Graduation time is here! High school seniors will walk across the stage and into the next phase of life. Some graduates are certain and excited about their next step. Others may be unsure what the future will bring. If you are feeling uncertain, there are plenty of options to support yourself while gaining valuable life experience.
Spring Cleaning for Your Finances
Spring: the season of growth and revival. After a long, cold winter, nothing feels better than cleaning up and getting organized. It’s the perfect juncture, nestled between the beginning of the year and summertime, to make changes to your current routine and establish new habits that are a better fit for your future by not only refreshing your home, but revamping your finances as well.
Marriage and Social Security Retirement Benefits
Since Social Security benefits are often a substantial part of your cash flow during retirement, it’s important to understand how they can be impacted by marriage and divorce. Every relationship and financial situation is different, so it’s wise to be prepared to make well-informed decisions about your benefits.
Managing Finances for a Loved One in Cognitive Decline
Knowing a loved one is going through cognitive decline is a difficult situation on its own made even more challenging when you consider how it will affect their finances. Problems related to money management, from unpaid bills and abnormal spending to confusion over their accounts and missing money, are often one of the first indicators that something is amiss. Fortunately, if your loved one is heading towards a dementia diagnosis of some kind or has already received one, there are steps you can take to protect their financial assets and ensure they’re properly taken care of when they’re no longer able to care for themselves.
Teaching Your Preschooler About Money
Financial education may sound like a topic for adults, but it’s never too early to start teaching your preschooler about money and how to manage it. Day-to-day activities can easily be transformed into age-appropriate lessons that can lay the foundation for a lifetime of important knowledge and sound decision making. Money influences almost every part of our lives, from the food we eat to how we spend our time in retirement; for better or worse, it’s central to our life experience.
When it comes to children, research shows that they understand what money can be used for by the age of five. By age seven, many of their money habits will already be established. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to start teaching your child about money around 3-5 years of age, when they’re attending preschool and learning to count.
