It can sometimes be easy to get stuck in unproductive patterns of behavior when it comes to personal finances. That’s often the case when it comes to retirement savings. A person finds a reason not to contribute to their retirement fund for one year, and then the next, and soon they’ve become accustomed to foregoing retirement contributions entirely.

We know that not making regular retirement savings contributions can have a devastating impact on your ability to retire comfortably or perhaps even to retire at all.

If you believe that you may be behind schedule when it comes to planning for retirement, here are some tips for how to jump start your savings.

• Use Your Tax Refund. Many individuals struggle to come up with the money to make a maximum contribution to their IRAs each year. Fortunately, most people have a readily available source for a significant portion (or perhaps even all) of that contribution in the form of their tax return. Consider depositing your full tax refund check (up to your annual contribution limit) into your IRA as soon as you receive last year’s check. This gives you an immediate jump start on building a large retirement nest egg.
• Set Up a New IRA to Receive a New Account Opening Bonus. Provided that you are eligible to do so (which will depend on whether you’re covered by an employer-sponsored plan, as well as your level of income and whether you file a joint return with your spouse), you can jump start by setting up a new traditional IRA account and receive whatever new account bonus your local bank or a discount broker may be offering. Even if you’re only eligible to make a Roth IRA contribution this year, the long-term value of doing so is significant.
• Start Now. If you don’t find any offers or bonuses for opening a new account, you should still make your next retirement contribution immediately. Don’t wait until the end of the year, and don’t wait until it’s convenient or easy for you to make a contribution. Start the process of opening a new account tomorrow. This may come in the form of a new IRA, or perhaps beginning to make contributions to an employer-sponsored plan if you’re eligible but not currently participating.
• Take Advantage of All Employer Matching Funds. If your employer-sponsored retirement plan (the most common of which is the 401(k)) offers any type of matching funds, then start making contributions large enough to receive all of the matching funds that are available. Even if the investment options that are available in the employer-sponsored plan are not ideal (in terms of investment focus or fees), you’re still likely to have a stock or bond index fund-type investment available to you. The value of the no-cost employer matching funds is almost certainly too great to pass up.
• Automate Your Retirement Savings. You can jump start your retirement savings by taking away the opportunity for you to not save. Set up an automatic savings plan that makes monthly or quarterly transfers from your checking and/or taxable investment accounts into your IRA.

Besides the advice above, virtually anything you can do to boost your rate of savings will end up paying off many times over by the time you’re ready to retire.

The post How To Jump Start Your Retirement Savings first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

Unfortunately, truly free bank accounts are relatively hard to come by, so it’s important to manage the applicable fees carefully. Here are some tips for how to reduce, or perhaps even eliminate, the fees you pay for your banking services.

As with any other financial service you use, the best way to avoid paying too much for your bank accounts is to keep yourself well informed.

The post Banking Advice On How To Reduce Or Eliminate Banking Fees first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

Low rates on new and refinance home loans continue to be extremely attractive. But the choice of whether or not to refinance your existing mortgage is not necessarily an easy one.

Here are some factors to consider when making the choice between refinancing or not:

Furthermore, it’s important to understand how often your loan rate resets. One common mortgage product is for a fixed rate for a certain number of years (usually five or seven), then for the rate to reset to a market rate every year thereafter for the remaining term of the loan. If you believe that rates will stay low, and you have such a variable rate mortgage, you may prefer to let the rate reset under your current loan rather than incur the cost of refinancing.

Finally, you need to make your own estimate of where you think interest rates are headed. If you believe that the current low interest rate environment will not last long, then there may be more of an incentive to refinance soon.

The post Should You Refinance Your Mortgage? first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

The benefits of paying down your debt are immediately apparent, but sometimes the benefits of building up your savings sometimes aren’t clear until a number of years down the road. This means that sometimes personal savings gets neglected.

With that in mind, here are some tips for jump starting your savings in the new year.

Finally, don’t limit yourself to developing a new financial practice strictly as a New Year’s resolution. Once you’ve decided to jump start your savings, get started today.

The post Banking Advice on How to Jump Start Your Savings This Year first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

The benefits of paying down your debt are immediately apparent, but sometimes the benefits of building up your savings sometimes aren’t clear until a number of years down the road. This means that sometimes personal savings gets neglected.

With that in mind, here are some tips for jump starting your savings in the new year.

Finally, don’t limit yourself to developing a new financial practice strictly as a New Year’s resolution. Once you’ve decided to jump start your savings, get started today.

The post Banking Advice on How to Jump Start Your Savings This Year first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

In light of all this information, it’s important that we are able to conduct our own analysis of any particular stock we’re considering investing in. The more research we can do ourselves, the more likely we are to be confident in our investing decisions. Evaluating stocks yourself before you invest is always a good idea. It’s a smarter and more calculated approach than merely trusting your instincts.

Here are some of the basic indicators you can use to help determine a stock’s health and potential for growth.

In very broad terms, stocks with a Price to Earnings ratio that’s higher than the broader market P/E are considered expensive, while lower P/E stocks are considered to be less expensive. But the lower price doesn’t automatically mean that a stock is a worthwhile investment. Small fast growing companies may have a high P/E ratio but their rapid rate of growth could still make them a great investment.

Remember to do your homework and make smart investment choices for yourself.

The post What Are The Most Important Indicators of a Stock’s Health? first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

In light of all this information, it’s important that we are able to conduct our own analysis of any particular stock we’re considering investing in. The more research we can do ourselves, the more likely we are to be confident in our investing decisions. Read More »

The post What Are The Most Important Indicators of a Stock’s Health? first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

But it’s quite likely you could be doing more, because saving money can come in many different forms. Adding funds to build up your savings and investment accounts is what we usually think of as “saving,” but you can also save money by reducing your expenses. One area in which there’s usually a high potential for reducing expenses is on your borrowing needs.

Here is some borrowing advice and suggestions on ways to save money while borrowing in 2014.

While saving money is a year-round practice, you can use the start of 2014 as an opportunity to start boosting your current savings by spending less when you borrow.

The post Borrowing Money Strategies for 2014 first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

One key element of your personal financial audit is to evaluate your current savings practices. Unless you have money saved, and have developed good habits for continuing to do so, it will be difficult to maintain any significant measure of financial stability.
While it can be challenging to adjust to a new savings habit, it’s worth developing the habit. By jump starting your savings in the new year you’ll improve your financial security for years to come.

Here is some banking advice for jump starting your savings in 2014.

Finally, you may want to set up a plan to help you meet your savings goals. Simply get a pen and paper and write down ideas for how you can increase your saving. You can always change or refine this plan later, but it’s almost always better to have an imperfect savings plan than no plan at all.

The post How to Jump Start your Savings in 2014 first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.

Given the prominence that credit cards have taken on, it’s essential that that you follow the best practices with respect to those accounts.

Here is some credit card advice on some of the top tips for using and managing your credit cards to get you started.

Provide that you’re active in managing your credit card usage, you’ll be able to minimize the costs and headaches you’ll face.

The post Best Credit Card Advice to Follow and Share first appeared on TheAdvice.com Personal Finance Site Network.