Personal Finance Advice

Have you made the switch to electronic statements for your bank and credit accounts yet? If you haven’t yet made the switch from paper statements mailed to you then there is a good chance your financial institution has been hard at work trying to remind you of the opportunity to do so. It’s no wonder that the companies you do business with would much rather send you electronic statements via e-mail instead of paying the postage and paper costs of producing a statement and sending it to you in the traditional way.

It’s also no wonder that many people are resistant to the idea of receiving their statements electronically. So many folks have been receiving their statements through the mail for so long that they become nervous at the prospect of receiving them another way. They wonder if it is safe to receive the statements electronically and also if they will be able to keep track of their finances as well without paper records. They may also wonder if they will be able to access the electronic statements from the past if they need to find something or if they need to prove that something was paid.

In most instances, electronic statements are safe and reliable. In fact, you may have better access to your account information if you sign up for this form of statement delivery. For example, if you want a copy of your checking account statement from nine months ago, you may have to pay a fee in order to get your financial institution to send the copy to you through the mail. On the other hand, if you have electronic access to your accounts, getting your hands on your statement from nine months ago can be as easy as logging on to the online access to your account, downloading the statement, and then printing the statement up with your own printer.

If you worry that you won’t be able to keep up with your money if you don’t receive the statement through the mail every month like you are used to, then you should realize that your success or failure in this department relies mostly on you. You will probably receive your statements even faster once you get them electronically, so this advantage may actually help you to manage your finances more effectively. It is up to you to open the statements that are e-mailed to you and review them thoroughly, just like you should already be doing with whatever statements you get now in the mail.

Make sure that the statements are sent to an e-mail address that is secure and that you don’t open and review the statements using computers that are easily accessible by other people. Even though electronic statements can be convenient, you have to remember that they contain sensitive information including your account numbers and home address. This is not information that you want to provide to someone who may be looking to steal your identity.

It’s great to be generous. People always appreciate when someone else is willing to come along and pick up the tab, and generosity can be a lot of fun if the other people aren’t expecting it.  A grand gesture to pay for the whole group of friends when out to dinner can delight everyone in attendance and can make you feel happy to be so generous. If you do this once in a while and you do it with money that you can spare, it’s generosity. If you do it every time as a rule regardless or if you can actually afford it or not, it’s no longer generosity; it’s ridiculous.

Being generous is a positive trait. When managing your personal finances, you should always make room for charitable giving and also allow yourself some extra money in order to occasionally splurge. If that splurging involves picking up the tab for dinners out with friends or buying a concert ticket for a friend, that’s fine as long as you have the money to do so. Putting these things on your credit card because you don’t have enough money to cover these things on your own is simply bad financial management. What you’re financing isn’t just food or a concert ticket. You’re also financing the experience of being generous and trying to buy an image of generosity among your friends.

Doesn’t that seem like a silly thing to finance?

When you are generous to a fault, the people around begin to expect your generosity and stop expecting to pay their own way. While this may not be a problem with everyone, there are some people who will certainly take advantage of your willingness to always pick up the tab. You will get plenty of invitations to go out to eat or to attend fun outings, but the problem is that these invitations won’t be a result of people really wanting to spend time with you because they enjoy your company. Instead, they’re just looking for someone to pay so they don’t have to.

Don’t get me wrong; being generous can be a lot of fun and in many instance it’s the right thing to do. If a family you know loses everything in a fire, go ahead and use your credit card to buy them some groceries if you know you can pay it back. On the other hand, if you get a phone call from a friend who really wants to have a night out on the town, but lacks the money to do so, this should not prompt you to propose a night out financed by your credit card.

Be generous, but be generous for the right reasons and don’t allow your own generosity to nudge you toward serious financial problems. The same generosity you routinely finance with your credit cards or with money you should be putting toward your own debt may someday evolve into a pile of debt that you just can’t handle. Do you think that the same friends who you bought so much for would chip in to help you get back on your feet financially, or is there a good chance that once you stopped picking up the tab some of those people would be gone?

If you belong to a credit union or any type of membership professional organization you might be able to get substantial discounts on things like car insurance, some types of merchandise and other things that you might already buy. It’s called an affiliate discount, and it’s one of the perks of belonging to a group of many people.

Common affiliate discounts include insurance products such as car insurance, life insurance, and certain services like vision procedures. Some affiliate discounts reduce prices on travel or merchandise. While it may not make a lot of sense to seek out an affiliation with a membership group for the sole reason of getting discounts, especially since most of these organizations require monthly membership dues, chances are that if you belong to a group like this you may be missing out on discounts for things you already buy.

Do you have a credit union membership? If you have an active account at a large credit union, there is a good chance that you can get additional discounts on car insurance because plenty of credit unions team up with car insurance companies to make both organizations seem more appealing to potential customers. The credit union hopes that you will join partly because of the perks you’ll receive including the affiliate discount while the car insurance company hopes that you will buy insurance through them because of the existing relationship with the credit union. All in all, it is just another way that companies try to entice you into doing business with them, but it can save you quite a bit of money.

If you already have insurance, contact your insurer and ask about any discounts offered for affiliate group membership. You may discover that you qualify for a nice discount already based on a group you belong to. You should also have a look at the Web site of any professional organizations or other groups that you belong to because chances are there is information there regarding any discounts offered by marketing partners.

Keep in mind that a discount for an inferior service or overpriced items does not turn out to be a smart financial move after all. You should utilize an affiliate discount when it will save you money on something that you already pay regularly for, or for something that you intend to buy. Remember that just because something is discounted it does not automatically mean that it is the best deal available.