Invest Wisely

Best Financial Moves You Can Make to Improve Your Financial Health

by Megan Roth5 min read
Best Financial Moves You Can Make to Improve Your Financial Health
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This year, while it’s still early, it’s good to know which financial moves are best to address your financial past and move forward to the future. If you want to set aside your spending ways and be more educated on money matters, these are what financial advisers, accountants, and bankers have to say. These are coupled with common sense and their online expertise. It could result in immediate savings and other could secure benefits in the future. This is crucial to your overall financial health.

 

1. Do Not Be Afraid of the Stock Market

If you know how to invest your money(financial moves), you have an important skill. Being afraid of the stock market could be because of the idea that you don’t know how investing works. The thought of handling over your hard-earned cash with no guarantee of growing is an understandable fear but there is a way around this education. That is a broker who would serve as an intermediary between you and the investing world. The broker receives a fee for you to get his advice and access his knowledge and give you his recommendations.

However, you still need to educate yourself. The great news is that there are apps for that. When you’re a beginner in investing, you need to have the right brokerage account which can be so much more than a simple platform for placing trades. It can help you in building a solid foundation in your investments and function as a teacher, advisor, and investment analyst. It would also serve as your portfolio. NerdWallet is an app that has been rated as the best online brokers for beginners. Users have great reviews for their customer service and the education that they receive and noted that the company does a robust research.

 

 

2. Be Smart About Your Auto Insurance

According to experts, you should not insure your car like a Tesla if you are driving a clunker. Car insurance could rival your mortgage especially in some states. If you’re driving an older model, you are likely paying for physical damage coverage. This is what they call collision insurance and you may not need it so it could be a waste of money. If, for example, your car’s current value is a thousand dollars, and it’s the same as your current deductible, the insurance company will reimburse you for the value of the car if it’s stolen minus the deductible. That means you would get nothing. If you get into an accident, you will be responsible for all repairs up to your deductible which is a thousand dollars and you will be reimbursed for any repairs over $1,000 up to the value of the car which means 0. What you can do is to drop your physical damage coverage and you can save money on premiums. You can run the numbers or get the help of an agent.

 

Best Financial Moves You Can Make to Improve Your Financial Health

 

3. Health Savings Account Financial Moves

You can manage your health care expenses better if you enroll in a tax-advantaged health savings account. You can do this either through your employer or directly and it will benefit you in the future. 79% of employees have said that they experienced an increase in healthcare costs in the previous year and only 11% said that they know how to figure out their coverage in healthcare costs in retirement.

A Health Savings Account is available to taxpayers in the US who are enrolled in a health plan with a high deductible. The money that you pay to such an account is not taxed. So, in addition to withdrawals and tax-deductible payments, a Health Savings Account offers you the ability to invest. It also provides a potential to grow your financial contributions free of tax over time. This account is portable and controllable which means that you can use them to fund other qualified medical expenses and healthcare costs not just currently but during retirement.

 

 

4. Prepare for Caregiving

Being a caregiver is when your parents or spouse becomes incapacitated. This is increasingly recognized as something that everyone should have financial plans for. You should do some advanced financial moves (planning) in the present before the need arises.