Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and moms to be.
Which brings the question – will we have a baby boom due to the “stay-at-home” shut down of the economy?
There are many memes and online jokes about the children being born being called “coronials” and then later in 2033 the “quarentennials .”
However, the economic stress of the pandemic crisis reduces the probability. The U.S. birthrate has been nearly slowly declining over the last twenty years, according to macrotrends.net.
In 2000, there were 14.232 births per 1,000 people.
In 2020, the birth rate had just increased year over year for the first time in 20 years to 11.99 births per 1,000 people.
The economic stress of the loss of 20.5 million jobs in April will have the opposite impact. Being worried about your future is not the kind of pressure you want to have if you are thinking about having a child.
What are the changes that you can make to your financial lifestyle today to meet the uncertainty of the future?
Five Ideas Mom Would Like and How to Do It
Review your spending habits and look for spending you can eliminate. Go to your bank and credit cards and download a month of transactions into a spreadsheet. Then label the expense as Required or Luxury. Review the Luxury items and determine if you need them and can you afford it. I did and found that we were paying for AmazonHBO. We only used this to watch Game of Thrones. It is gone. Savings $16.23 monthly
Get a check-up on your Property and Casualty Insurance. Are you having some extra time in your day? Reach out to your current insurance company and one of their competitors. Need a referral? Let us know. Ask them these questions – Is my deductible too high? Is the value on my house accurate? Does that value include my land? Is there a hole in my coverage that I do not know about and should insure? Do I need an Umbrella Liability Policy?
Cut the cord. Cable T.V. is expensive. Every day another opportunity to stream the actual entertainment you want comes about. We cut the cord last September, and I wrote about it in my blog – Freedom Day We have been saving $130.86 per month!
How much do you pay for Electricity? Have you noticed the price at the pump when you fill up your car? Of course, you do, we all pay attention to the cost of gas. Do you pay attention to the price of energy? Probably not, but you can and should. Whether you use an app like Energy Ogre or a broker, you need to check the rate and lower your cost. When we did this, we reduced our annual costs significantly. My yearly contract is up in July, and I am working on locking in a low rate for the future. Taking action saves you money.
Credit Card Rewards. I may be the broken record on this subject. We all spend money every day, whether it is personal or in our business. Why not get paid for our spending. You can choose whether you want reward points or cash.
The Average American, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, earns $63,784 before taxes, which amounts to bringing home $51,100.
From that amount, they spend $9,004 on transportation, $6,602 on food (of which $2,625 is spent at restaurants and $3,977 is spent on food eaten at home), $5,528 on insurance and pensions, $1,604 on clothes, $2,482 on entertainment, $17,148 on housing, $3,631 on health care, $1,834 on cash contributions (donations and legally required spousal and child support), and $3,267 on other expenditures.
The average household in this picture consists of 2.5 people, of which 1.3 are earning an income. An average family owns 1.9 vehicles, and 63.7% are homeowners.
The average household could earn 2% on the non-household related spending. That would be $685.92.
To steal an advertising phrase What’s in Your Wallet?
Mom would tell you that the savings above can add up to several thousand dollars annually.
Make mom proud of you on Mother’s Day. Take action and be a great son or daughter and share the ideas with her. Saving money is good for mom as well.
Got something on your mind or have a question?
All of this can occur even at a distance.
Call us 214-239-4700 or click to set up a ZOOM MEETING
Michael Tannery CPA CDFA® AIF® ● CEO
Registered Principal | Tannery & Company
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