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You don’t have to be rich to have a will. In fact, if you have the expectation that you are going to have any assets or personal property that you would like to give to your family/friends or charities after your death, you need a will. More than half of Americans die without a will or what is called “intestate” which causes their loved ones additional time, money and frustration as they navigate the court system to settle the estate.

A good first step to take is to read the online Wills FAQ. (more…)

Kermit the Frog had it wrong. It is much easier today to be green than ever before and save more for yourself and your financial goals in the process. By making simple changes in your daily life and purchasing habits you can save money and the earth at the same time. How cool is that?

The first step is to check out the great tips on 10 Ways to Go Green in your school from nea.org and how to Green Your Classroom. You can also find information on Teaching Students About Carbon Emissions. (more…)

You apply sunscreen, use your seat belt, and wear a helmet when you ride a bike, but how often do you think of protecting your identity and personal information? While you may think that identity theft may never happen to you, over 10 million people a year are victims to some sort of identity theft. I should know; I was once one of them. (more…)

Continuing from a previous discussion, let’s talk more about debt. To be really smart about debt, it pays to know what the costs are of the credit cards you are using. Those costs would include what fees are associated with the cards you hold, how your interest rate is calculated on the balances you carry from month to month, and what types of actions will be assessed additional charges. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry on the various discounts available through NEA Member Benefits and how using them can help you find more money to save for your financial goals. A reader commented that they felt many of the NEA discounts offered aren’t relevant to their needs or interests. It got me thinking. So, what are the discounts that you as an NEA member use most? What discounts would you like to see more of or have NEA MB add to our list of services?

Remembering that as a national membership organization we aren’t really able to provide regional or local discounts, I’d like to hear from you. Post a comment and share your input. If you’re not seeing the types of discounts you want or need, please let us know.

As someone who signed up for her first credit card while still in college with no regular income of my own to speak of, I know how easy it is to get into debt and how hard it can be to get out of it. If one of your financial goals is to rid yourself of the debt albatross, there are tried and true ways to go about it and pitfalls to avoid. (more…)

One of my basic financial planning principles is never pay more than you have to for something — that way, you can save any discount or price difference towards your financial goals. NEA Member Benefits is always trying to bring relevant and unique discounts to NEA members. So, if you are looking for additional ways to save on items you might already use, here are some online discount/savings resources specifically designed for you: (more…)

So once you have your investment asset allocation in place, you’re set, right? Not so fast. Remember the Callan chart which shows that some asset categories outperform others depending upon market conditions? Well, those asset classes and categories that perform better may become a larger and larger percentage of your portfolio, thus changing your asset allocation, as well. That’s where rebalancing comes into play. (more…)

Last post, we talked about risk tolerance and its role in investment strategy. The next step in investing for your financial goals is understanding the importance of asset allocation. In its simplest terms, asset allocation is the diversification of an investment across the main asset classes of cash, equity and fixed income. There is even an often quoted study from 1986 that states that 94% of the variation in investment returns is determined by the chosen asset allocation. Granted, that study was conducted almost 25 years ago, but asset allocation still has a big impact today on your potential investment returns. (more…)

Once you decide to start saving for your financial goals, you often have to define what kind of investment strategy to follow to reach your objective. That strategy will in part be determined by two important factors — your investment time horizon and your risk tolerance. Or, how long will the money need to grow (time horizon) and how much volatility in your investment returns (risk tolerance) are you willing to incur? (more…)