How to Save on Back to School Supplies

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by Lynn Viesti Berube

It’s officially August, and that means parents are getting their kids ready for the new school year. And while the first bell is rapidly approaching, there is still one last obstacle for many people to overcome before students are back in the classroom… back to school shopping.

Anyone sending their kids back to school this fall knows just how expensive back to school shopping can be, but did you know it’s the second-largest seasonal shopping period of the year? That’s the word according to Statista, which ranks back to school shopping as No. 2, just ahead of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. In fact, Statista estimates that $74.9 billion will be spent this year alone on back to school needs.

Here are a few ways you can save during this seasonal shopping period:

• Shop from Aug. 16-22: That is Connecticut’s tax free week. During this tax holiday, consumers can shop for clothing and footwear, tax free, on purchases up to $300.
• Buy in bulk: Not only will you be able to get a lot of items you need for the entire year by shopping in bulk, but leftovers can be used the next year as well, which can help save you some money a year from now.
• Check your inventory: If you already shop in bulk, or even if you don’t, chances are you have school supplies left over from the year before. Check your inventory and decide what can be reused and what needs to be replaced.
• Buy from dollar stores: It’s amazing that pens, pencils, markers and notebooks can be as expensive as they are, but they can also all be found at dollar stores. Consider forgoing the name brands for their dollar store counterparts to get the most bang for your buck.

Being strategic in your back to school shopping can net you big savings. Once you’ve done so, consider depositing your savings into a Milford Bank savings account for your future graduate.

Five Ways to Grow Your Savings Accounts

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by Becky Tudor

We get it… allocating a set amount of your income each month for your savings accounts may seem all but impossible. But it’s important to put money aside for a rainy day; you never know when emergencies (or even retirement) will creep up.

Here are five suggestions to help you save money:

1. Keep Track of Your Spending: To figure out how much you can put aside each month, pinpoint how much you are spending. Tally your monthly expenditures. Hold on to every receipt—no matter if you pay with cash or credit—so at the end of the month you can perform an audit. Take a look how much you spend on recurring items (think rent, cable and electric) as well as one-offs like lunches, movie ticket, and sporting events. Once you’ve aggregated this data, you can set a target for how much money you can put into your savings accounts.

2. Pay Your Savings Account: The best way to save is to make it automatic. For instance, when you receive your regular paycheck, schedule a portion of it to be automatically deposited into your dedicated savings account or 401K—instead of waiting until the end of the month to move it over. In other words, pretend as if that money is not there. When that money is not available, you cannot spend it and, thus, your savings accounts can flourish.

3. Be Careful With Your Credit Cards: All too often, individuals end up paying down the interest on loans, debts and credit instead of paying the actual sum of money borrowed. You may be able to avoid paying interest if you pay off the entire balance each month.

4. Get Creative With Your Social Events: While limiting your entertainment budget is a surefire way to pad your savings accounts, it is incredibly important to find ways to satiate your quest for social gatherings while doing so on a budget. So instead of limiting your social events, get creative with them. Consider going for hikes, playing board games or inviting friends over for a pot luck dinner rather than suggesting pricier social gatherings. Just swapping even one concert night for a karaoke night could save you hundreds of dollars in one month.

There are so many great money saving tips out there, so we want to hear from you! How do you suggest padding your savings accounts each month?

Three Tools for Teaching Cent$ible Kid$ Personal Finance

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by Pam Reiss

Americans today are having a difficult time saving money for the future. In fact, the independent research firm NextAdvisor recently found that nearly one in every four Americans has no savings at all. With recent history showing how unstable economies can become, parents today would be well-advised to educate their children about the importance of personal finance.

As of now, only 17 states have personal finance classes as a high school graduation requirement. If you live in one of the 33 states that doesn’t have this requirement (Connecticut is one of them) it might be wise to find other means of educating your children in this area.

Here are three tools the Milford Banks Cent$ible Kid$ Program employs to help teach your children personal finance:

1. Games: Yes, kids love games and, oftentimes, parents worry they might love them too much. But when games are educational, research shows it helps children learn. Computer games, like “Cash Puzzler” and “Road Trip in Savings” available through The Milford Bank’s program, entertain kids while teaching them lessons about money and spending.

2. Savings account: Cent$ible Kid$ operates by giving children their own savings accounts. Along with responsibility for this important personal finance tool comes a chance for these young owners to develop their own plan for savings.

3. Newsletter: Visual learning is important to children. Their young minds are receiving educational stimuli when they read our Cent$ible Kid$ newsletter. To get a taste of our children-friendly newsletters, that provides children with visual learning materials, check out the latest here.

Make Your Business Truly Mobile With SpotPay

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by Pam Reiss

These days, smartphones and mobile devices have empowered us to stay connected no matter where we happen to be. Armed with these tools, we’re able to access the same wealth of information whether we’re watching the kids play soccer, putting the last minute touches on a project at the office or waiting for departure at the airport.

In other words, today’s world is an increasingly mobile one. As a business owner, you know full well how your customers are always on the go. Now, thanks to SpotPay, your business can cater to today’s mobile world without a hitch.

SpotPay, which is proudly offered by The Milford Bank, allows your business to accept charge card transactions no matter where you happen to be. All you need is a mobile device and an Internet connection and, voilà, your business can be wherever you want it to be.

By registering with SpotPay through The Milford Bank, all of your card and check transactions will be securely deposited in your business or personal account. As a result, you’ll be able to access your funds quicker.

With SpotPay, you can provide receipts and refunds as well as void transactions right from your mobile device. What’s more, the secure mobile point-of-sale system makes it so that sensitive customer data is not stored on your device.

In addition to the ability to accept charges on mobile devices, SpotPay also has plans to add remote check deposit functionality, mobile balance inquiries and transfers and more, so you’ll be able to better accommodate your customers in the future.

SpotPay costs $8.95 per month in addition to a 1.99-percent fee on most transactions. But that pales in comparison to the untold fortunes the technology can bring to your business. Click here to learn more.

Is It Time For You To Start Planning Your Retirement?

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by Pam Reiss

When should you start planning for retirement?

Assuming you want to stop working one day—and still be able to provide for your family and be comfortable financially—the answer to that question may be yesterday. But the good news is that it’s never too late to start planning for the future.

If you haven’t started preparing for your retirement, rest assured you’re not alone. Believe it or not, more than half of Americans haven’t calculated how much money they’ll need to live comfortably during their elder years. That’s according to the United States Department of Labor (DOL), which also asserts that 30 percent of workers in the private sector don’t participate in a retirement contribution plan, like a 401(k).

According to the Social Security Administration, the average monthly benefit for retired workers was $1,294 in December 2013. Does that sound like enough money to live on? If not, you’re going to need an additional source of revenue to live comfortably during your retirement, which is why you may want to start planning now. With that in mind, let’s look at three steps you can take to invest in your future:

First things first: Make a plan. As with any other goal in life, to be successful in your retirement, you should plan a course of investment. The DOL recommends that you first calculate your net worth, or your assets minus your debts.

Next, you’re going to want to determine your retirement goal. How much money do you anticipate needing to live comfortably each month? Try to figure out a ballpark age around when you might retire. You might be able to work a few years past the age of 65. Heck, you might even want to.

Then, think about how you’re going to invest your money. Do you feel more comfortable buying into a 401(k) plan, or would you rather open a Roth IRA and invest your after-tax money on your own? There are no wrong or right answers; choose what you think will work best for you.

Consider taking advantage of any available retirement plans. Many employers’ generously invest in their employees’ futures. If your company offers such a plan, it’s definitely something you would want to consider.

For example, let’s say your employer matches half of your 401(k) contribution, up to 6 percent. So when you put 6 percent of your salary in your retirement account, your employer tacks on an extra 3 percent. This money is essentially a 3-percent raise to your base salary.

Try not to think about this money. If you touch this money before your retirement, you may have to pay a substantial penalty.

It might be easier said than done, but when you’ve got an account that’s diversified enough, you should set it and forget it. Thanks to compounding interest,  it is possible you may see your $100 per month, for example, grow into quite the sum. If you contribute $100 a month into your 401(k) and it earns 8 percent, that money could grow into more than $150,000 over 30 years.

By not thinking about the money—and thinking about it more as a savings account you can’t access for quite some time—you won’t stress over it. And when you do decide to take a look at how your nest egg is coming along, there’s a good chance you’ll be surprised by the results.

For more information about investing for your retirement, please feel free to contact us.

Three Things You’ll Appreciate When You Walk Into The Milford Bank

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By Lynda Mason

Have you ever gone to a bank where, when you walked in, you’d experience an icy sensation from the stuffy environment; you were likely afraid to touch anything or even make a noise? Many of us have been in that kind of bank, too.

And that’s why we work hard at The Milford Bank to ensure that we provide our customers with an inviting climate every time they come through our doors. In fact, we pride ourselves on creating an environment in which our customers feel comfortable.

Let’s take a look at three things you can expect when you walk into The Milford Bank:

1. A warm welcome. Our employees aren’t typical bankers or salespeople. Rather, we focus on delivering customer service that is unmatched by our competitors. We really try to go above and beyond in making our customers feel at home. As such, our knowledgeable and friendly staff will likely even learn your name.

2. A personal touch. Our staff is encouraged to send out little “thank you” notes to our customers over the course of a week. We also periodically call our customers to ask them how they’re doing. We find that our customers really enjoy our approach to banking. In fact, some of them even pop in just to say hi.

3. No pressure. We understand how important your finances are. If we think one of our customers is missing a product or service that is a good fit for him or her, we’ll talk about it. But, whereas our competitors might push a product, our recommendations are made with a light touch. At the end of the day, we just want to make sure our customers have everything they need. In other words, we won’t hype so-called “products of the week.”

If you’ve not yet experienced The Milford Bank, we encourage you to come into one of our seven locations and say hello. You can also contact us by clicking here.

You Love Local Businesses. We’ll Help You Love Them More!

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By Lynn Viesti Berube

The whole community benefits when you spend your money locally. We at The Milford Bank understand that perfectly, which is why we’re pleased to work with our business customers to make special offers available from them to the rest of our customers.

We started this program several years ago with coupons accessible on our ATMs. While we can no longer offer them at our ATMs (the software which enabled us to add coupon screens is no longer available) our customers can still find these valuable offers on our website, in our eNewsletter and in the customer newsletters mailed with their monthly paper statements.

Every quarter, working in conjunction with our business customers, we offer different coupons supporting local businesses—anything from restaurants to boutiques to flower shops and everything in between. We’re always looking for ways to help our customers save money. Our local coupon program is just one extension of that philosophy. Plus, it helps our business customers too.

Milford and Stratford are wonderful communities full of strong businesses run by great people. That’s why we’re pleased to call the two towns our home. In order to keep our communities in as good a shape as they’re in, it’s important that we support local businesses whenever possible. These coupons will help bring prices down, so please consider taking advantage of them.

Who doesn’t like to save money? We know we do. By making use of our local coupon program, it is our hope that our customers will help support local businesses without feeling like they are breaking the bank.

School Is Back in Session, So It’s Time to Get Involved With Cent$ible Kid$

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by Jorge Santiago

It’s never too early to teach your kids the importance of saving their money. But, in fact, many children get to high school lacking the financial acumen necessary to navigate the next chapters in their lives.

Understanding this, The Milford Bank launched the Cent$ible Kid$ program in 2008. We envisioned that the program would help young kids realize the importance of saving their money. To help engrain that message, we visit students in Milford and Stratford elementary schools and show them  how to open a savings account—it’s like a piggy bank, but secure and more measurable.

“We think it’s important to teach kids to regularly save their money for a worthwhile purpose, like something special they want, rather than just asking [their parents] for it,” explains Bob Russo, Vice President and Manager of our Broad Street office. “It’s about choices: They have to decide how to spend their money. We believe it promotes good behavior.”

Whether the students deposit 10 cents or $20 a week doesn’t matter to us. Rather, we’re more interested in encouraging the thrifty behavior. And that’s why we give each child a $1 bonus after making five deposits. After making eight deposits, we give them a $1 gold coin, too.

Right now, there are over 500 kids in the program, according to Russo.

In addition to encouraging the youth to open savings accounts, we also educate them on a variety of bank-related topics including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Mint, interest rates and more.

Since school is back in session, now is the perfect time to teach your kids about the importance of saving their money. We believe that Cent$ible Kid$ is a program that will help do that.

 

School Is Almost Back in Session, So It’s Time to Get Involved With Cent$ible Kid$

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By Jorge Santiago

It’s never too early to teach your kids the importance of saving their money. But, in fact, many children get to high school lacking the financial knowledge necessary to navigate the next chapters in their lives.

Understanding this, The Milford Bank launched its Cent$ible Kid$ program in 2008. We envisioned that the program would help young kids realize the importance of saving their money. To help engrain that message, we visit students in Milford and Stratford elementary schools and show themhow to open a savings account—it’s like a piggy bank, but secure and more measurable.

“We think it’s important to teach kids to regularly save their money for a worthwhile purpose, like something special they want, rather than just asking [their parents] for it,” explains Bob Russo, a vice president and manager who works out of our Broad Street office. “It’s about choices: They have to decide how to spend their money. We believe it promotes good behavior.”

Whether the students deposit 10 cents or $20 a week doesn’t matter to us. Rather, we’re more interested in encouraging the thrifty behavior. And that’s why we give each child a $1 bonus after making five deposits. After making eight deposits, we give them a $1 gold coin, too.

Right now, there are over 500 kids in the program, according to Russo.

In addition to encouraging the youth to open savings accounts, we also educate them on a variety of bank-related topics including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Mint, interest rates and more.
Since school is almost back in session, now is the perfect time to teach your kids about the importance of saving their money. We believe that Cent$ible Kid$ is a program that will help do that.

What’s the Difference between a Debit Card, a Credit Card and an ATM Card?

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Credit-ATM-Debit-Card

By Pam Reiss

How big is your wallet? It might be quite large due to the amount of plastic it holds.

Believe it or not, 78 percent of Americans carry $50 of cash or less on them at any given time. That’s because these days, virtually anything can be purchased with credit cards or debit cards. Should a consumer find him or herself in a pinch where a business doesn’t accept charge cards, that person could always find the nearest ATM and take out some cash.

But what is the difference between all of those kinds of cards anyway? Let’s take a look:

• An ATM card is usually issued by your financial institution. The card allows you to take money from your savings account or checking account from an ATM, depending on which account it’s linked with. Generally speaking, you can use your ATM card to withdraw money from any ATM machine. But be careful: Some of those withdrawals will cost you. If an ATM machine is not part of your bank’s network, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to pay a fee to access your money. Because The Milford Bank is a member of the Allpoint ATM Network, our customers are able to withdraw money from one of 55,000 machines across the world with no fees. You can find more information about that here.

• A debit card—also known as a check card—is linked with your checking account and generally has a Visa or MasterCard logo on it. As such, you can use these kinds of cards anywhere credit cards are accepted. It’s important you realize that debit cards are not credit cards, as the money that they draw from is the money that is on deposit in your bank account. Because you’re using your own money to make purchases you don’t have to pay interest on the things you buy with your debit card. But it’s important that you remember to keep track of how much money you have in your account because it is possible to spend more money than you have in your accounts, causing you to overdraw your account. .

• A credit card allows you to purchase things with a lender—like American Express, Visa or MasterCard—fronting you the money. The lender charges the merchant a per-dollar percentage on each transaction. They will also charge you interest if you carry a balance on your account. . Depending on your credit history, your credit limit may vary. The better your history, generally speaking, the higher your limit.

Different kinds of cards are the preferred method of payment for different kinds of people. There are some people who will only buy things with cash. When you pay with cash, you know exactly how much of it you have in your wallet so you don’t risk spending more than you have.

Other people turn to debit cards because they don’t like having cash on their person in case they lose their wallet, for example. On top of that, you don’t have to worry about carrying a high balance—though you might have to worry about overdrawing your account if you’re not careful.

Because of the freedom and rewards that come with some credit cards, many people feel comfortable buying with them. It is important to try and pay your credit card balance in full each month, however, if you wish to avoid hefty interest rates.

What is your favorite banking card to use and why? Keep the conversation going in the comments section below!