The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) may go down in history as one of the most-loved video-game-to-big-screen adaptations, but did you know that it also holds valuable financial lessons? Beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi’s journey provides insights that can be applied to our own personal finances. From budgeting wisely to navigating unexpected challenges, the adventures of the Mario Brothers offer a surprisingly relevant and entertaining guide for managing your money. So, let’s power up our personal finances and…
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January is a great time to create a financial checklist for yourself and set a plan for how you can better prepare for the year ahead. This checklist will help you create a better plan of realistic goals for the short-term and long-term. While it is great to have a checklist in place, you also need to keep in mind that plans change, and the world is full of uncertainty. It is important to find peace with the fact that…
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Preventing Elder Fraud and Financial Exploitation
Fraud Money Management
Financial loss from elderly fraud is in the billions annually. Seniors are the fastest-growing population segment in Ohio and the Scripps Gerontology Center projects more than 1 in 4 Ohioans will be age 60 and older by 2025. Unfortunately, that growth has contributed to high rates of fraud and financial exploitation targeting the elderly in our state. The national rate of elder financial abuse is also high, with 1 in 20 cases of seniors falling victim to the crime, according…
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6 ways to prepare for retirement
Life Goals Money Management Spending/Saving
Planning for retirement can be daunting, leaving even the most-prepared individuals feeling anxious. In an Ohio Credit Union League 2018 consumer survey, 92 percent of respondents said they had at least one major financial concern about retirement. A majority of the survey’s respondents, about 74.6 percent, don’t plan to retire from full-time employment in the next five years, if ever. Ohioans’ financial fears surrounding retirement vary. Most, 27.5 percent, fear they won’t have time to save what they need. Another…
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How should you manage the money you’re saving for retirement? Here are five time-tested principles you can put into practice now: 1. Evaluate your investment mix. Because no one can regularly predict how investments will perform in the future, dividing your money among the different types of assets is a way to help reduce risk. 2. Review your portfolio. Annually evaluate how your investments are performing by comparing returns with their appropriate benchmarks. 3. Focus on the long term. Although…
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A: An IRA can be opened in a few simple steps, and the process can go especially quickly once you find the right provider for your needs. You can complete the whole process online. IRAs are important tools for saving for retirement, but many people mistakenly think an IRA is an investment itself. Instead, it’s an account that holds your investments. Here we’ll walk you through the process of choosing an IRA provider and opening an account, step by step. 1. Determine what…
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A: If you’ve been at your previous job for a few years, you’ll need to decide what to do with your old 401K plan. If you aren’t careful and make a mistake in the way you handle the account, it could cost you in taxes and penalties, not to mention how it could affect your retirement planning. According to a 2017 SHRM Employee Benefits survey, most organizations offer defined contribution plans to help employees save and plan for retirement….
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A: A 401K is a feature of a qualified profit-sharing plan that allows employees to contribute a portion of their wages to individual accounts. A 401K plan is a type of retirement plan that your employer can legally offer to employees. The plan allows both the employee and employer to get a tax deduction when they put money into the employee’s 401K retirement account. In order to ensure you’re getting the most out of your 401K, make sure that…
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