Six Steps to Your Own Pot of Gold

During the month of March, you can hardly escape the Irish jokes and the little leprechaun figurines. You may think to yourself "That lucky little leprechaun, always finding a pot of gold. I wish I could find a pot of gold!" Don’t deny it, it’s true. You've thought it at least once in your lifetime.

What if I told you that you could find a pot of gold? Or that you might already have it? You might think I've gone crazy. Nope! You have the power to create that pot of gold, simply by saving!

I've encountered many people that balk at saving, and have excuses like "It’s too hard" or "I don't make enough to save" or "I just can’t." There’s no such word as "can’t," and it’s not hard at all. Trust me, I know, I've been an anti-saver. Working at HCCU and other personal experiences have shown me how important saving can be as of late, and I want to spread the message on to you! If you’re able to save, you can give yourself peace of mind by putting away enough to cover unforeseen expenses or save up for a future purchase. Let me give you a few tools/ideas to help you save.

Transfer money: Put a given amount into your savings account at a given interval. For example, you could set aside $50 from each paycheck. You can do this manually or schedule it through ItsMe247 Online Banking (also known as OLB). You can also come into any branch and ask a Member Representative to transfer that money or help you set up an Automatic Funds Transfer.

Open a Club Account: Heck, open as many club accounts as you need. I suggest this because having a savings account allotted for a specific goal helps make that goal real. I have a club account that’s titled "Rent," and that’s where I place a portion of my paycheck. Doing this helps keep it separate from my other money and keeps me from accidentally spending it during the month. The account can be opened with a Member Service Representative, and you can nickname the account anything you want through your OLB.

Debit Card Round-up: This is a fantastic tool we've just rolled out this year. As it sounds, this service rounds up your debit card purchases. Here’s an example: You bought a coffee with your debit card for $2.50. The system rounds that total up to $3.00. The $2.50 goes to the vendor, but that extra $0.50 goes into a savings account of your choice at the end of each day. If you make multiple debit card purchases in a day, the sum of all that rounded changed is placed in your account. If you have any more questions about this, or to enroll, call or go see a Member Service Representative.

Avoid Fees: Avoiding fees will help keep those pennies in your pockets. There are three ways to avoid fees. The first is managing your money well. If you don’t manage your money well, you are likely to encounter fees from overdraft transfers, NSF fees or Regulation D fees. The second way to avoid fees is to make your payments on time. Late fees are just extra money out of your pocket! The last way to avoid fees is to use all your resources. For example, avoid incurring a $2 fee for a phone transfer done by a Member Service Representative by using OLB or the CU*Talk automated phone banking instead.

Budget: I don’t care who you are, you need a budget in order to maintain a good financial position. Allot a certain amount to various costs and stick to it. I aim to be a bit under budget if possible, because that allows me to save a little more.

Track Your Expenses: Truthfully, this has been the most helpful thing for me. You can use a little notebook, or one of the many apps available in the Google Play Store or the App Store. I am usually attached to my phone, so I use an app. I have to manually update each transaction in the app, so I reconcile it daily with ItsMe247 Online Banking, to make sure I haven’t missed something.

Even if you only try a couple of these, I’m sure you’ll be able to find your own pot of gold—it’s been there all along!

Post by: Breanna B.

Now at HCCU - Debit Card Round-Up

Are you like me and want to add to your savings without it feeling like an effort?  We have a new program that started this year called ‘Debit Card Round-Up’, and it does just what it sounds like – every time you use your debit card the total bill gets rounded to the next dollar and the difference is put in your designated savings account!  So, say you’re at a convenience store getting gas and soda – your bill totals $34.36; with the round-up we will pay the store $34.36, put $0.64 to your savings at the end of the day, and the total taken from your checking will be $35.00.   If you use your debit card often you could be adding significant amounts to your savings!  The round-up money is not ‘held’ for any length of time, so if you find you've used your debit card so much that you need the money in savings – simply transfer funds back to your checking account.  See?  Savings without effort!

If you have any questions just stop in to either Horizon Community Credit Union branch and talk to any of our Member Service Representatives.

Post by: Mary DeGroot

The 52 Week Savings Challenge!

So, it’s the time of year where we are all about spending money, whether it’s for gifts, visits to family, donations to charity, or for the fantastic meals that you’ve been dreaming about all year. It seems that everything around you is telling you to buy, buy, buy, so it may seem like a weird time to talk about saving your money, but we all have to start somewhere!

About a year ago, I found a cool savings challenge that I wanted to try. I’ve struggled for years to save enough money so that I would have a comfortable margin for error- if my car broke down, if an unexpected bill hit, etc- but nothing seemed to motivate me enough to actually start saving. Sure, when the problem was right in front of me, I would say that tomorrow I would start, but tomorrow is always just a little too late to help. The challenge I found seemed relatively easy, and since it was basically a competition, I was going to WIN.

For each week of the year, you put aside another dollar. So, the first week is one dollar, the second is two dollars, the third is three, etc. The most you ever have to do is $52, and that’s at the end of the challenge. By then, you’ve seen your money growing, and feel a sense of real pride. At the end of the year, you have an additional $1378!

If you started the challenge right now, this week, you would have enough saved next year to have a spectacular Christmas season, or perhaps something put aside to start paying for that new car, because the old one just keeps breaking. It’s also rather convenient to have a small fund to “borrow” from, something I’ve done at least three times this year. If I hadn’t been challenging myself, I wouldn’t have had enough to get my car repaired when the brakes went out, I wouldn’t have been able to purchase a new laptop when the old one refused to turn back on, and I wouldn’t have been able to pay my rent one month when the money from a paycheck was going to be a week later than I had anticipated.

And because I’m addicted to a challenge, I have two going on at the same time, about two months apart. When this is all done, I’ll have almost $3000 saved in just over a year, and that’s something I haven’t ever done before. It’s enough to replace the car that keeps breaking, or take a little vacation, or perhaps to save for another rainy day. I do know that I’ll be doing this again next year, and maybe this time I’ll put it in an Add-On CD, so that I won’t be able to touch it unless there’s an emergency. Maybe that will encourage some better fiscal planning on my part. This challenge certainly has. 

Post by: Liz R

Emergency Savings

What Is An Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund is money that you’ve saved up for the purpose of helping you maintain your normal life through the emergencies that life hands you.

When is it okay to use it?

• When you lose your job
• When an appliance breaks down
• Medical emergency 
• When a car needs repairs

When is it NOT okay to use it?

• Going on a shopping spree
• Buying a new TV
• Going on vacation
• Buying a new car

How to start up an Emergency Fund…

A common mistake made by many who plan to start an emergency fund is that they set their goal too high and often get discouraged when they realize that it will take longer than they expected to reach it.

Set your initial goal low!
Set a goal that you would be able to reach in just a few months rather than a few years. Take into consideration your financial situation and determine how much you can afford to put into your emergency fund each week. Anything is better than nothing at all; the important thing is to get started today!  

Where to save your emergency fund?
After you decide what amount you want to start off with, think about where you want to keep your money. Since it is an emergency fund it would be smart to keep it somewhere where you can get access to it easily. We can help! You can open up a savings account, money market account or short-term certificates here at Horizon Community Credit Union. Any of these accounts will give you easy access to your money, while earning you some interest!

How often should you deposit money into your emergency fund?
When deciding how much to start putting into your savings fund, try to make sure you are able to deposit that amount weekly. For example, $40 a week would get you to $500 in three months! It doesn’t have to be $40 a week though; it can be what you can afford and make sure it challenges you a bit, just not something impossible.

Don’t have the time to stop in every week?
Sometimes life gets a little busy and you may not find the time to be stopping by every week to deposit your weekly addition to your emergency fund. It happens to all of us! Something that Horizon Community Credit Union offers that you could find useful would be reoccurring transfers. When you open up an account you can set a reoccurring transfer to transfer your specific amount every week without you having to worry about stopping in! And when you reach your goal you can choose to stop the reoccurring transfer.  Or if you are feeling ambitious you could set a higher goal and continue putting money into your emergency fund!

How to keep track of your emergency fund?
You can use our online banking and keep track of how much your emergency fund is growing! It’s fast and easy and you can use it on your computer at home or on the go with your phone!

Saving money shouldn’t be as hard as it seems. With the help of the accounts and services Horizon Community Credit Union offers it is convenient, reliable and safe! 

Post by: Karla C.