Blogs

Why Young People Need to Pay Themselves First Webinar View Full Webinar Presentation By investing for retirement through your employer-sponsored plan, you are taking steps to achieve your financial freedom. Choosing to participate is just one step in managing your financial savings strategy. As a young person, paying yourself first is just one pillar of personal finance and encourages sound financial habits. All it takes is a little dedication and a lot of discipline. Building savings is a powerful motivator and there are plenty of mental benefits to seeing your savings balance grow...

Mental Health and Money Webinar View Full Webinar Presentation Worrying about finances can have an impact on mental health and affect how you manage your money. HTLF Retirement Plan Services invites you to watch our latest financial wellness webinar, “Mental Health and Money.” Understand how the two influence each other and learn to recognize your money and mood patterns. Improving your mental and financial health will influence how you deal with debt, financial issues, and stress. This on-demand webinar is a great opportunity to identify steps you can take to break the debt cycle and find...

According to the 2021 Fidelity Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, an average retired couple age 65 may need approximately $300,000 saved (after tax) to cover health care expenses in retirement. There are a number of factors behind this escalating cost challenge. In general, people are living longer, and health care inflation continues to outpace the rate of general inflation. In addition, according to Gallup’s 2021 Economy and Personal Finance Survey, the average retirement age is 62, which is 3 years before the Medicare eligibility age of 65. Of course, the amount you’ll personally need will...

Market swings causing you some anxiety? These four money mantras can help you overcome it. Whether it’s the continuing presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a sudden boost in prices related to gas, food, housing and other essentials, supply chain hiccups, an uncertain labor market (or any number of other things), the stock market has certainly seen its share of ups and downs over the past six months. As always, it’s impossible to predict what the market will do on any given day. But at the start of a new year, it’s always a good idea to take some deep, measured breaths and focus on some basic...

Try these morning rituals to get your day off to the right start. What’s your current morning routine? Maybe it goes something like this: mutter an expletive as the alarm goes off, begrudgingly pull yourself out of bed, throw on a robe and take the dog out, while suddenly realizing that you forgot to set up the coffee maker last night (again)? Or maybe it’s something like this: you don’t mutter an expletive at the alarm clock (because you already woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep), pour yourself some coffee (because you did remember to set it up last night), turn on the news...