Financial and Lifestyle Resources for Vermont

The idea of leading a balanced life is not a new idea. We are more fulfilled when we achieve balance in all areas our life, including our work, personal relationships, family, and finances.

For most of us mere mortals, saving money is difficult at best. It’s easy to begin with the best of intentions only to give up due to forgetfulness, frustration, or exhaustion. To help you get started and keep going, here are three sets of creative ideas for saving money on a tight budget. The first set will help you get going. The second set will keep you motivated. The third set will help ensure long-term success.

What’s the secret to saving money? Use less money than you make! Saving money is really quite simple, and yet many people struggle to do it. Instead, we tend to use credit to make purchases and end up paying high interest rates on our debt. Why is it so hard to save? Because in order to achieve any goal, you need a plan. With savings, the plan is called a budget.

There is no shame in shopping online or out of state for the holidays. I’ve found some of my best holiday gifts in distant cities. BUT! There is so much more to be gained, for you and your community, by weaving a good deal of local shopping into your holiday plan. The only trick is saving time and money while you’re at it.  

So here's a fun fact, which also happens to be the reason I’m writing this blog: International Credit Union (ICU) Day comes every year on the third Thursday of October (October 18 in 2018). It’s a big day for credit unions and this year (2018), the theme is “Find Your Platinum Lining.” If you’re wondering why they're messing with your silver lining, they have a good reason. This is the platinum (70th) anniversary of ICU day, which started in 1948 and has been celebrated on the third Thursday of October since then.

When you pay off debt, you open up options for yourself. You improve your cash flow, so you can stop living from paycheck to paycheck; you free up money so that you can buy the things you need and want to live a more productive and engaged life; and you put yourself in a position to save more money for a more comfortable retirement.

When I was a little girl, my mother often took me to see a woman named Maisie. She was an older, Native American woman—hunched from age, one tooth remaining in an otherwise empty mouth. Wise and thoughtful, Maisie became a quick friend and when she died a year or so after I met her, I was heartbroken. She was the first major death in my life.

I am a passionate person, so I often have to rein in my emotions when making important decisions like buying a house. But you don’t have to be an overly intense person for your decisions to be influenced by emotion. In fact, it has long been known that emotions are the primary drivers behind human decision-making. Though our emotions can help us make quicker decisions based on past experiences, they can also get in the way of good decision-making by allowing us to sidestep our more analytic nature.