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

Tags: 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

6 Ways to Take Action on Your Goals

If you’ve got a dream you’re hoping to bring to life or an idea that you want to manifest, hopefully, the tips below can help. If some of the steps don’t feel like a good fit for you, that’s OK. Feel free to take what’s helpful and ignore the rest. 1. Set smart goals SMART goals are Specific, Meaningful, Achievable, Realistic, and Trackable. If our goal is not SMART, it may be harder to take action. For example, if our goal is not specific enough, we might not know what to do to reach it. Or, if our goal is not meaningful enough, then we might have a hard time staying motivated enough to do it. So, before taking action, ask yourself these “SMART” questions: …

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Institute Editorial Team 01/21/2023

Student Loan Mistakes to Avoid

There is a lot to talk about when it comes to student loans, so today I’m just going to speak from experience. I’M GOING TO UNWRAP ALL THE MISTAKES I MADE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM, AS WELL AS HOW TO DO IT THE RIGHT WAY! When I graduated high school, I could attend college for free. I lived with my mom and fell under her W2s. My biggest mistake was getting married 2 years later. This pushed me under my now ex-husband’s W2 and I was no longer eligible for free school. I had to take out a loan to finish my degree, so I took out $25,000 to cover my last 2 years of school. When I graduated, I got a job…

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Institute Editorial Team 11/07/2022

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