Sunward's financial fitness partner, BALANCE, offers a free online toolkit that explains how spending, saving, borrowing, and planning work together to create your financial health. The second pillar of financial health is to save. By creating budgets and savings goals that fit your needs, and sticking to them, you can save for emergencies or big purchases. Doing so can also help you avoid accruing bad debt. Here are a few steps you can take to get started:
- Set a goal. Be specific in describing your goal and make sure it is measurable. If your savings goal is too grand, it may become overwhelming and it will be harder to stick to. Break down your savings goal into achievable and realistic action steps. This will help to make your goal not seem so daunting. Lastly, set a timeframe for achieving your savings goal.
- Put your savings into an account that best suits you. How much money you already have saved, your timeframe, and what you are comfortable with, risk-wise, all plays into what kind of account might best suit your savings needs. Sunward offers different kinds of savings accounts, including basic savings accounts, money market accounts, term certificates, and individual retirement accounts (IRAs).
- Stick to your goals and track your earnings. No matter where you start, you’re on the right track to financial stability when you have and follow through with a savings goal. Stick with it!
What you do today to manage your money can greatly impact your overall financial wellbeing now and into the future. Visit slfcu.org/BALANCE to learn more about their Steps to Financial Health toolkit to help increase your financial resilience in difficult times while also preparing to take advantage of new opportunities.
