saving

3 Ways You Can Save Money This Fourth of July

Written by adminJuly 2, 2018

Independence Day is upon us!

This time of year incorporates four of my favorite Fs: Fun, Food, Family, and Fireworks!

It’s also a great time to find a good bargain, which is useful if you want to have a bit of fun while still maintaining a tight budget.

Here at Financial Helpers, we’re always on the lookout for great deals we can pass on to you! No one should have to skip out on holiday fun.

Thankfully, this time of year is ripe with HUGE savings, but only if you know where to look.

Here are three key areas where you can save the most money:

1) Food

Ahh, summer. The time of barbeques and get-togethers. The 4^th of July is a great time to get food at a decent price.

Meat is the main staple of any grilling activity, and stores love to stock up on this essential holiday food to meet the higher demand.

As we get closer to July 4^th, many stores might think they have too much meat that won’t sell in time, so they’ll slash some prices to help it move faster.

Also, right now is the perfect time to get your hands on some fresh produce! July is the peak of the growing season, so there’s an abundance of amazing fruits and veggies ripe for the picking.

Produce is generally cheaper in the summer, so take advantage and stock up while you can.

2) Holiday Decorations

You don’t have to shell out a ton of money for holiday decorations. Most dollar stores have them for…you guessed it…a dollar! They’re every bit as good as what you’ll buy in the store, but a lot cheaper and more budget friendly.

3) Clothes

You might think that the middle of summer is the worst time to buy a swimsuit or summer clothing, but in a lot of cases, it’s the best time!

Believe it or not, Back-to-School is right around the corner, so stores put out good deals to get rid of their summer stock to make room for fall.

Summer clothing is usually the most expensive at the start of spring, so now is the perfect time to take advantage of lower prices.

Great deals are out there! You’ll just have to do a bit of research and keep your eyes open to find them.

If you can, wait until a day or two before the 4^th to do your shopping, and keep the ads close so you can compare prices, you’ll definitely save a bit of cash and keep your budget in good order.

Written by adminJune 28, 2018

Saving

We’re all guilty of impulse spending at times. We make a quick run into the store to buy a gallon of milk and come out with a cart full of goodies we weren’t expecting to buy, and probably shouldn’t have bought, but we saw it and tossed it in without a second thought.

Impulse spending can be fun at times, but it often leads to buyer’s remorse later on. This is especially true if your budget isn’t quite in great shape. The best way to decide if you have a problem with impulse spending can be to add up how much money you spend on frivolous things you really could go without.

The truth is, you were set up to fail before you even set foot in the store. There’s a concept called “The Power of Perimeter” that the vast majority of stores follow, which was designed to get you to impulse buy.

For example, there’s a very good reason why they put milk at the very back of the store. They know most people buy gallons of milk on a regular basis, so if you’re making that quick stop, you’ll have to trek through multiple aisles to get to what you really came for.

If you’re really hungry, they hope your eyes will spot the Little Debbie’s snack cakes on your way to the back. In fact, they put all the essential items people buy regularly (bread, dairy, meats), on the outside perimeter of the store, forcing you to walk by/through most of the store just to get the essentials. It’s not just supermarkets, but retail who does this also.

If you’re on a tight budget and you’re trying to save money, this can be dangerous ground for you to walk on. There are seven ways you can combat this and it involves you being fully prepared and ready for war before you walk in.

1) Write a list. The goal of most stores is to get you to spend as much money as possible and they hope you show up unprepared. But, if you write a list and are determined to stick ONLY to that list, you’ll have a lot more success.

2) Put a limit on the number of visits to the store you make. Plan your shopping trips around your pay schedule and buy everything you need for the week at one time. If you’re proactive and plan ahead, you’ll have much more success preventing impulse buying than the person who runs into the store every other day.

Calculate how much milk your family drinks in a week. Buy two gallons if you need to to stop yourself from going mid-week.

3) Use store apps. One of the latest tech trends that are super convenient for shoppers are store apps where you can shop online. Kroger, Meijer, Walmart, and most other major stores have this option. They will do the shopping for you and you just pick it up curbside. It completely takes impulse buying out of the equation.

4) Don’t shop while hungry. This is a big one. Most people who make a quick trip to the store do so right after work or midday on the weekend. If you’re hungry, your stomach might make all the buying decisions for you, and you’ll overspend based on what you’re feeling at that moment. Instead, eat before you shop.

5) Avoid window shopping, especially when you’re bored. A lot of people get bored and decide they’re going to go window shopping or even worse, hit the mall. But these stores are designed to peak your attention and get you to want to walk in and buy something. It’s like going to the grocery store hungry. If you’re on a tight budget, find something else to do!

6) Rationalize your spending. Before making a purchase, there are a series of questions you can ask yourself. Do you really need that item? Can you afford it? Can you wait to buy it? Do you have other bills or debts that are more important? Will this item go on sale (there are a lot of apps out there that will let you see the history of prices for various items)?

7) Set a budget. You should know what you can afford to spend each month. Set aside a portion for food and other necessities. If you know you will need new clothes that month, decide what you’re willing to spend ahead of time and stick to that budget.

Overspending is easy when they design stores to trigger you into impulse buying mode. By taking your time and planning ahead of time, you can save more money and keep your budget intact.

Written by adminJune 25, 2018

Life Style

Right now, millions of Americans are struggling to keep up with their finances. We wrote several articles previously about the lack of education most of us seem to have about budgeting, saving, and paying off debt.

Bank of America is looking to change that.

On Monday, BoA held their annual Money 20/20 conference where they announced they’ll be rolling out their new AI banking assistant “Erica”. They hope that this technology will help people make better financial decisions for themselves and their families, specifically by alerting them to trends and opportunities found by their spending habits.

The bank also hopes that this specific AI will help improve customer service as well.

Daniel Latimore, Senior Vice President of Celent Banking, said, “The whole notion of customer experience for banks is so, so critical right now. They have challenges like security and being bulletproof — but consumers don’t care about all the constraints. They just know they can get great experiences elsewhere and they want it from their bank too.”

The goal is to use AI for predictive analytics to help customers find ways to save money or pay off debts, check their credit scores, and cognitive messaging to share ideas tailored around the customer’s individual banking needs.

Typically, this type of advice is reserved for top-tier customers, not the average everyday banker. The hope is, by helping customers save money and make smarter decisions, it will put Bank of America in a better position as well. Americans pay over $32 billion each year on overdraft fees alone, so this technology could really help consumers in a big way.

The only critical aspect of this technology is it looks to replace human workers with AI, maybe not right away, but in the near future. “Erica” will be able to handle bank transactions 24/7 and has no downtime.

It has been predicted that in the next five years, AI and other customer service technology will cost 6% of current jobs held by humans. We’ve already covered McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants switching to much more convenient kiosks and grocery stores implementing an increasing number of self-serve checkout lanes.

Of course, like the other companies, Bank of America insists that the new technology won’t replace jobs, but will make the entire banking process smoother and more convenient for customers, while helping them improve the way they do banking.

“Erica is designed to streamline the banking process, not replace jobs, said Michelle Moore, head of Bank of American’s digital banking. “This makes sense, as this type of technology is still very young, and correspondingly limited in what it can do. Over time, Bank of America’s programmers will add new features and make Erica “smarter” thanks to the vast amount of data she will handle.”

It’s still a young technology and Bank of America says they have no plans to start cutting their work force before the design has even been implemented.

“It is not a foregone conclusion that this will work the way everyone thinks it will,” he said. “The big question is whether Bank of America can and will react appropriately to customers use of and engagement with their digital offerings,” said Moore.

Written by adminJune 11, 2018

Credit & Debt Settlement

If you’ve ever struggled with your finances, you know how emotionally draining it can be. That emotional stress can lead to physical problems down the road if they aren’t cleared up within a reasonable amount of time.

There’s an old saying that goes, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. That might not have anything to do with the rich tearing down the poor to make them worse off. A lot of it has to do with mindset and allowing yourself to fall into this pit of self-perpetuating misery.

According to research, conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, has found that this cycle of financial troubles and debt impacts the brain in a negative way. It causes stress, their memories suffer, and they end up performing worse at tasks that might allow them to break out of the cycle.

This, in turn, impacts how they view life and alters their financial thinking. Rather than working out long-term solutions, they get laser focused solely on how they’re going to make it next month. If you’re constantly focused just on next month and in a constant state of worry, you’re probably not going to think about months or years from now.

That’s the problem. Fewer and fewer Americans are preparing for retirement, paying for health insurance, and neglect other necessities. They get into this cycle, add debt upon debt, and get so behind that saving money doesn’t even enter their minds.

It gets worse. These stresses transfer to overall health. When someone is constantly stressed, they run to unhealthy habits to make them feel better. They sacrifice their future just to survive today. They turn to drinking, drugs, stop exercising, overeat, and their health takes a hit.

It’s not a coincidence that a new report was also released this year that more Americans were becoming alcoholics and even drinking themselves to death at record rates. Financial struggles directly lead to unhappy people who compensate every way possible. The inability to get out of the cycle due to short-term thinking takes them down the rabbit hole of stress and disease.

Click Here For Student Loan ForgivenessDebt and Depression

If you’ve spent any time counseling with couples or individuals who are struggling financially, they don’t seem to have a grasp on the situation. They aren’t eager to fall into a plan because they don’t think it will lead anywhere. They become melancholy, even when shown a proven way to become debt free.

Even when you show them there’s a way out, a light at the end of the tunnel, it doesn’t always work to get them active in pursuing those methods. And that’s the major crux of the issue. There ARE paths to financial freedom and to live a debt-free life, yet it almost seems as if people get ‘comfortable’ in their misery and think life simply can’t get better than it is.

If you’re in debt and struggling to keep your head up, don’t give up! It’s never too late to take control of your finances. It will take some work, but you have to decide right now that you won’t live this way anymore. Once that black cloud stops hanging around, life does get better.

That means you need to start thinking about your future and stop neglecting your health. There are government programs out there designed to help you by cutting credit card payments, consolidating debts into smaller payments, and even debt forgiveness. Don’t sit around and mope and let the situation get the best of you.

A much happier future is right around the corner. All it takes is a phone call to get started.

Click Here For Debt Relief

Written by adminJune 4, 2018

Saving

In today’s world, we seem to be entering a new financial revolution for women. Talk of the pay gap has increased, which has led to women gaining more respect and equal pay in the workplace.

Despite this new-found attention, women still are iffy about money. They lack confidence in saving for their future, don’t like to talk about it, and would almost rather talk about anything else.

According to a recent survey, only 52% of women feel their confident enough in managing their investments. That’s just over half of all women!

There’s still a strong feeling that men are providers and they take care of the family, but there’s a fairly large loop hole that many couples don’t think about when planning for retirement: women live longer than men.

This is why it’s super important to help women understand that financial matters aren’t just about empowerment, but having the ability to survive if something bad happens.

Lorna Sabbia from Merrill Lynch agrees.

“As women are at a tipping point to achieve greater financial empowerment and independence, it is even more essential that we support women in helping them pursue financial security for life. This includes encouraging women to invest more of their assets, save earlier for retirement, and pursue financial solutions that closely align to their personal values and life paths,” she said.

There’s a real investment gap between men and women and it’s troubling. Investing often seems like a ‘man’s game’ and can seem too analytical. They do well with other aspects, like budgeting, but investing isn’t a strong suit for most women.

On average, women live 5 years longer than men. 84% of all people over 100 are women. While this is a continuing trend, a little less than half of all women worry about running out of money. This is not a fear that will go away anytime soon, especially as technological developments allow us to live longer.

This is a major problem that needs to be addressed. Over half of all women say they regret not investing more while they were able. 60% say they didn’t invest because they just didn’t have the knowledge necessary. 34% cited a lack of confidence.

To combat this, women should consider hiring a financial planner and taking the time to learn how to properly invest.

It also shouldn’t be a subject women shy away from with their husbands. They should be in on the front lines and discussing ALL aspects of future saving, including investments, so they understand how it works and they know what their options are when the time comes.

Written by adminMay 15, 2018

Saving

It’s spring! When spring hits, it tends to bring about a renewed interest in pet ownership. New kittens and puppies are being born, and who doesn’t like baby animals? Raising a pet can be a great experience, but not everything about it is snuggles and warm fuzzies.

There’s a lot of responsibility and money that goes into owning a pet, which a lot of people don’t realize when they adopt their new furry friend. That’s why thousands of critters get taken back to shelters each year, often at the cost of their lives. Most of these pets rarely make it out the shelter alive.

Not to mention, bringing home a pet only to take it back home because it was tougher than you thought isn’t fair to the animal. That’s why it’s super important to do your research before deciding on pet ownership and not just reacting on impulse.

Yes, that puppy is cute, but if you’re struggle to keep your own head above the water, then you’re not going to be ready for the financial burden that having a pet can place on you.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the expected costs, some of which you might not realize are there until it’s too late.

Adoption Fees:

Unless you have a friend who is looking to get rid of a litter of kittens, you’re going to have to pay an adoption fee. Shelters and pet stores definitely want to make a profit and don’t give away pets for free. The adoption fee can vary, depending on the animal you want to adopt.

Kittens don’t usually get more expensive than $100, but dogs are a different story altogether. If you go with a breeder, it can set you back thousands. According to The Dog Digest, the most expensive breed of dogs is called “Löwchens” and can cost as much as $10,000!

These prices are only the beginning of your pet owning journey!

Spay/Neuter Costs

If you do decide to with the free options and take a pet from a litter that was birthed under your friend’s porch, then you’ll have to spay and neuter them (or risk more litters of critters being born under your porch). If you go with a shelter, then the odds are likely they’ve already taken care of this for you (and it can often reflect in the price).

Vaccinations are also a part of this process. All of this can cost you between $150-$200. Dogs can cost more at around $300. Sometimes, various cities and towns have opportunities for pet owners to bring their furry friends in for free to take care of this issue in an effort to keep the stray population as low as possible. Bob Barker would be proud!

General Upkeep

Outside of one-time costs, you’ll have to pay for general upkeep. A lot of these will be recurring, like feeding your pet. That can be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly expense, depending on the animal. That’s $20-$40 right there.

Grooming supplies, flea care and prevention, litter, and toys are all recurring costs and it can vary from month to month. You’ll need water and food bowls, leashes, new collars about every year, and a crate. If you add in regular vet visits, these can all total to hundreds of dollars per year.

Other Hidden Costs

In the back of your mind, you often think pet ownership will be easy. All you have to do is water, feed, and pet your animal. How hard can that be! But the financial toll of having a pet can be a lot more than people realize.

For example, if you live in an apartment, they’ll want a pet deposit, somewhere around $250. If your pet wrecks your place, there will be the cost of repairs. Kittens and puppies especially do not know their place and will chew and claw up whatever they can get their hands on.

Some cities require a yearly tax or license fee if you own a dog.

Do you plan on training your animals? That can set you back hundreds.

What if you want to go on vacation? Do you have someone who owes you a favor and can cat-sit/dog-sit for you? If not, a kennel is expensive. Dog walking services cost daily.

Then, there’s the health of your pet to consider. Do you have a few hundred dollars saved if your pet needs an emergency trip to the vet? What if it turns out they have food allergies and can’t eat the regular, bargain pet foods that exist?

Pet ownership is not something you should take lightly. These costs are just basic necessities for cats and dogs. Things tend to get much more expensive the more exotic your pet gets. Parents often love to get rabbits for their kids around Easter time, but most end up dead within a year because a cute idea turns into major work and expenses they weren’t prepared for.

It’s important to take your time, crunch your numbers, and do good research before buying a pet.

Written by adminApril 24, 2018

Saving

Buying a car is a huge step for most people. Whether it’s your first adult car or you regularly seek out new leases every few years, it can be a frustrating (and quite expensive) experience. It’s especially troublesome if you go in not knowing how to find the best deal for you.

If you’re in the market for a new car or truck, this blog with share with you some money-saving tips that will keep you from making a huge mistake, while hopefully saving you a bundle.

1) Wait Until the End of the Month/Year

I know, I know. The thrill of buying a new vehicle is incredible! We want nothing more than to walk into a dealership today and walk out driving something with that new car smell. But if you wait until the end of the month, you can potentially get a bigger bang for your buck.

Most car companies pay their employees through commissions. The successful sellers often get perks and bonuses for selling the most cars. As the month goes on, a salesperson will get increasingly hungry to keep up with their quota, so they offer huge discounts, perks, and incentives to get you to walk away happy.

If you can be patient, end of the year deals can be really awesome as well.

Do your due diligence and visit several dealerships at the end of the month and compared which ones seem the most desperate to make a sale. You can also look for quarterly bonuses and special holiday events. The savings can total in the thousands.

2) Do Your Research Online

If you wait until you’re at the dealership to look around and do research, you run the risk of being strong armed or being swarmed with salespeople pushing you into a vehicle that’s not the best fit for you. Sometimes dealers have a vehicle they want to get rid of. They’ll try their hardest to convince you to buy something other than what you want.

Before you go to the dealer, you can do all the same research online. Look at the various models, sizes, colors, and prices you want to pay. There are a ton of resources online to help you, like Kelley Blue Book, Auto Trader, Carfax, and so much more.

A lot of dealerships even have a way for you to check out prices on their website and get a quote all without walking in the door. So, when you are ready to buy, you’re well-armed with tons of great research, ultimately saving you time and money later.

3) Shop Around for Trade-Ins

There’s no rule (written or unwritten) that says you absolutely have to trade in or sell your old vehicle at the same place you buy your new one. It may be more convenient to do it at the same dealership, but it can cost you money.

The trick is to take your car around to different places and write down the quotes you get. Once you’re at the dealership of your choice ready to buy, you have a nice tool in your pocket to start the negotiations.

The best way to go about it is to negotiate the price for the new car first, then mention you have a trade in and see what kind of deal you get. If it’s not as good as the deal another dealership offered, you have a great negotiation weapon. They’ll be eager to get your sale after already agreeing on a quote, so they might be more inclined to increase their offer.

4) The Best (and Worst) Time of Year to Buy

Spring is the worst time to buy a car. A lot of people get excited after getting tax returns and are ready to buy. Dealerships are prepared for that and prices will be inflated. They can afford to charge more as their buildings are often full during this time of year.

The best time to buy is in the fall. This is usually when the new model years come in, so they have a lot of the ‘older’ models taking up room on the lot. They’re more likely to give you a great deal to free a spot for the newer car, which can save you thousands for virtually the same vehicle.

5) Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate Down Fees

You can bet your bottom dollar, when you receive your itemized bill, there will be a lot of additions to it you didn’t think you’d have to pay. Fees for this, taxes for that. Some dealers will charge you simply for doing paperwork. Yes, that’s a real fee that can hit as high as $800! Some states do cap the fee to keep it as low as possible.

In this case, if you get hit with a huge fee, try to negotiate them. Be willing to walk away, because it might take you threatening to leave if they don’t remove it. Some of the fees can get so ridiculous it’s not even worth entertaining doing business with them.

In the end, the best thing to do if you’re in the market for a new car is to wait. Experts say to start research at least 6 months ahead of time so you can be aware of all the great deals, sales, holidays, and times of the year when they’re a lot less expensive.

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