When is it Okay to Use Your Credit Card?

Institute Editorial Team 09/13/2021

by Carol Strazinsky When is it okay to use your credit card? This is an important question to be asking ourselves. It can be tempting to purchase that designer handbag you’ve been fawning over, or even to pay for groceries when finances are a bit tight. However, when you are getting ready to swipe that card, take a step back and think about why you are making the purchase and whether it will benefit you and your financial wellness. So when does using your credit card makes sense and what pitfalls should you avoid? You’re strategically leveraging rewards. It’s perfectly possible to reap the benefits of cash back rewards without going into debt to earn them. How? Try using your credit card just for everyday purchases…

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Categories: Wellness & Personal Growth

Tagged: financial wellness

Institute Editorial Team

How Can You Increase Your Credit Score?

by Carol Strazinsky How can you increase your credit score? Financial wellness has become a critical part of understanding how we can improve our overall wellbeing and it is a question that is weighing heavy on our minds. With the pandemic many have lost jobs, experienced a decrease in household income, and as a result, credit scores are taking a hit. For many families, a good credit score is the key to not only borrowing money, but also buying your dream home and starting a family. But what if you have bad credit? Or even fair credit? If you have one of the many credit score monitoring apps out there, you know that credit isn’t just bad or good — there’s a range. The higher…

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Institute Editorial Team 09/27/2021

Kakeibo: The Art of Financial Mindfulness

By Gina Messina, Ph.D. About a year ago, a friend introduced me to Kakeibo, the Japanese art of budgeting and applying mindfulness to our spending, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. You see, I am a major contributor to our consumeristic culture. I see something shiny and I think I have to have it. A friend jokes that she hates going shopping with me because I have to pick up and touch everything on the shelves (although I’ve eliminated that practice due to COVID!). Like so many of us, I am easily persuaded by marketing tactics. Now that we so rarely spend cash, it feels like I can simply swipe a card, click a button, or use my fingerprint and suddenly I have a new…

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Gina Messina, Ph.D. 01/24/2021

Prioritizing Wellness Isn’t Easy. Don’t Worry, You Can Make a Plan for That!

Prioritizing Wellness and work-life balance are important. Yet why does it feel so impossible to achieve? Life is a juggling act.

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Jessica Headley, Ph.D., LPCC-S 02/12/2021

Helping Elderly Parents Manage Finances

With record numbers of Americans hitting their golden years, parents will increasingly be dependingupon their children to manage finances. According to a 2015 Pew Research Study, in the United States64% of those with a parent age 75 or older have provided help with finances, errands and personal care,while about half (52%) of those with parents age 65 to 74 have done so as well. Stepping into this rolecan be daunting.It was clear when my family was hit with my dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis that one of the things I could doto help was to bring organization and control to my parents’ finances. They had been managing well, butmy siblings and I started to see some small warning signs that things were getting away fromthem. Minor disputes with creditors, multiple visits…

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Anne Murphy Brown, J.D. 07/26/2021

woman sitting at desk thinking, stressed, should you return to pre-pandemic job?

Is Your Pre-Pandemic Job Still Right for You?

Is Your Pre-Pandemic Job Still Right for You? The world is slowly returning back to “normal” 一 or as close to normal as things get while continuing to live with the threat of a global pandemic. And this return to “normal” has left many of us wondering: do I want to go back to exactly the way things were pre-pandemic? Here are some things to consider when weighing the pros and cons of staying at your pre-pandemic job. Many are leaving their pre-pandemic jobs As employers call workers back into the office, many people are choosing not to go back to their old jobs at all. Although a record number of open jobs are available in the U.S., hiring has gone way down. And people…

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Saya Des Marais 10/18/2021

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