Today's blog is going to talk about...you guessed it, the basics. Before you can find yourself succeeding at any stage, you need to start from square one. This is going to involve: banks, ATMS, rewards, and budgets.
Many people have the opinion that all banks (including credit unions) are all the same. A way a friend once described it to me was this, "I feel like all the banks are essentially the same...the difference feels like either liking McDonalds or Burger King". Now granted that is a valid point, the minor differences are the ones that can make the biggest difference. I'll give some key examples that have a large impact. The first one is, how do i keep my accounts free. Each bank has different options to keep accounts free: Direct deposit, average balance, transfers, loans, or even no stipulations. It is important that you do your research and see which one best suits your need. There is no sense in paying fees for a bank account, when it can be free. An important note on that the banking world and regulations are ever changing, you never know when your account may have changed since when it is opened. It is important to do regular reviews of your account and statements to make sure such a change has happened. The reason that is important is when banks do change them, they will notify you, but if you do not catch the notification you could find yourself paying unnecessary fees.
The second thing you need to look at to avoid the fees is what does the bank offer? Do they offer a wide ATM network? If they do not, you may find yourself traveling and paying excessive fees. Look at how often your travel outside of where their ATMs are, and compare that against other networks.
The third thing is not a fee, rather the opposite. What kind of rewards does your bank offer; you have to spend money, might as well earn some back right? Cash back rewards are great, but also things like free access to certain things (online, billy pay) or even free checks may all have their own benefits for you.
The last thing i want to touch on, again very basic, is creating a budget. Almost everyone agrees it is important but many people do not stick to it. There are many different styles of budgets, and tools to help and ect, ect. But we want to keep it simple, take how much you make and minus what you HAVE to pay (bills, rent, ect). What you have left is what you can spend, very simple right? Unfortunately today, and in many households, the need to pay outweighs the income. We will talk about how to help fix that and get on your way to financial stability next blog post (hopefully coming in the next week)
As i just mentioned, next blog post we will discuss ways to help with the budget problems of spending to much and not making enough. I will also go over why credit cards are not the devil. I will try to keep this updated weekly and i would also like to help as many people as i can. If there are any topics you would like to see, any questions you have about the banking or financial worlds feel free to contact me at survivingfinancescharles@gmail.com. I will try to reply, or bring your feedback into the following blogs.
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