5 Smart Financial Goals to Set in 2018

Happy New Year! With a new year, comes a chance to set new goals and resolutions to achieve. The best way to achieve your desires is to set SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Today, we are going to be reviewing 8 SMART

FinancialGoals to set in 2018

The SMART methodology can be used for any goal that you wish to set – not just for your financial goals. For example, if your goal for 2018 is to lose more weight you could make that a SMART goal by saying the amount of weight you want to lose each month and what you will do to achieve the goal. Another example would be a goal of reading more books this year. Turning that goal into a SMART goal would be saying that you are going to read one book each month all year.

Now that you know exactly what SMART goals are and how to set them, check out these 8 SMART Financial Goals to set in 2018

EARN MORE MONEY

Who wouldn’t want to earn more money in 2017? By simply earning more money, it can allow you to achieve so many other goals. There are many ways to earn more money.

• Focus on a promotion at your full-time gig
• Grab a part-time gig for your free time
• Start a side hustle (like freelance writing, driving for uber, etc…)

To turn this into a SMART financial goal, be deliberate about how much extra money you would like to make each month and how you plan to do it. Instead of just saying you want to earn more money in 2017, say you would like to earn $1000 each month through freelance writing and affiliate income. After the specific goal is set, you can work on how you will achieve that goal.

SPEND LESS MONEY

In order to turn spending less money into one of your SMART financial goals, it is time to look at your spending from the previous year. This step will be easy if you used a budgeting app like Mint.com in the previous year. Look at each of the categories of spending in your budget to determine what areas can be reduced or cut out completely. Discretionary spending like eating out and shopping are typically the two categories that are the easiest to cut.

Even if you don’t use a budgeting app, it is time to have a heart to heart with yourself. I know, sound’s crazy right? However, it can work. Most of us know what our weakness is. It is up to us to decide whether to get that under control. Eating out at restaurants tends to get me in trouble. For you, it may be spending your money shopping. For others, it may be a bad habit of ordering random items on Amazon.

PAY DOWN DEBT

After the holidays, paying down debt is a goal for many people like my friend MJ who paid off 39k on a teacher’s salary. And Ebony Horton who paid of $220k off of debt in just 3 years. Besides the fact that debt literally costs you money each month while the interest is accumulating, it can also limit your extra income to use towards saving or traveling. In addition, your debt may be stopping you from achieving other goals like purchasing your first home.

In order to turn debt repayment into a SMART financial goal, be specific about how much debt you want to and realistically can pay off each month. Instead of saying you want to pay off your car loan in 2017, make your goal specific, measurable, actionable, and realistic and time bound. Therefore, your goal can be to pay off your car loan by September 2018 by making an additional $500 to the monthly payment every month.

IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE

Improving your credit score can literally improve so many other areas of your life. If you are looking to purchase a new car or buy your first house, it is imperative that you have a good credit score.

For example, if you have a poor credit score banks and loan companies will charge you a higher interest rate. Although it may seem like it isn’t a big deal, the same car payment for someone with a good credit score may be $300 but someone with a poor credit score may be $500.

If you aren’t sure where your credit score stands, then you need to head to Credit Sesame as soon as possible. Credit Sesame is a free website that provides a copy of your Trans union credit report and credit score. In addition, Credit Sesame provides customized tips based on your credit profile to show you how to raise your credit score.

SAVE FOR RETIREMENT

It is estimated that millennial will need 1.8 million dollars when they retire! Yes, you read that right, 1.8 million! Therefore, saving for retirement is essential to ensure a comfortable and successful retirement. Starting to save for retirement or increasing the amount that you are saving for retirement is a SMART financial goal to set for this year.

If you currently are not contributing to your retirement savings, start small. In the event your company offers a 401k plan, find out if they match any contributions. If the company does match contributions, contribute at least up to the match. By contributing up to the match amount, you are not leaving any free money on the table. If your company doesn’t offer a 401k plan or you work as a freelancer, start a traditional or Roth IRA. In 2018, the maximum amount that can be contributed to an IRA if you are under the age is 50 is the lesser of 100% of compensation or $5500.

Source:

https://michaelwoloshinblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/5-smart-financial-goals-to-set-in-2018/

10 Social Security Tips for 2018

Social security is a huge source of income for millions of individuals in America – disabled, retires and deceased workers. In fact, its purpose is to provide the safety for people who are unable to accrue adequate retirement savings. Here, Michael Woloshin has shared some of the social safety tips for the year 2018.

Today’s, societal security has become the vital element for safeguarding the lifetime income sufficiency. And a lot of people has started to pay attention to the societal safety benefits. In fact, there are lots of planning options available in order to receive the social safety profits.

Basically, it is a “pay as you go” system. This means individuals pay while they are working and acquire the monthly benefits after the retirement. In 2018, the societal safety recipients will acquire the two percent bigger payments. Moreover, this program also twisted in several ways that affect how much individuals pay and will obtain in retirement.

Following are Some of the Tips that Individuals Should Follow to Navigate Social Security  in Order to Take the Retirement Benefits:

• Know in Detail Before Applying

If you do not know the benefits of the social safety system, then read the rules before you grow to the retirement age. All individuals need to do is to surf the societal safety website in order to become aware of the norms.

• Work Long Enough to Make More Benefits

One should have to work long enough in order to make more benefits said, Michael Woloshin. Actually, the amount of regular retirement profit depends on how much social safety tax individuals pay.

• Select the Community With Low Price of Living

It is advisable to choose such retirement community in the United State where you can live on social security benefits alone. You can search out the budget of living statistics online for the cities you are interested in.

• Poor in Health People can Claim Early

This is beneficial to delay the benefit if you want to take more benefit. But if you are poor in health, then claim the benefit early.

• Write Down Your Full Retirement Age

People can get the higher societal safety profits if they wait until full retirement age. Hence, pin down correctly when that is for the risk minimization. For instance, the people turning 62 must wait until they turn to 66 years and 4 months in order to get to the required retirement age.

• Do not Rush to Claim

Never be in hurry to collect the societal safety profits earlier. One should have to think about it carefully. This is because claiming the social safety benefit before the full retirement age will reduce the benefit permanently by 6.67 percent each year.

• The Higher Earners Should Delay the Benefit Until 70

The people having high earning have to wait until the age of 70 for pension plans in order to take their benefits. In reality, waiting until the age of 70 means individuals can earn 8 percent a year in late retirement credits.

• Claims Welfares as a Surviving Spouse

In case the spouse dies before individuals do, they can claim a survivor benefit as they turn 60 years old. In fact, one can get hundred percent of what their spouse received at the full retirement age.

• Continue to Work in Order to Boost Future Benefits

Continue working for few more years after reaching the full retirement age add more profits. These extra years can count as the top 35 wage earning years and you can make good financial arrangements.

• Continuously Look for the Variations in Societal Safety Law

This is the most vital tip of all the above. Actually, some provisions of the societal safety change every year. Hence, one should keep their eye on the ball.

These are some of the societal security tips given by Michael Woloshin. Individuals must consider all the above tips while applying for the societal safety benefits.

Sources: https://www.allperfectstories.com/10-social-security-tips-for-2018/

How to Tame Your Student Loans

The student loan is easy to acquire but often tougher to pay back. In fact, the advance feels like the continuous burden as well as drain along with no end in prospect. Folks all the time keep thinking about how they save money for retirement and children’s tutoring. Are you one of them? If yes, then not to worry!

In this article, Michael Woloshin has given some tips on how to tame the student advances. The professionals help individuals in achieving their financial goals. Actually, paying student debt work for some people but is not the right move for everyone. According to a financial planner, some youngster put every last money toward the apprentice lends and abandonment their future in terms of saving.

One should also have to collect an emergency fund which covers at least 6-month value of living expenditures. Do you have high rate credit card debt? Yes, then wipe it out before taking more cash to learner advances. After all, crucial expenses are also the part of the picture along with paying off the Student Loans.

Popular Budget Guideline

A simple and well-known budget guideline is 50-20-30 rule. From which 50 percent of individuals take goes to essentials and 20 percent to whittling debit as well as adding saving. Plus, 30 percent to discretionary items like charitable giving, dining out, streaming, shopping, and cable or TV. You can make use of the budget app in order to track where your cash goes.

In fact, one can also seek the help of the monetary advisor for managing their money. The financial planners do not have the asset requirements and endow the virtual services. This is one of the best ways to deal with the budget in a proper way.

Following are some of the ways for taming student debt:

1. Make Some Extra Payments: Making an extra payment help in paying off the student advance on time. Let’s take an example that you have taken the $35,000 apprentice loan and you are paying 5.7 percent of interest on the debt. Also, you pay $373 per month.

This is according to Michael Woloshin that if you will pay some dollar extra i.e. $150, then you can clear the advance in 6.6 years instead of 10 years. Furthermore, this will save some money that you pay an interest rate.

2. Refinance: The people who refinance their student advance debt cut their interest rate by 2 percent says a financial advisor.

3. Go Through the Workplace Benefits: Individuals have to check that if their employers offer the apprentice advance refund benefits. There is no surprise if your company will provide this benefit. According to a human resource connotation, eight percent of the industries having up to 40,000 workers offer it. Hence, one should have to seek a company match which contributes to their loan repayment.

Wrapping Up

These are some of the useful ways for individuals to tame their student loan suggested by Michael Woloshin. Following these tips will help people in lessening the burden of loan repayment. Along with this, individuals can save money for future.

Sources:https://www.allperfectstories.com/tame-your-student-loans/