It’s that time of year again. No, not football season. Or the start of the holiday shopping season. It’s open enrollment season. As you review your current healthcare selections and research your options, there are two financial options we hope you’ll keep top of mind. Health savings accounts and Individual retirement accounts. Here are a few things to consider.
your online baskets with presents, it is essential to set a plan and create a realistic budget. It is easy to overspend with all of the excitement, but spending too much now could mean months of bills and high credit card charges in the new year.
l expenses – even if you have health insurance – can be steep. However, if your policy has a high deductible, you may be able to use a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for some very common (and often pricey) out-of-pocket medical expenses at a tax advantage.
The 2×2 System is where you set aside two hours on the calendar two times a month to complete a predetermined financial task. This modest but consistent effort can help you sustain financial health and build wealth in bite-sized chunks.
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!
nterest rates are always a hot topic, whether the go up or down. As of this writing, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates four times in 2023 in its effort to curb inflation. While there’s much debate on whether this is a smart move, there’s little doubt that an increase in interest rates for home and auto loans and credit cards makes it more challenging for consumers. But there is a silver lining: increased interest rates mean increased rates for CDs and Certificates.
Medical expenses, even if you have health insurance, can be steep. However, if your policy has a high deductible, you may be able to use a Health Savings Account to pay for some very common (and often pricey) out of pocket medical expenses at a tax advantage.
your spending limits now and top up savings for gifts, activities, and travel. Calculate how much you’ll need for each category and divide by how many months you have left. Then have that amount deposited automatically into the respective accounts.
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.
