For many people, Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of Summer and a time for retailers to offer sales on clothes, furniture, automobiles mattresses and appliances to name a few. The federal holiday was created in 1894 to celebrate the contributions of the American worker.
Work is an important activity to earn money so that you can put food on the table, pay your bills, and enjoy life, but perhaps this Labor Day weekend, we might ponder this question: Is your money working for you?
Are you on target to reach your 2023 goals for setting aside money for travel, the holidays, medical care or a child’s education? What can you do to improve your financial health? Tropical Financial Credit Union has a calculator just for your savings.
Let’s start first with the basics:
- How much do you have in your bank or credit union deposit and savings accounts? Compare those figures to last Labor Day and the start of this year. Do you have more put away? If less, why? Maybe you had a considerable, unplanned expense related to your home, vehicle or personal health.
- What are your goals for this year? You may be saving for a holiday trip or a major purchase such as a new car or home improvement. If you are behind schedule on building the savings balances needed, we’ll talk in a moment about how to get caught up.
- Your priorities may have changed. What you considered most important in January may be a lesser concern in September. In resetting your financial needs, you should also re-do your budget. You may find that you’re ahead of the game. Click here for a Tropical Financial web page on setting SMART goals.
Let’s say you are behind. That wouldn’t be a surprise, given how much inflation has risen in the past 12 months. While it has cooled over the summer, the cost of food, rent and other basics have made it challenging for many people to stick to a budget.
Tropical Financial has easy ways to help you save:
- Open the Daily Rewards Debit account. This checking service pays you 2 cents for every retail purchase. That may not sound like a lot, so think of how many times you buy things in a month – groceries, gas, coffee, meals, online items, clothes, gifts, etc. Because the account has no minimum balance to avoid fees, you can put more of your money into savings.
- Move your money to CDs from low-paying savings accounts. Click here for details on a 9-month CD, for example, such as the minimum deposit requirement. The brief length means your money will be available in May, in time for school graduation or summer vacation. Your money will earn much more than the national average of 0.55% on a savings account or 0.23% on a Money Market Account, according to national surveys.
- Remember that CD yields currently favor shorter terms. For example, Tropical Financial is currently paying a higher annual percentage yield on a six-month CD than an 18-month CD. Why? The Federal Reserve is trying to cool inflation by increasing short-term rates. That’s a win for savers who don’t want to tie up their money for a long time.
Want to know more about how to improve your return on your money? Click here to talk to a Tropical Financial banking officer or to receive more information via chat.
