We all have habits—things we do routinely. From routines we do in preparation for a big family dinner, such as Thanksgiving, to everyday ones like brushing our teeth. Some habits are good, others, like eating too much junk food, less so. The same logic applies to money management. And, as with all bad habits, breaking them—in this case, changing unhelpful financial habits—can be tough. In fact, you might not even be aware that what you’re doing could be problematic. Here’s a great example of how difficult it can be to recognize or break bad money habits and adopt and sustain good ones. Read more.
Summer’s here, and in addition to longer days, vacations, and barbecues, this also means the holiday season is just around the corner. I’m only half joking. The pace of life is so hectic that before we realize it, the New Year’s Eve ball will drop in Times Square. According to one large study, the average American is so busy that they have under five hours of free time for themselves a week. I know the feeling. The study also found that six in ten of us regularly put off basic tasks like cleaning and banking for lack of time. Read more now.
Some years, like this one, just seem more eventful than others. Artificial intelligence is reshaping our world rapidly. And the quest to redefine other worlds is picking up, too. It seems like virtually every other month, a new mission takes off for the moon in anticipation of setting up permanent bases and, one day, colonies. Credit Union branches in space – now there’s an intriguing thought!
You tear open the letter marked “Internal Revenue Service,” wondering whether it contains an unexpected refund. But, to your dismay, you find that you owe more than you projected because of a mistake on your tax return. Your heart sinks as you figure out where you’ll get the money to pay the bill.
To avoid this scenario, it’s important to exercise caution when filling out your taxes to avoid an error that will come back to haunt you.
Do you know your credit score? More importantly, why does it matter? Put simply, a variety of financial businesses use your credit score as an indicator to predict the likelihood you’ll pay them back. The higher your credit score, the more likely you’ll be able to obtain credit and pay less interest, which can save you significant amounts of money.
An unexpected auto repair bill. A higher than planned credit card bill. Tuition is due. There are a variety of reasons why you may need to transfer money around your Credit Union accounts or to a family member or friend. Regardless of the reason, the process should be quick and easy.
Welcome to 2024! The start of the new year is a time of hope. It’s also a time to prepare your finances for challenging times. Our President & CEO, Laura Campbell, offers three resources that can help you thrive and overcome financial challenges throughout 2024.
The economy is fickle. There are peaks and declines. The stock market climbs one quarter and crashes the next. And when it comes to interest rates, over the past five years, we bet you thought they couldn’t get any lower and wondered if they’d ever go down.
The last quarter was filled with new developments at your Credit Union. The most exciting was the introduction of Tulee, our digital banking platform. Thank you to all our Members who downloaded and are using the Tulee app. We hope it will make banking with us even easier. And be on the lookout for new Tools and improvements by the end of the year and into the future. We appreciate the enhancement suggestions – keep them coming!
Excited as we are with Tulee, it’s just part of our long-term plan for members, and I’m glad to report that we’re well on track. Recently we had a banking econometrics expert review and analyze our performance over the last four years to help identify how we could improve compared to the rest of the credit union industry. A byproduct of this was a set of metrics that compared us to industry performance averages.
