Free Financial Advice for Long-Term Success
Financial guidance made simpler
Financial advice can help you manage everything from day-to-day expenses, car and home loans, investing strategies, and eventually even retirement plans. However it usually comes with a price tag, which can put financial guidance outside of the budget of many people.
The combination of fee-based advising services and the complexity of financial products means that useful free financial advice is rare. HelloWallet provides highly rated financial guidance with proven results and is free to start.
Good financial guidance can help you create a plan that balances everyday budgeting, debt management, as well as savings and investment. When creating a financial plan realistic expectations are important, since the payoffs to saving money through proper budgeting and investment take time.
Here are some basic rules to remember:
Budgeting
Living within your means is easy if you can distinguish between necessary and luxury expenses. A vacation every year, new clothes for each season, eating out, and most electronics are luxury expenses. Groceries, rent, insurance, and debt payments are necessary expenses. Try keeping track of everything you purchase over the course of a week and then separate necessary versus luxury purchases; you will be surprised by the amount you could have saved!
Debt Management
Paying service on debt, especially credit card debt, can seriously reduce your net-worth and lead to financial insecurity. If you have issues with credit card debt, the first order of business is to stop adding to it. Try making all your purchases in cash. Remember that interest payments are based on your total debt, so even making small payments on your principal will reduce your monthly service payments.
Saving and Investment
Ideally we would all like to accumulate savings in order to provide security against accidents and unemployment, as well as money for retirement. Investment is the mirror to saving, since any money you save can be more profitably put to use than being left in a checking or savings account.
Over 20 million households rely on low-yield savings accounts, missing out on the returns of higher yield assets. One of the easiest investment tools is the Certificate of Deposit (CD). This is a time deposit that most banks offer, and can yield substantially higher interest rates than a savings account.
There are many other higher yield financial instruments such as equities (a small portion or “stock” of ownership of a company), bonds (corporate or government debt), and various investment fund opportunities that combine these instruments and are professionally managed. However higher-yield instruments means higher risk, so the cost and risk for these products can be too high for many investors.
There are several options for organizing your personal finances. Sample budgets are available online. There are also several software options, but these cost money. HelloWallet provides free-to-start financial guidance that combines budgeting, debt management, savings and investment services. Our members save an average of $600 in the first month and pay nothing.
HelloWallet’s web-based platform makes it easy to understand your finances, as well as create personalized budget, retirement, mortgage, portfolio, education plans and much more. Our top-rated financial guidance removes the stress and time commitment of managing your finances, allowing you to rest assured that financial experts are watching after you and your family.
