3 Things 1-20-25

 Thing One

Money Tips For The New Year

The following is from Savings Pro economist, Mark Bradley

"What are the stupidest money mistakes most people make?

Where do I start?

I’m a huge financial nerd, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to people about their money habits.

Here are the biggest mistakes people are making and how to fix them:

Not having a separate high interest savings account

Having a separate account allows you to see the results of all your hard work and keep your money separate so you're less tempted to spend it.

Plus with rates above 5.00%, the interest you can earn compared to most banks really adds up.

Here is a list of the top savings accounts available today. Deposit $5 before moving on because this is one of the biggest mistakes and easiest ones to fix.

Overpaying on car insurance

You’ve heard it a million times before, but the average American family still overspends by $417/year on car insurance.

If you’ve been with the same insurer for years, chances are you are one of them.

Pull up Coverage.com, a free site that will compare prices for you, answer the questions on the page, and it will show you how much you could be saving.

That’s it. You’ll likely be saving a bunch of money. Here’s a link to give it a try.

Consistently being in debt

If you’ve got $10K+ in debt (credit cards…medical bills…anything really) you could use a debt relief program and potentially reduce by over 20%.

Here’s how to see if you qualify:

Head over to this Debt Relief comparison website here, then simply answer the questions to see if you qualify.

It’s as simple as that. You’ll likely end up paying less than you owed before and you could be debt free in as little as 2 years.

Missing out on free money to invest

It’s no secret that millionaires love investing, but for the rest of us, it can seem out of reach.

Times have changed. There are a number of investing platforms that will give you a bonus to open an account and get started. All you have to do is open the account and invest at least $25, and you could get up to $1000 in bonus.

Pretty sweet deal right? Here is a link to some of the best options.

Having bad credit

A low credit score can come back to bite you in so many ways in the future.

From that next rental application to getting approved for any type of loan or credit card, if you have a bad history with credit, the good news is you can fix it.

Head over to BankRate.com and answer a few questions to see if you qualify. It only takes a few minutes and could save you from a major upset down the line.

How to get started

Hope this helps! Here are the links to get started:

Have a separate savings accountStop overpaying for car insuranceFinally get out of debtStart investing with a free bonusFix your credit"

Thing Two

Keep The Big Picture In Mind

The excerpt below from investopedia.com recounts the crash of ’29:

“The first day of the crash was Black Thursday. The Dow opened at 305.85. It immediately fell 11%, signaling a stock market correction. Trading was triple the normal volume. Wall Street bankers feverishly bought shares to prop it up. The strategy worked.

On Friday, October 25, the positive momentum continued. The Dow rose 0.6% to 301.22.

On Black Monday, October 28, the Dow fell 13.47% to 260.64.

On Black Tuesday, October 29, the Dow fell 11.7% to 230.07.2.

Panicked investors sold 16,410,030 shares.”

As of Friday, January 17, the Dow was over 43,000. That’s a long way from 305.  The chart/big picture below documents the journey from there to here.  In doing so it reminds us that, over time, the stock market tends to go up, but not without some drops - sometimes big ones - along the way.  That’s in its volatile nature.  But if you have the patience (or the guidance from an outside source that you trust) to stick with it when everything in you is telling you to bail out or fire your advisor, you’ll likely benefit from the compounded, inflation-beating returns that long term investing tends to produce. And you would do well to remember that we all need those returns to ensure that we have something left for ourselves and the ones we care about as we get closer and closer to the end of the road.

Thing Three

Just A Thought

"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind." - Thomas Sowell