Freedom First Advice Center

You probably have some type of financial goal you’re looking to achieve. It may be a short-term goal to raise money for a family vacation or a long-term goal of saving a bit from each paycheck to place into a retirement account. In order to reach your goals and prevent them from simply becoming a wish requires you to work at them constantly.

While it’s common to review your finances annually with your financial advisor or on your own, this may prove to be a financial mistake. Too much can happen during the year to completely derail your financial plans, especially with unexpected expenses that always seem to pop up.

It’s easy to fall for tempting credit cards offering exciting reward options. People are lured to them all the time. Unfortunately, when they do, they often get locked into exceedingly high-interest rates.

We want you to have a better understanding of credit card rates. Then you can make informed decisions about whether or not a credit card offer is simply “too good to be true” based on the interest rates you’ll pay to earn these rewards.

It’s always a good plan to set some money aside to use as a down payment when financing a new or “new to you” car. As a general rule, you’ll want to pay 20 percent of the vehicle’s value as a down payment for a new car and 10 percent as a down payment for a used vehicle. This makes tax season an excellent time to shop for a car and use your tax refund as part of your down payment.

We are pleased to announce that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has begun sending Economic Impact Payments to eligible individuals. The stimulus checks are expected to hit accounts this week.