Blogs

Article | 4 min |
Tapping Your Retirement Account for Other Financial Needs Can Have Costly Consequences According to a December 13, 2022, article in The New York Times, hardship withdrawals from workplace retirement accounts are rising — “another sign, along with rising credit card debt, that many Americans have been feeling financial pain from inflation.” At some point, most people find themselves in a situation where they need access to cash quickly. If that happens to you, you may think about taking money out of your retirement plan account through either a loan or distribution. While those are both...
Article | 4 min |
Practicing Mindfulness With Money Can Help Boost Your Financial Wellness Many people practice mindfulness through yoga, tai chi or other forms of movement, often incorporating breathing exercises. Others rely on their smart watch or phone to ping them at the same time each day, urging them to practice it for a few minutes. While there are many definitions of mindfulness, this one from mindful.org seems to capture it well: Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us...
Article | 5 min |
Master these Social Security lessons to get a more realistic view of your retirement. According to Nationwide’s 8th Annual Social Security Consumer Survey, more than half of Americans express confidence that they know exactly how to optimize their Social Security benefits. However, only 6% actually understand all the factors that determine the maximum benefit someone can receive. In addition, the report highlighted additional knowledge gaps: A full 39% don’t know at what age they are eligible to receive their full benefits. Just over half (51%) do not have a clear understanding of how much...
Article | 5 min |
Use this tool to help keep your debt in check and improve financial wellness. Your debt-to-income ratio (or DTI) measures your monthly debt payment against your monthly income (before taxes or before other deductions have been made). To calculate your DTI, add your total monthly debt payments and divide them by your total pretax monthly income. For example, if you pay $200 a month toward your car loan and another $800 toward your mortgage, your monthly debt payments are $1,000. If your pretax monthly income is $4,000, your DTI is 25% ($1,000 divided by $4,000). Guidelines vary widely, but in...
It even makes understanding inflation easier. “Bacon’s the best. Even the frying of bacon sounds like applause. Bacon bits are like the fairy dust of the food community.” – Jim Gaffigan Let’s face it: talking about bacon is always fun. It can even help illustrate a topic that has been in the financial media a lot lately — inflation. In 1991, the price of a pound of bacon cost $2.22 (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Thirty years later, in August of 2021, a pound cost $7.10. That’s inflation at work. Inflation is simply the rise in the cost of living, and it eats away at your money...