Certified Financial Planners have advice for you
On December 19th, our panel of Certified Financial Planners included:
Dennis Hebert, Strategic Wealth Advisors, 427-5999
Sue Hansen, Hansen's Advisory Services, 637-5153
Ted Sarenski, Blue Ocean Strategic Capital, 471-2672
Among the topics:
>Credit card costs. If you run up a $500 charge and pay it back at the minimum $15/month, it will take you 57.5 months to pay it off, and at 24.99% interest that $500 will really cost $862.50---73% extra! If you pay back at $25, it will take you 26 months and still cost you $653.42, that's 31% extra. Bottom line, if you cannot pay off your balance monthly, it's going to cost you more than the 'bargains' you're buying for the holidays!
>Use holiday shopping as a money management teaching experience. If you take your children shopping, you can talk about comparison shopping and figuring how much you save with those percentages off. They can also learn about what to do with money gifts they get, using the cash for short term purchases, or saving for long term goals, or donating to charity, too.
>Last minute money gifts:
~You can invest in a 529 plan for a child, to help pay for higher education. If you choose a NY plan, you also get a tax break on it.
~Give yourself a gift by putting a certain amount of money away on a regular basis, to use to pay debts or toward retirement.
~Invest in long term healthcare, and give your heirs the gift of not having to pay for extended healthcare as you get older. There's a tax break for this, as well.
>Insurance shopping (and money saving):
~Ask your agent to shop around and find a better deal.
~Pay your premiums once a year or semi-annually: if you pay monthly they'll tack on a 'service charge' of about 25%
~See if you can get a discount for putting all your insurance (house/car/boat/snowmobile) on one policy.
~If you up your deductible--pay more out of pocket for a claim--you'll have a lower premium.
>Should you refinance your mortgage? Some points to consider:
~Check your credit score, you need 720 or highter to get the 'low' rates, if you're under 620, forget it.
~You need at least 20% of the home's value in equity to avoid insurance surcharges
~You need to plan to stay in the house at least 5 years, to break even on the added closing costs
We answer your money questions every Monday in our 5 - 6:30pm news on NBC3. You can email questions in advance at money@cnycentral.com
