Making New Year’s Resolutions That Will Actually Be Helpful

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By Celeste Lohrenz

As we reach the end of what has been nothing short of a challenging year – and hope 2021 will bring good news – it’s time for the age-old tradition of making New Year’s resolutions.  Most people, though, don’t follow through on them.  But, the key to making them stick is to make resolutions that are specific enough and achievable and, importantly, beneficial.  If you have a vested interest in keeping your resolutions, you’ll be more likely to do so.

Taking stock of your financial situation is a great place to start.  Then, you can look at where you may need or want to make changes in your spending or saving habits to improve one or more areas of your personal finances.  You can certainly do these things at any time, but if you need a little additional motivation, try making a financial New Year’s resolution and see how it changes your financial outlook by this time next year.  It’s something you have control over, and improving your finances will have short and long term benefits.  Here are a few suggestions.

Stick to your budget

One of the most important tools for financial responsibility is your budget.  Without one, it can be difficult to manage your spending and increase savings.  If you haven’t created a budget, start with understanding your monthly spending, then you can start to build a budget and see how that relates to how much you want to save.  If you already have a budget, review it to see if you can cut any spending to help save more.  But, make sure you create a reasonable budget.  If you set one that’s not realistic, you will not only fail to stick to it, but once you go over budget once, your spending can snowball quickly.

Check your credit report

Your credit score is a key factor in how banks decide whether to lend you money or not, and also what interest rates borrowers will get, which can all impact your ability to finance major investments, like homes or cars, or to get credit cards.  You can see your credit score every time to log into your online account here at The Milford Bank.  If there’s nothing suspicious and your credit score is strong, you won’t spend much time on it.  But, if you need to improve your score or notice something wrong, make it a priority to fix it.

It’s easy to say you’ll eliminate all your debt, but it’s a lot harder to do it if you have significant credit card balances, auto loans, student loans, or other debt.  Reducing it is much easier.  Try setting incremental, more achievable goals, like paying off one loan at a time, or paying an extra $50 or $100 a month on your credit card.  Even if you don’t pay it all off by the end of the year, you’ll have made significant progress that you can carry over into the following year.

Automate saving

Saving isn’t always easy, but using automated tools, like Plinqit, can help you reach your small and large saving goals by automating your savings deposits.  Regardless of what you’re saving for – college tuition, a wedding, the down payment on a new home, or anything else – you no longer have to remember to put money away.  Instead, set your goals and watch your savings grow each month.

Build an emergency fund

The thing about emergencies is you never know when they may happen.  Your roof may start leaking, dishwasher may stop working, your car may need a new engine, or any number of other things may come up that require access to funds.  That’s where having an emergency fund is can be a major benefit.  Instead of dipping into your savings or accumulating debt, an emergency fund provides security for any unexpected situations that come up, including loss of income.

Save for retirement

It’s never too early to start building your retirement nest egg.  It’s simple logic – the earlier you start, the more you are likely to have when you retire.  Whether you have a 401k plan or IRA, try maximizing how much you put into it each month, while still maintaining a reasonable budget (especially if your company matches your contribution).  You may also want to pay more attention to how your contributions are being invested.  Talk to your financial advisor if you’re not sure how to effectively manage your investments.

Start banking digitally

Just about everything we do these days can be done online.  If you haven’t yet tried online or mobile banking, you haven’t experienced the freedom and flexibility it provides.  Most of your everyday baking transactions can be done through your bank’s website or mobile app, reducing the number of trips you have to make to the branch and giving you more time to enjoy doing other things.  If you need help setting up your online account or mobile app, our bank’s specialists are ready to help.

Review your will

Nobody wants to think about it, but creating a will and making sure it’s updated as your financial circumstances change can be a huge help to your loved ones when the time comes.  Take the time to meet with a professional to document how you want your assets allocated, and enjoy the peace of mind that you’ve made things a little easier for your family in the future.

These are just a few ideas for kicking off the new year with a positive financial outlook.  Once you have assessed your current situation, you may find other ways you can improve your financial wellness.  The key is finding something that makes sense while setting a goal that is achievable yet meaningful enough to make you want to follow through.  Whether you’re looking at short-term benefit or long-term opportunities, you can’t achieve them if you don’t set objectives and create a path to financial success.

Creating Strong Passwords To Keep Your Digital Accounts Safe

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By Patty Gallagher

Any time you go online, you’re likely to have to enter a password to access your banking information, shopping account, or other digital services.  It’s your tool for keeping your accounts and information secure from hackers and thieves, and it’s why you should take your passwords seriously.

Criminals will use many means to try to break into your accounts, including the most commonly used passwords.  If you use any of these, it’s time to take a hard look at your passwords.

  1. 123456
  2. 123456789
  3. qwerty
  4. password
  5. 1234567
  6. 12345678
  7. 12345
  8. iloveyou
  9. 111111
  10. 123123

They also try to using previously compromised passwords to access other accounts, which is why staying vigilant is critical.  And, they will use phishing scams to lure you into providing personal information that  could be part of your passwords, or into clicking links that may install malware on your computers.  Compromised passwords, in fact, are responsible for 81% of hacking-related breaches, so you would be wise to make sure you have good passwords in place and are following best practices.

Be unpredictable – Avoid using easily guessed passwords that include important dates, family members names, pet names, and other information that can be relatively easily found through searching publically available information.

Be unique – More than 65% of people reuse passwords across sites and apps, and the average person uses the same password 14 times.  Don’t do it; use unique passwords for each account.  That way, even if one of your accounts is compromised – regardless of how it happens – you won’t have exposed passwords to other sites.

Make things up – It’s logical to want to use passwords you can remember, but without making them easy to guess.  Try using combinations of three or four words to create a password, such as “dogflightgrill.”  It can be easier to remember if you’re using strings of words that have some meaning, but harder to guess.  You should still avoid using easily guessable words and names.  The longer your passwords are, the better, so the more component parts you use, the less likely you’ll be to have your passwords guessed.

Password generator/manager – Using a password generator will create longer password strings that are almost impossible to guess.  Of course, it also makes it just as difficult to remember, which is where password managers come in handy.  They securely manage your passwords in the cloud, so you only have to remember a single password to access them – but make sure it’s a very good one.

Old school – If a digital password manager isn’t for you, keeping a handwritten record of your passwords is another option.  Keep the log in a secure place at home or in your office, where you can easily access it when needed.  Yes, there’s still potential for someone to physically steal it, but that seems much less likely, especially at home.

Use 2FA – Whenever possible, make sure you use two-factor authentication for your accounts.  While it doesn’t help protect you passwords, it will help secure your accounts if your passwords are compromised.

While complex, unique passwords make things a little more difficult, they help secure your digital accounts, identity, and money, and even with the extra effort, access to online resources still makes many tasks much easier and convenient.

But, it’s not foolproof.  There’s still the chance your passwords could be compromised by vendors.  If that happens, and you think your financial information may have been exposed in any way, contact your bank(s) immediately.