new year is here finally and now is the right
time to make some financial resolutions and plans to grow
your wealth, protect yourself and your family in the
new year. So with many experts predicting a global
recession and is a good time to take action to
protect your finances ahead of what could be another volatile
year. And joining me now is bobby rebels certified
financial planner and personal finance expert at sally bobby.
It's great to see you on this new year.
And what are some smart financial moves that you think
people should consider just in case we see another rocky
year? Well, first of all, happy new
Year to you, Thank you for having me.
I always love joining you at cheddar. I think
the first thing we should do and and you talk
about the stock market, a lot of us are
feeling skittish. So we've been loading up on the
savings. That's not a bad thing. But we
want to make sure that our savings are actually working
for us. So take a look at whatever you're
getting in terms of your return needs to be a
little bit better than you know, kind of stuffing
it under the mattress as we used to say,
make Sure that you're getting hot at least that your
money is at least in a high yield savings account
at a minimum and maybe think of some new,
well not so new ways but newly re examined ways
of where to put your money for example. One
thing that's getting a lot of attention these days are
I bonds because they're indexed to inflation, you can
put up to$10,000 per person in those bonds.
You can, you do have to leave them in
. I want to say for a year at minimum
and to get the full benefit you're gonna be looking
at five years. But it is a way to
get at this point and it does change almost close
to 7% return. That sounds really good when you're
looking at what happened with the stock market in 2022
Kristin. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned I bonds
bobby. I think all of a sudden last spring
we started hearing about these I bonds. Um and
everyone was trying to get into the extent They could
$10,000 is the max there. But let's say I
bonds aren't for you, you want to have liquid
cash and so that savings account, that high yield
savings account might be the best option for you even
perhaps just you know, for basic emergency fund needs
what's kind of the average rate that you would consider
to be a competitive rate in the current market on
a high yield savings account. You know, things
are really changing all the time. So I don't
want to be the one to come out there and
say a rate. What I would say is you
wanted to be comparing them. So when it comes
to savings, don't be afraid to shop around and
see what is happening at the banks that are available
to you. You've got them up there so you've
done the homework for me. But it's really hard
to get people to move banks. So I want
people to be open to it. The average according
to go banking rates by the way the average person
is staying with their bank For up to 17 years
. That's a very long time. You want to
go to your bank and make sure you're getting the
best deal possible. So look are you paying ATM
fees, are you paying maintenance fees and if you
are you need to go in and negotiate that or
maybe consider moving your money and make sure that the
bank you choose fits where you are in your life
. For example if you have a lower cash balance
you may want to bank that will have a better
situation if you have overdraft. So maybe a better
overdraft protection if your assets are growing, you may
want to consider moving part of them into a brokerage
account because remember F. D. I. C
. Insurance only up to$250,000 per account. So
make sure it fits what you need at this stage
of your life. Okay. Such great advice,
bobby of course debt is another big issue that a
lot of consumers facing, especially around the holidays,
best tips to tackle debt that's accumulated amid these high
interest rates. First of all know that it may
not be your fault you mentioned so eloquently earlier that
many of these people that were stuck with Southwest flight
. Debacles have to now carry credit card debt because
they had all these extra expenses and they're waiting on
southwest so do not be ashamed. Do take action
. One way to be sort of really supersize it
is to use the avalanche method where you're paying off
the highest interest credit card debt first and then work
the way down. Always of course making the minimum
payments always on time. Also use the tools that
will make your life easier tally. For example uses
machine learning to find the most efficient way to pay
down your debt and then of course interest rates are
always high with credit cards it's only getting worse.
So make sure you focus on getting a lower interest
rate if you qualify tally can get you into into
a personal line of credit and lower interest rates.
You pay it off as much as twice as fast
. And the important thing is to put more cash
in your pocket. Yes. Okay well bobby,
another question that I have is 401k. Investing.
We've heard people say, you know set a plan
to stick to the plan. Other people try to
time the market. What's the best way to go
about retirement investing and what could be another volatile year
for the stock market so well said yes it could
absolutely be another volatile market so we don't want to
be timing the market because none of us are probably
that good. You don't want to be over checking
your 401k. But you do want to make sure
that you're rebalancing it because things have been so different
in the past few years that you may find you
have more of one investment that you originally intended.
So go back in and check that you I also
want to make sure that you're upping the ante when
it comes to how much you're putting in the government
now lets you put in up to I believe 22,500
per year that goes up to 30,000 if you're over
50 50 and above I should say so make sure
you're maxing out if you can, if you can't
, what I suggest you do is set up automated
increases so you can go into your 401k. And
say in six months I want to put 1% more
in and do it automatically. You can always change
your mind so don't be afraid to do that.
It'll prompt you and of course make sure you're always
doing what you need to do to get the corporate
match that's available to you. Such great advice bobby
rebel certified financial planner and personal finance expert at tally
bobby. Thank you. Happy new Year