails look legitimate, but rarely are. A good warning sign to spot a Phishing scam is the level of urgency the e-mail is trying to instill in you. A good rule of thumb: If an e-mail is encouraging you to act now or insisting that you don't delay, whether it's telling you there's a breach on your account, or that you've won the lottery, you should take time to think. If you have a relationship with the company, call the number you have on record, or the one on the website you bookmarked or normally type in. If you don't have a relationship with the company, hit the delete button and never look back.

2. Look at the address bar and check for HTTPS transmission
Any time you're asked to enter in a username or password, you want to check the address bar at the top of your browser to make sure the first letters before the address, otherwise known as the protocol, say HTTPS. I'm not going to quiz you on this, but for those of you that need to know what it means, HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, while HTTP only means Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

A website becomes secure when it purchases a certificate from a central authentication agency that your browser recognizes as legitimate. The authenticator and the website you visit exchange certificates, and if they match up, you can be pretty confident that you're on the website you want to be on. If, however, you get an error along the lines of "This certificate is not trusted", you want to be careful. That means that for whatever reason the certificate the website you visited sent out is not registered with a central authentication agency. Unless you fully trust this website, you want to be very careful putting in personal information if this happens. This is when a hacker might be Pharming, or redirecting legitimate traffic to their bogus website. It's sort of like Phishing, just a little harder to spot.

3. Get an Anti-Virus software and keep it up to date
Anybody going online needs to have an up-to-date anti-virus software. AVG Free consistently gets higher marks than some anti-virus programs that charge you $60 or more. Have a budget? Check out Norton AntiVirus, BitDefender Antivirus Plus, or BitDefender SecureAnywhere Antivirus. Kaspersky Antivirus has also received high marks.

source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp

4. Remember that your phone is a computer too
Smart phones are much, much more powerful in 2013 than computers were in the year 2000. Your computer in the year 2000 could get viruses, and your smart phone can do. Be careful when receiving text messages, even from people you know. Often text messages can be originated from another person if your friend or co-worker has been fooled into clicking on a link, and you could be the next victim to begin spreading a virus if you click on it too. These links can also request personal information from you so that you can "claim your $500 Wal-Mart shopping spree".

While iPhones tend to be relatively safe because they are protected environments, there have been cases of viruses getting onto iPhones recently. Androids are more prone to viruses, so consider downloading Lookout Free to protect yourself. No matter what, viruses are not the only thing to watch out for, so exercising as much caution on your phone as you would use on your computer is vital to protecting yourself from getting scammed.

3 Ways to get a free credit score

You're reading this article! That either means you trust us, your finger slipped, or you've never been scammed into getting a "free" credit score that actually cost you money. Don't worry, I'm actually going to give you a good answer, but I'm also going to let you know why there are always strings attached to a "free" credit score. The trick is to know what the strings are and whether you're willing to deal with them.

These are in order of preference, from best to worst, so read on!

1. Talk to your financial institution when you're taking out a loan.

The benefit
The benefit is very clear here. You're getting your score for free when it's being pulled. Loan officers will give you your credit score when you're applying for a loan, so it's a pretty easy thing to do, and you're not paying a dime for it. Other than the cost of the loan you're looking at, that is.

The strings
This is only going to work if you're serious about getting a loan. You can shop around for an auto loan or mortgage, but you should be serious about getting one when you choose to go this route. Therefore this does not work for the curious or for people who have time to improve their score before applying for a loan. If you're doing this just out of curiousity, expect your score to be hit by 3-5 points for the next 18 months. If you're on the cusp of one interest rate, that could end up putting you into a higher interest rate category the next time around.

2. Utilize Credit Karma or Credit Sesame

The benefit
Of the two, CreditKarma.com is the more visually aesthetic. As of writing this, I notice that CreditSesame.com is having some layout errors but typically it works as well. Each has their own strengths. Credit Sesame is unique in its focus on helping you find a home that's right for you and setting debt related goals, while Credit Karma has an active user base that asks and answers questions. Credit Karma also has some interesting features like scenario builders. What if you took on new debt? Closed out a credit card? Went 30 days delinquent on your loan? The effect on your credit is instantly visible.

The strings
OK, this isn't your "real" credit score, and it can at times be misleading. Both Credit Karma and Credit Sesame use scores that serve as good approximations, but are not FICO scores. Most financial institutions, including UMassFive, look at the FICO score. That means your Credit Karma score, which is called a "Transrisk" score and is provided by Transunion, or your Credit Sesame score, which is provided by Experian, shows up as higher, that will not help you when you come get a loan at a financial institution. Still, it's a great way to get a ballpark and see how your score is fairing over time, and unless you know the exact bureau your financial institution pulls their FICO score from, you may still end up getting a different score from one institution to the next, due to the different ways the reports compile information.

Another important thing to note is that these companies make money by selling you loans, and these loans are virtually never better than the ones you could get at a local financial institution. They just happen to have the big bucks and use them where they can.

3. Go to a "free credit score" website

The benefit
I said this at the beggining, but I'll say it again: This being the last option, is also the worst option. Free credit scoring websites like myfreecreditscore.com or freecreditreport.com have big budgets for commercials, and have jingles that easily stick. They tend to lure people in with the promise free or virtually free credit scores, typically from all three bureaus. Along with the credit scores, they also offer credit monitoring, e-mail alerts, and even identity theft insurance.

The strings
These companies market themselves as free, but are actually only offering 30-day free trials. They are typically relying on people who want something for free but forget to unsubscribe, or do not read the fine print. There's nothing inherently wrong with a credit score service, but it is not free, and unless you have come to the conclusion that the service is important enough for you to pay money for, you might want to consider exploring the other two options instead.

Conclusion

There are a variety of ways to get information about your credit score for free, but there are drawbacks to each of them. One big reason why this is the case is because the big three bureaus that provide credit scores charge for them. Some, like the FICO score, are actually third-party. That means the credit bureau has to pay FICO and will in turn charge consumers more to make up the difference. Typically, truly free, ad-driven credit score solutions offer cheaper version of the FICO score which are less accurate. And while nothing beats getting the true score straight from your financial institution, doing so before you're prepared to take out a loan can hurt your score in a small but potentially significant way.

Do you have any other tips for checking credit? What have your experiences been with the solutions I've covered here? Let me know!

Share Your Resolutions, Past and Present (Whatever They Are!)

The New Year is often a time of reflection for people, and New Year's resolutions are an attempt for us to take control of our lives just a little more, in order to make the next year better than this one.

We here at UMassFive like focusing on New Year's resolutions because, whether they are stuck to or not, we feel that they teach us something about ourselves. This annual reflection period is one of the few times many of us challenge ourselves to improve in such ambitious ways.

Personally, I've found that sometimes the easiest resolutions for me to keep are the ones that are small but meaningful. When I was a teenager, I remember resolving to be nicer to my sister. Lo and behold, by the end of the year, my sister and I had a much better relationship. I wasn't trying to climb the highest mountain or completely transform my life. Still, that one small goal had a profound impact on my life (and probably didn't hurt my sister either).

The nice thing about actually staying true to that resolution is that it made me feel more confident that I could achieve other goals. After all, as a sixteen year old, if I could be nice to my sister, what else was I capable of? The world was my oyster, and I gained confidence that, no matter when I set my mind to accomplish a goal, I could in fact accomplish it. This has even helped me in budgeting, where accomplishing small things like saving $20 every pay check became good reachable goals and gave me a foundation to build on.

Can you remember your most succesful resolutions? What about this year's resolution? Don't be shy, share them here. They don't have to be about money, but they certainly can be!

3 Ways to Save Money On Gifts During the Holidays

I know that to some this may sound like an impossible feat. Beyond the challenge of gift giving, there are countless other opportunities to spend money, like in bringing a dish for a holiday party, or giving money to a charity of your choice. It seems like a time of year when money just burns through my pocket.

These last few years, I've tried to become more careful with where I spend money and how.

1. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - Oliver Platt.
If you are a regular reader then you have heard me bang on this drum a few times. The point is that just because you like a gift doesn't mean the gift receiver is going to like it, and studies back up the concept that the gift receiver cares a lot less about the cost of the gift than the gift giver. That even goes for a gift costing hundreds of bucks. If you're short on affordable gift ideas, take a look at our 53 Easy-on-the-Wallet Gifts. The most important thing is to set a price point that is within your reach. In the end, you can come up with a thoughtful gift at any dollar figure.

2. Start a Holiday Club Savings Account.
OK, this one won't actually help you this year. But if you start it now, by next year, gifts and other expenses will be taken care of and there will be no need to whip out a credit card. If you have charitable donations you regularly give over the holidays, make sure you factor that in to your budget somehow... Your Holiday Club could be a good place!

3. Offer Skills
We all bring something to the table in our skillset. If a friend or family member is in need of help moving, with yard work, gardening, or pet-sitting, this is a way to give a gift that is based on spending your time rather than your money. Times are hard, and for many of us, we have more time than money. Looking for something tangible to give? A thoughtfully picked out (or hand crafted) card could be a great pick. If you're not the creative type but still want a personal touch, try websites like Shutterfly. You can even design a gift certificate if you have a computer and a printer.

What have you found to be great ways to save money on gifts? Please share them, I'd love to get more tips!

Baby Steps to Better Financial Health

I began “budgeting” in 2010. I put the word in quotations because, to a hardcore budgeter, what I did wouldn’t look like budgeting at all... Not even close. Today, I am slightly closer to that goal, but I may never be a budgeting savant. I mean, there are some people that don’t spend a single penny they haven’t set aside for budgeting purposes. I don’t quite know how to do that, because it seems like every time I get close, some unexpected expense pops up, or a friend comes up to visit and they want to go to their favorite restaurant, or a new bar. My point is that budgeting is hard.

It doesn’t help that half the literature out there is about how “easy” budgeting is and how all you have to do is the exact thing that seems so impossible to do. I can look back to not very long ago, and think about how I used to handle my finances. That person would look at what I’m doing today and think, “There’s no way I could do that.” Shows what he knows…

The funny thing is that every time I made a slight improvement on my system, I actually had one less thing to worry about. The truth is that worrying about money is exhausting. Ironically, when I spent virtually no time checking my accounts or tracking spending, I felt more stressed out about money than I do now that I am checking my accounts regularly. After all, my money was being spent one way or another, and every time I swiped my card for a sorta-big purchase, every time I got a loan payment notification in the mail, I was reminded.

I will tell you a couple of things that have helped me, but I also want to ask you what you have done, or will do, as far as baby steps go, to improve your financial health.

Small steps I made:

-          Figuring out my regular expenses, and putting money aside into a savings account I don’t touch except in emergencies.

-          Making financial goals to make sure I’m saving up for things I want to be saving up for.

-          Using Debt in Focus to help me make the most of my debt payments and get a financial overview/help me think about good budgets.

-          Making debt repayment a priority

-          Using Credit Karma to track my credit score for free.

-          Refinancing high interest debt with low interest debt.

These steps in and of themselves were pretty small, but they had big impacts, and they helped me get on the path towards keeping a regular budget. Now that I’m budgeting regularly, it feels like just another baby step. Now for more baby steps towards even better financial health!

Help me, and other readers out and share yours now!