Making Money Personal

Finding Common Financial Ground For Couples - Money Tip Tuesday

According to a 2021 study, conducted by Ramsey Solutions, 41% of couples in the US argue about money, primarily due to the amount of debt they owe. If this sounds like your situation, and you want to know how to reach common financial ground with your partner, and qualify to win a $100 VISA gift card don't miss this episode. 
Links: 
Learn more about our Valentine's podcast giveaway and how to enter to win a $100 VISA gift card. Contest runs from February 14 - February 24, 2023. 
Watch our Budgeting 101 webinar
Watch our Financial Freedom: Your Path to Debt Free Living webinar
Visit triangleuniversity.org to watch webinars, read articles and access financial tools and resources. 
Transcript: 
This is Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal Podcast. 
Hi everyone! On today’s Money Tip Tuesday, we’re going to give you some practical advice on how to find common financial ground with your favorite person, but before we start, there’s a special announcement for this episode. Since we’re releasing this Money Tip on February 14, 2023 (Valentine’s Day), we are giving a $100 Triangle Visa gift card to a lucky listener. To qualify, you must be a subscriber to the Making Money Personal podcast and send us an email to tcupodcast@trianglecu.org with a pic of your subscription screen and the promo code. That’s it. I’ll share that info again at the end of this show. For now, let’s talk about that grueling statistic that 41% of couples argue about money in the US, primarily because of debt. Personally, I think that number seems incredibly low but even if that were true, every couple is different—if you argue about money, than here is some tips to help curb those money arguments: 
Be Calm & Communicate. – Let’s imagine this month is really tight and you just found a receipt for an unexpected purchase on your kitchen counter. How do you handle this situation? Well, I try to put myself into work mode and ask myself: how would I talk to my co-worker about an unexpected matter? I know our work culture fosters an environment of professionalism and respect, so try to apply those same principals at home. Approach your partner about the unexpected expense situation with kindness and respect. Be calm. It’s fair to ask some questions about the purchase to dig a little deeper but use a respectful tone. Also ask yourself: was there communication earlier in the month about how tight it was going to be? If not, you may have just uncovered a deeper problem than the latest purchase—you may have discovered a communication problem.  
As a couple, if you haven’t discussed financial matters before, it’s not too late. Just set the right mood, which means you may want to schedule some time with your partner for this, have the right (respectful tone) and talk about money and life. Start a 50,000 foot conversation about financial beliefs and goals and then take it down to 15,000 feet with the specific questions about where you want to live, your job, how can you reduce your cable or streaming services (insert laughter), and other monthly expenses, which leads us to our next tip. 
Make a Budget & Share Money Responsibilities – According to a Stress in America survey, only 33% of survey respondents said both partners share an equal role in financial decision-making; only 23% reported that management of household finances is shared equally. 
This brings us to your first money responsibility as a couple:  create a monthly budget…together! When couples create a budget, there is weigh in and buy-in…and in the budget process, you’re communicating about how much money you have this month, and how it will be spent. If you’re new to budgeting, we recommend a zero-based budget and have online tools to explain how this budget works. Sometimes when couples budget, they realize it’s not their spending that’s the problem, it’s their income. Decisions may need to be made about future income opportunities, education and/or if second jobs are needed. These can be very tough discussions but when your problem-solving as a couple, you’ll come out ahead every time because you’ll be working together. 
Pay off Your Debt. – Debt can be stressful, and this is truly one of the main reasons couples argue about money. Just like a budget, it’s important to be on the same page for paying off your debt. There is nothing more frustrating than being in a relationship where one person is focusing on paying off debt, and the other person is racking up debt. This breeds frustration and resentment. The most common way to tackle your debt, is the snowball method. We have online tools to show you how to tackle and destroy your debt, so please check those out on our YouTube channel through triangleuniversity.org.  
No secrets. – Keeping a secret is stressful enough. Imagine if the secret came with dollar signs. Do yourself a favor and don’t hide your money problems from your partner. If you’ve messed up and racked up credit card debt, it’s time to pull up your big person britches and talk about your situation. Strong couples fight problems together. Yes, there may be some struggles and challenges, but put your heads together to find a resolution, and work together to win! 
Discuss Dreams. – Far too often couples get in the weeds with their monthly budget and forget to discuss their dreams. Most financial conversations are centered around what needs to be paid this month. Where is the money coming from? Do we have enough for a latte? A thousand scenarios to work out, but put a tack in all those questions and take time just to plan for what your future selves will look like: Where are you going to live? What will you be doing for work? What do you want to do for work? Do you want to travel or are there special hobbies you want to explore? 
When my husband and I discussed our dreams for retirement a couple of years ago, he was all about wood working and fishing. Neither of those two things really appealed to me, but the more I thought about it, I was like, “I don’t really care about fishing, but I do like to boat” so now we have a common goal to buy a boat within the next few years. 
That wraps up our tips for finding financial common ground for couples—I hope you found the key takeaway to be communicate, communicate, communicate. 
Now for the fun stuff. I promised to share the promo code for our $100 Triangle VISA gift card raffle, so get ready here it is: P******3 . This is all one word. 
Just a reminder on how to enter: you have to be a subscriber to the Making Money Personal podcast and send us an email to tcupodcast@trianglecu.org  with a pic of your subscribe screen and the promo code. That’s it. This contest runs February 14th – February 24th 2023 at midnight so make sure you send us your email by the February 24th. For official contest rules, visit Trianglecu.org. 
If you have any comments or ideas for additional tips, please email us at tcupodcast@TriangleCU.org. Be sure to follow the Making Money Personal podcast page on Facebook and IG for more great content. 
Thank you to our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union, and to you for tuning in!  
Have a wonderful day everyone! 

Watch Out for QR Code Scams - Money Tip Tuesday

If you’re familiar with QR codes, you know they’re growing in popularity for a variety of uses. But like with all technologies, scammers are now trying to use them to steal your information.  Next time you see a QR code, you might want to take a second and pause before scanning.  
Links: 
View the FBI Public Service Announcement about QR code scams
Read the Austin TX news release about the QR code scam with parking meters
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript: 
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast.  
You’ve probably seen QR codes everywhere. They are used in restaurants to view menus, on signs and doors for promotions or offers, in magazines and flyers and sometimes even in emails or on social media.  
They are designed to be quick, simple ways to use your phone to open a web page easily and automatically without having to search via your phone’s browser.  
QR codes have grown in popularity, especially since the pandemic, and more people have become familiar with how to use them.  
But, unfortunately, like almost any type of technology, there are people out there who want to try to use these codes to trick you and steal your information.  
Similar to how scammers try to trick you with emails, text messages, and phone calls, they are now trying to trick you with QR codes. As an informed user, you need to keep an eye out for potentially dangerous QR code scams.  
How do QR code scams work? 
Scammers create their own codes that when scanned, will direct your phone to a dangerous website or webpage that tricks you into handing over sensitive information.  
In a 2022 public service announcement, the FBI issued a warning against these types of crimes to build awareness of the threats unassuming users could face.  
They stated,” cybercriminals are taking advantage of this technology by directing QR code scans to malicious sites to steal victim data, embedding malware to gain access to the victim's device, and redirecting payment for cybercriminal use.” 
Here’s a story from the Austin TX PD that should remind us all to be aware before scanning a QR code, especially a public one.  
Police discovered that scammers placed their own QR code stickers over the legitimate ones on a bunch of public parking meters in Austin.  
Unsuspecting motorists would park their cars and scan the codes to pay the parking fee. But instead of being brought to the city’s authorized website to pay, the malicious code sent them to a fake website set up by the scammers where they willingly handed over their personal credit card information.  
If you want to protect yourself against falling for these scams, you’ll need to remember how to avoid them and learn how to detect them.  
Scan codes only from reliable sources. If you don’t know the company or person who sent you the code, don’t scan it.  
Also, inspect the code carefully for anything suspicious or signs it may have been tampered with. 
The FBI included a list of tips for how to safely interact with QR codes. Here are a few to remember:  
Do not download an app from a QR code. Use your phone's app store for a safer download. 
Once you scan a QR code, check the URL to make sure it is the intended site and looks authentic. 
Avoid making payments through a site navigated to from a QR code. Instead, manually enter a known and trusted URL to complete the payment. 
You can find these tips and others at the FBI website using the link provided in the show notes.  
If you do find a suspicious code, or think you've been a victim of a QR code scam, report it to the authorities so it can be investigated and removed. Contact www.ic3.gov to start a report. That link is also included in the show notes. 
Keeping your information and devices secure is an effort that should be permanently ingrained in all our minds. We need to be on alert for the many ways people try to scam us.  
Remember to stay alert and stay aware.  
If there are any other tips or topics, you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org.  Like and follow our Making Money Personal FB and IG page and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on social media to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 

Five Savings Challenges To Try This Year - Money Tip Tuesday

Ready to up your savings game this year? If you need a little motivation and a fun way to create a new saving habit, you should try a savings challenge.  
Links:
Download our free printable tracking sheets to keep track of your progress
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Contact us at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org
Transcript: 
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast.   
Saving money can be extremely difficult, especially if it’s not something you’ve really committed to before. There are many questions that come along with saving money like “how much do I need to save?” or “how do I make saving money more manageable?” 
A new year is a great time to take a look at your financial situation and make appropriate changes if necessary. 
If you’re ready to start the new year off on the right foot, we have 5 savings challenges (with trackers) that you should try in 2023! 
$5 Savings Challenge 
This challenge is probably the easiest challenge of all. There is no expected completion date, no required weekly or monthly contribution and essentially, minimal rules.   
The purpose of this challenge is to save $500 dollars by breaking it up into more manageable $5 increments.   
That doesn’t mean that you can only save $5 at a time. If you have an extra $15 that you want to put towards this goal, go for it! Did you sell something on Facebook Marketplace for $30 and you want to save that cash? This is the perfect place for it!   
This can be a cash savings or a digital savings—that choice is up to you and whatever type of saving works better for your lifestyle–whichever you choose, make sure you’re tracking the deposits!   
52 Week Savings Challenge 
The 52 Week Savings Challenge gives you the opportunity to save $1,378 throughout the year by depositing a different amount every week!  
The premise of this challenge is to deposit money every week for 52 weeks, upping the amount each time starting with depositing $1 and ending with depositing $52.   
It should look something like this:   
Week 1- Deposit $1  
Week 2- Deposit $2  
Week 3- Deposit $3  
By the end of the first month, you will have $10 saved up!  
Doing small deposits at the beginning will help you build up your savings slowly while creating a good habit with repetition.   
Some people who do this savings challenge choose to complete it in reverse. This means they start by saving $52, then $51, then $50 and so on and so forth which knocks out the bigger numbers first. By the end of the year, they only need to save the smaller, one-digit numbers.   
365 Nickel Savings Challenge 
The 365 Nickel Savings Challenge is a great savings challenge for beginners. Instead of worrying about big monetary values to set aside for this savings challenge, this challenge focuses on nickels.   
The idea is to make small, daily deposits which is more manageable for many people. Similar to the 52 week savings challenge where you increase the amount deposited by $1 every week, the amount you deposit in this challenge increases by $0.05 each day.  
Here’s how it works:   
Day 1- Deposit $0.05  
Day 2- Deposit $0.10  
Day 3- Deposit $0.15  
Continuing that trend, halfway through the year you will be depositing $9.10. On the last day you will deposit $18.25. Those numbers seem so small in comparison to other savings challenges mentioned.  
By the end of the challenge, you will have saved over $3,300 and it won’t even seem like you did anything at all!  
If you download our tracker, you will need to print out 2 copies to fully complete this challenge. 
100 Envelope Savings Challenge 
The 100 Envelope Savings Challenge is a popular favorite! It’s fun to do and allows you to save different amounts each time you save.   
Similar to the $5 savings challenge, there is no pre-determined end date for this challenge meaning you don’t need to save money every week or month in order to complete this challenge.   
When you’re done, you’ll have $5,050 to either spend or put towards a bigger savings goal you have.   
This savings challenge works best when done with cash so it’s perfect for cash budgeters!  
Here’s how you get started:   
Head to your nearest Dollar Store and buy a pack of envelopes (enough to label them 1-100 individually)  
Take the envelopes out of the box and label each envelope with a number (start at 1 until you have labeled all 100 envelopes)  
Give the envelopes a shuffle and put them back in the box  
When you want to begin this challenge, take an envelope randomly from the box and fill with the appropriate amount (For example: If you pull the envelope labeled “42”, you will fill with $42)  
Put the completed envelope in the back of the box behind the empty envelopes   
Fill in the correct circle on the 100 Envelope Savings Tracker   
That’s it!   
This savings challenge is great because there is such a wide range of numbers you can choose from when you pick out your envelopes and the amount you pull is always changing.   
Weather Wednesday 
This savings challenge is not something you may not have heard of before but should consider trying out. The premise of this savings challenge is very simple—for every Wednesday in the year, you will save the equivalent of the high temperature for that day.   
Here’s an example:   
Say you look at your weather app into the coming week and you see the estimated high temperature of the day is 45 degrees Fahrenheit. That means you would deposit $45 dollars into your savings account for that week if that’s what the recorded high temperature is.   
Typically, in the Northeast, January and February are two of the coldest months of the year so you can expect your weekly contributions to decrease as the weather gets colder and increase in the Spring when everything starts to thaw out again!   
If you live in an area that generally has warmer weather, such as Arizona, you can use the estimated low temperature since the temperature surpasses 100 degrees Fahrenheit quite often in the summer and that can be too much for you to deposit if you are just getting started.   
If you’re ready to try one or some of these challenges out, we’ve created printable trackers so you can watch your savings accounts grow while keeping track of each deposit! 
Check the link in the show notes to view and download. 
If there are any other tips or topics, you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org.  Like and follow our Making Money Personal FB and IG page and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on social media to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 

Episode 53: New Habits for a Radiant New You - Barbara Hatfield, Life Coach

It's a new year and time for a new you. If you're planning to set personal resolutions that lasts longer than two weeks this year, you've come to the right place.
In this episode we're talking with Barbara Hatfield life coach about the benefits and challenges that come with setting new year's resolutions. 
Links: 
Follow Barbara on LinkedIn
Barb Hatfield Life Coaching on Facebook
Books mentioned in the episode:
The Gap and The Gain - Dan Sullivan
Atomic Habits - James Clear
The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
Learn more about the Pomodoro Technique
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Contact us at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org
View episode transcript.
Like what you heard? Go ahead and share on your social media! Visit trianglecu.org to learn more about how we can serve you and don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
 

Start Fresh: Get Out of Debt - Money Tip Tuesday

January is a great month for a fresh start. It’s the beginning of a new year and we’re often optimistic and energized to start making positive changes for our lives.
If you’re tired of the debt buildup you’ve been accruing over the months and even years, make one of your resolutions to get out of debt.  
Links: 
Watch our Budgeting 101 webinar with step by step instructions on how to budget
A personal loan can be a great debt consolidation tool
Watch our Financial Freedom: Your Path to Debt Free Living webinar 
Check out these additional money tips on tools to help organize your finances:
Wil's Top 4 Money Apps
Creating a Debt Payoff Strategy
Popular Financial Books for Your Reading List
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript: 
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast.  
New year resolutions are hard. They aren’t typically complicated, things like drink more water, exercise more, eat better, are all simple in nature, but a little more difficult to complete.  
When it comes to making financial resolutions, the same concepts apply. Decisions to save more, spend less or get out debt don’t sound too hard, but are fraught with complex actions that if not set up properly, will likely end in failure.  
If decreasing your debt is a resolution this year, you must set some things up right to give yourself the best chance of success.  
When you think about achieving your debt reduction resolution, most of it comes down to proper planning. You need to create a strategy and stick with it. Just saying “I want to pay off my debt” isn’t enough to carry you through to completion. You need to pick a debt payoff method and develop a realistic plan that’s effective enough to help you meet your goal.  
There’s a lot of debt advice out there and most of what you read, watch or listen to will present these three effective strategies to pay down debt.  
The first is to plan to pay more than the minimum payments. You’re going to have to budget for this one if you’re serious about getting out of debt. Find a way to either bring in more money, or free up cash by cutting spending elsewhere to use as extra payments towards your debts. Some people try to make extra payments once a month, quarter or year, depending on their budget and the type of debt they have. One of my friends has been making extra payments on her home every quarter since she had her mortgage and is now set to pay off her house five years earlier than expected because of it. Imagine doing that with your own mortgage or credit cards.  
The second is to use the snowball method. If you have multiple debts, you’ll want to systematically pay off your lowest debt first, and then, once it’s paid off, use the available cash to put towards the next debt, and so on. You’ll do this until all debts are eliminated.  
For example, say you have three credit cards with balances of $5,000, $2,000 and $800. While you continue to pay your minimum payments on all of them, focus on paying off the $800 bill first. After it’s paid, take the money you were putting toward that payment and put towards the next debt, in this case the $2,000. Once the $2,000 is paid off, then put the money from those payments towards the $5,000. This method has been shown to be one of the most effective and faster ways of paying off debt.  
The third is to consolidate. Having a variety of different debts can be confusing. It can be hard to keep track of all the different due dates and payments for each bill. Consolidation can help you in a couple of different ways. It will simplify the number of bills you receive and can often score you a lower interest rate. If you have many different bills, try consolidating some or all of them into a plan that makes it easier for you to pay and has the potential to save you money in the long run. Contact your financial institution or browse the internet to see what kinds of consolidation offers are out there.   
If you’re a good planner pick one of these or use a combination of all three to build your debt payoff strategy.  
Answer these specific questions when you create your strategy to keep it realistic and attainable. How much debt do I need to pay off? How soon do I realistically expect to be able to pay it all off?  be specific here. Choose a realistic timeframe, like 6 months, a year or two years. And finally, ask yourself How much extra can I afford to put towards my principal payments?  
The cool thing is there are a wide variety of tools available now to help with debt reduction. You can research a bunch of helpful apps and we’ve done some Money Tip Tuesdays in the past presenting some helpful tools for saving and debt reduction. You can also watch webinars like Triangle’s Financial Freedom: Your Path to Debt Free Living webinar on YouTube and of course, there are a wide variety of books you can read about debt reduction planning.  
Once you’ve determined your plan, keep track of it. Put it in a spreadsheet, on your bathroom mirror or in your calendar to keep a constant eye on it. Consider allowing yourself small rewards for meeting important milestones along your journey and plan to treat yourself to something special once you finally accomplish your goal.  
As the philosopher Aristotle once said, “success is easy to achieve once you set your mind on a specific goal.” Keep your goal top of mind and with a realistic, solid plan in place, you will be crossing that finish line in no time. 
If there are any other tips or topics, you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org.  Like and follow our Making Money Personal FB and IG page and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on social media to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 

Protect Yourself at the Pump - Money Tip Tuesday

If the price of gas frustrates you, some scammer trying to access your card information while you are gassing up might push you over the edge. In this tip you'll learn how you can protect yourself at the pump. 
Links: 
Learn more about Triangle's contactless debit and credit cards
Learn how to manage your cards and create alerts within mobile banking 
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript:
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making money Personal podcast. 
More than ever, we are hearing about fraudulent activity at gas stations. Fraudsters use card skimming devices to gain access to your credit and debit card information at the pump and you might not even be aware of the threat. 
According to fraud experts, the skimming device is attached to the pump to make it look like a piece of the gas pump payment terminal. After closer examination, you may notice that the reader is simply a piece of molded plastic that is attached to the card reader. Fraud experts encourage you to do a tug test on the device—if you can move the plastic, it’s probably a card skimmer and you should report it to the gas station attendant immediately. If you already used your card at the station, you should also notify your financial institution to minimize fraudulent activity on your card. 
The good news is: there is new token technology for your protection, and many financial institutions, including Triangle Credit Union,  offer this technology through mobile wallet and contactless card payments that protect you wherever you shop (or gas up). While tokenization saves time and is convenient, the process eliminates the need to input your Personal Identification Number (PIN), which minimizes fraudulent activity. Instead of a PIN-based transaction, mobile wallets issue an encrypted series of randomized numbers and/or letters in place of your card information. This series of numbers and letters is called a token. Similarly, contactless cards produce a one-time cryptographic code/token that masks your card information for a safe and secure transaction. These tokens are one-time use only, so if card or transaction data is fraudulently stolen from a payment terminal, your card information isn’t included, and the token cannot be reused. 
In addition to the technical side of the security these features offer, mobile wallet will also protect you from the issues that come from losing or dropping your card. When you use mobile wallet to make a payment at the pump or at the register, your purchase is authenticated through a series of confirmations: first, your ownership of the device is authenticated through biometrics, then your intent to pay is authenticated by clicking or tapping on your device. So, the security of your device creates an additional layer of fraud prevention for unauthorized payments if you lose your mobile phone. 
Triangle Credit Union’s mobile app also has integrated card controls so you can turn your debit and credit cards on or off with the toggle of a button. Keep your cards off when you’re not using them and turn them on to make a purchase. This will help protect your cards from unauthorized payments, anywhere at any time. 
Add your Triangle credit or debit card to your mobile wallet today. Visit trianglecu.org to learn more about Mobile Wallet. 
If you are member of Triangle Credit Union and would like to request a contactless debit card, please make an appointment through the concierge service at trianglecu.org and you can schedule a time to pick up your card at your convenient branch location. 
If you have any comments or ideas for additional tips, please email us at tcupodcast@TriangleCU.org. Be sure to follow the Making Money Personal podcast page on Facebook and IG for more great content. 
Thank you to our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union, and to you for tuning in!  
Have a great day everyone! 

Start Fresh: How to Save Money in the New Year - Money Tip Tuesday

It’s the New Year, which means you’ve probably made a few New Year’s resolutions. Is saving money one of them? Along with exercising more and spending more time with family and friends, saving money is near the top of New Year’s resolutions list in the U.S.
Unfortunately, only 9 to 12 percent of people keep their New Year’s resolutions, which is not great especially when it comes to something as important as saving money. Here are some tips to help you save money and keep your resolution. 
Links:
Listen to our money tip on doing your own Personal Money Review
Watch our Budgeting 101 webinar on YouTube
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript:
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast. 
The first thing you’re going to want to do is a financial review of your money and spending. If you’re not sure how to do that, we did a recent money tip episode on it which you’ll want to check out. Once you have finished your financial review, you will have a good idea of what you need to plan for in the future.  
After your financial review, a good place to start saving is to create a budget. You can record your expenses so you know how much you spend on bills, food, entertainment, and other purchases. Focus on what you actually need to spend money on and decide if you really need to buy miscellaneous items. If you want to learn more about setting up a budget watch our Budgeting 101 webinar on Triangle’s YouTube channel. 
Cutting down on extra expenses is a great way to save money. Sure, eating out is nice, but it can get expensive and it’s much cheaper to make your own food. Over the course of a year, this could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.  
You can also cut down on the amount of money you spend on subscription services. Are there any services you aren’t really using anymore? Unsubscribe from them and save that extra money. 
Look for cheap or even free things you can do instead. You can go for a run in the park to honor your “exercise more” New Year’s resolution. Spend time with family and friends talking and playing games.  The more purchases you can find to cut, the more money you have in your wallet. Now you can put all this money you’re not spending into a savings account. 
Set saving goals for yourself. How much would you like to have saved up one year from now? Take that number and divide it by how many paychecks you get a year. Put aside that amount of money after every paycheck and put it into your savings account. If you earn interest on your money in your savings account, that’s even better. The more money you put into savings, the more interest you’ll make. Triangle Credit Union offers a great online savings account that offers a competitive high yielding interest rate.  
Another way to save money is to increase your 401(k) contributions. While you may not see this savings return immediately, you’ll thank yourself later. The more money you put in now, the sooner you’ll be able to retire.  
With these money saving tips, hopefully you’ll be able to keep your New Year’s resolutions for the whole year! If these work for you, consider using them next year too! 
If there are any other tips or topics you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org and don't forget to like and follow our Making Money Personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on Instagram and LinkedIn to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 
 
 
 

Start Your Year Right With A Personal Money Review - Money Tip Tuesday

At the end of every year, and the beginning of a new one, we often feel an energy for new resolve. We look back and reflect on the things we accomplished and the things we hope to achieve in the new year.
If there’s anything you should consider starting fresh in the new year, it’s a revised look at your money. And that can’t be achieved without completing a personal money review. 
Links:
Open a Triangle Better Checking Account with ID Protect and access to your credit score and report at idprotectme247.com
Learn more about estate planning, insurance, investing and other financial planning services with Triangle Financial Group
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript:
At the end of every year, and the beginning of a new one, we often feel an energy for new resolve. We look back and reflect on the things we accomplished and the things we hope to achieve in the new year. If there’s anything you should consider starting fresh in the new year, it’s a revised look at your money. And that can’t be achieved without completing a Personal Money Review.   
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Sometimes looking back is the way to see forward. Albert Einstein is attributed to saying if you want to know the future, look at the past.  
When it comes to the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, it’s good practice to look back in order to learn a few things about your behavior and decide what you want to change or keep the same in the new year. 
This is pretty much the way we all make our resolutions. We reflect on the things we didn’t like and decide what we want to try to do differently. This can apply to pretty much any area of our lives, from habits to relationships and most of all our money. 
If you’re looking for a way to change something important in your life, start with the way you view your finances. Do a personal money review. 
The goal of a personal money review is to take account of your existing financial situation and determine where you think you’ll need to make changes to accomplish your new goals.  
So, how do you do a personal money review? Fortunately, it’s not complicated and shouldn’t take a long time.  
The first part of a personal money review is to review your income. 
You want to take a look at where you made money over the year. This includes your income, bonuses, any dividends, money you made from side gigs, and even any notable gifts like any inheritance.  
It may be challenging to collect all this information, but you can start with your latest paycheck and any quarterly statements for investment and bank accounts. Usually these are available to view at the beginning of January so you shouldn’t have to look too far to find them. 
Then you add it all up to see how much money you brought in last year.  
When reviewing your income, think about specific questions to ask like, Did you make as much as you wanted? Did you meet your savings goals? What are some specific ways to bring in some extra money this year?  
Reviewing your income will give you an idea how much you can pull in in a year. If you have an income goal, use this as a gauge to discover how much more you need to bring in to meet that income goal. 
 
The second part of your financial review is to look at your expenses. 
Get a sense of what your expenses were throughout the year. If you’re a good budgeter, there shouldn’t be any surprises here, but if you’re new to budgeting this may take a little bit of digging.  
Review the expenses you’ve incurred, especially the large ones. You may not be able to count all your expenses, unless you’re THAT organized, but take an account of what you can.  
Have your credit card balances gone up? Maybe you’re beginning to charge too much on cards. Did your recurring expenses rise higher than expected? How much has food increased? Has your rent increased?  
Take note of the answers to all these questions and calculate how much you’ll need to adjust in order to plan for the next year.  
It’s not likely you’ll remember everything, but review anything big as well as your monthly expenses and other annual costs like car registration, life insurance and the like. 
The idea of this is to detect certain areas of your spending over the last year that you either forgot about or didn’t plan for and then you should try to avoid those types of situations in the new year or find a way to budget extra for them this time around. 
 
Review your credit report.  
Why do you do this? Reviewing your credit report will give you an idea of where you stand from a lender’s perspective. If you’re planning for some big time purchases in the next year, whether it’s a new car, or a new house, your credit score will determine how likely you’ll be able to get financing for those things as well as how good of an interest rate you’ll be able to get.  
When you’re looking over your score ask yourself if it’s as high as you would like it to be. If not, review your behavior over the last year and determine possible reasons why it may not be where you want it. Did you miss any payments? Apply for too many credit lines? Run your bills up too close to your credit limit? If some of these sound familiar, look at your credit report and review it for these types of actions.  
Many popular credit platforms will assess your credit behavior and provide custom suggestions on what you can do to improve your score.  
If you have a Triangle Better Checking account and are registered with ID protect, simply log into idprotectme247.com to see your credit score and view a free copy of your credit report.   
If your score isn’t where you want it to be, take some time to draw up a strategy on how you can increase it over the next year.  
 
The last thing you’ll want to do is review any wills or other documents if you’ve experienced any major life events over the last year.  
Major life events like marriage or divorce, the birth of a child, death of a spouse, purchase or sale of a house, starting or selling a business or moving to a new state are all events that warrant adjusting a will and other important life documents.  
If any of these have occurred in your life over the last year, it’ll be wise to review these documents and accounts to update beneficiary and asset information.  
Professionals recommend you review your will and other documents completely every 4-5 years to keep things up to date. In this case, for a financial review, all you’ll need to consider is if anything has changed in the last year that would impact your will, and make a goal to take care of it through the proper channels.  
You’ll also want to take a moment to review any of your insurance plans, auto, life, home and others to assess that the coverage is adequate, and the cost is competitive. One rule of thumb is that you should shop for certain types of insurance like auto insurance every two years to make sure you’re still getting a good price. If it’s been more than two years since you’ve explored other options, this year may be the year to try it out.  
If you need any help when it comes to setting up a will or changing anything with your estate plan, you can contact our team at Triangle Financial Group. They offer financial planning services that cover everything from estate planning and insurance to investing and retirement.  
That sums up this tip on how to do a personal money review.  
The whole idea of a financial review is to take some time to reflect on the last year’s finances, the good and the bad, and take the necessary actions to set yourself up financially for the new year. 
Set up a strategy for specific changes you want to make in the new year, whether it’s starting a budget, a side gig, increasing your income, building emergency savings, getting out of debt or investing.  
Looking back gives you the chance to recognize both your successes and mistakes so you can set up new plans and goals for your future. 
If there are any other tips or topics, you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org.  Like and follow our Making Money Personal FB and IG page and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on social media to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 

How to Recover From Your Holiday Spending - Money Tip Tuesday

It’s normal to spend money during the holidays. You want to give presents to the people you love to show how much you appreciate them. But now that the holidays are over, and you’ve given out all your gifts, you now have to deal with the financial aftermath. Here are some tips on how to recover from your holiday spending spree. 
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Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
Transcript:
Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal podcast. 
The first thing you’re going to want to do is assess your financial situation. See how much money you owe and then start paying off your debt as quickly as possible.   
To do this, you might have to change your monthly budget in January around. Make a list of all your debts, payment due dates, minimum payment amounts, interest rates, and when you plan on paying them off. From there, you can restructure your January budget to fit your needs best.  
You will probably want to start paying off the credit cards with the highest interest rates first. Don’t just pay off the minimum monthly payment, even if it’s just an extra $10, the more money you put towards every payment the less you’ll owe in the long run and the faster you’ll pay it off. And always make sure to pay on time. 
You can also open an unsecured personal loan to reduce the cost of paying back how much you owe. Personal loans typically have a lower interest rate than credit cards do which makes them great for debt consolidation. Triangle Credit Union offers a wonderful personal unsecured line of credit that is a helpful safety net for any unexpected expenses and gives you plenty of flexibility to access funds when you need them for any financial situation. 
Did you get a holiday bonus or are you expecting some money from your tax returns? Consider using some of this money to put towards your holiday debt. Don’t consider bonuses or tax returns as money you can just freely spend, but rather view them as money you can save on the side or use to pay for things you’ve already bought.  
Once you’ve done all that, now is the perfect time to start thinking about next year’s holiday shopping. Yes, it is a bit early, but if you start planning what to do with your money now, you hopefully won’t need to recover from your holiday spending next time.  
One thing you can start doing now is put money aside specifically for holiday shopping. Budget out how much of your paycheck you want to put aside for this fund. By the time the holidays come around, you’ll have a nice amount of money to spend. Plan out what you are going to buy next time so you don’t overspend.  
If there are any other tips or topics you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org and don't forget to like and follow our Making Money Personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on Instagram and LinkedIn to share your thoughts.  
Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  
Have a great day! 

Episode 52: Top Five Ways to Handle the Holidays with Terri and Liz

Do the holidays stress you out? Are you too busy with gatherings and gift giving? Let's take a breath and slow down and talk about ways to handle the holidays.
In this episode Terri and Liz chat about their holiday preparations and discuss a few different ways they handle all the hustle and bustle that comes every holiday season.  
Links: 
Try using Triangle's popular Personal Loan for purchases or debt consolidation
Use online banking and mobile banking tools to keep track of spending
Explore the Money Management tool for help budgeting and paying down debt
Follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages!
Learn more about Triangle Credit Union
View episode transcript.