Understanding Your Finances with the help from MassMutual

Are you secure with your financial future? I can say for myself and my family that I am not, I am not secure. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) is using Financial Literacy month and has asked me to share ways to understand your finances more, to help you know what is available.

Here are six tips from MassMutual to help you increase your financial smarts and reach your short- and long-term goals.

1. Identify your financial goals.

How can you start a savings plan if you don’t know what you’re tracking toward? The first step in understanding your finances is to identify your goals. Once you have an understanding of your goals, you’ll be able to take the next steps to achieving them.

2. Get organized.

Diving into your finances can feel overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a good sense of your current spending. Create a simple budget tracker to map out your income, expenses and any savings efforts you currently have in place. This will help identify risks and opportunities that you can address in the future, and can be the beginning of your financial strategy.

3. Use tools to help you project your savings needs.

Whether it’s calculating how much you need to save for your child’s college tuition or planning for your retirement, look for calculators online to help you. Many tools ask you to enter basic information to help you determine what you need to save and simple steps to starting a savings plan. Sometimes a little advice can be a big help too; you can always start by reading up on saving for college or retirement planning and then move on to online calculators.

4. Consider your most valuable asset and how it affects your future.

Your home? Your business? Your ability to work? What is your most valuable asset? Have you considered your income and how it affects your well-being? Exploring disability insurance can go a long way to ensure your family is protected if you were too sick or injured to work. Watch this video to help get you started, or try out an income gap calculator to see how a disability might affect you and your family.

5. Teach your kids early.

Help your family be smart about finances, so they can build a strong future. Simple and fun activities can get them excited about saving for the future – like setting up a short-term savings plan with a personal piggy bank, and encouraging them to add to it when they have money to spare, from birthdays, allowances or loose change around the house.

6. Find the right people to help you.

When it comes to your finances, you need a strong team to assist you with important information and decisions.Working with a financial professional will help keep you on track and informed. It can take a minute to set up an introductory meeting, but the knowledge and guidance can go a long way to helping secure your financial future. Read more about the different types of financial professionals you can work with here and connect with one in your area here.

When it comes to your future, what are you looking for? Do you want to save up for your child’s college, retirement, or need life insurance? MassMutual can help you with those and many more. The 6 points above are very important. Once you know what you want, then they can help you find a way to make it happen. The more you know, the better off you can be.

For me, life insurance is very important since I have a lot of medical issues. I want to make sure my family is taken care of in the event something happens to me.

I’m so glad I am able to have access to MassMutual and all their information and for my family as well. My husband is 42 years old so retirement is on him mind often. MassMutual has calculators that you can use that will help you project how much you should save so you can meet the goals you want once you retire. Looking at it all put out there is a lot to take in, but it also is very helpful as it tell you exactly what you need to do.

We also have 2 daughters, one is 12 and the other 2.5. Time goes by so fast and I wish I could have started saving for my 12 year old’s college fun when she was my youngests age. I can still do something for them, and with the help of MassMutual’s College Savings Calculator, I know exactly how much I should put away and for both girls. I won’t be able to save up enough to help them 100%, since college is very expensive, but every little bit helps.  

If you want to learn more and speak with MassMutual about your goals, I encourage you to check out their site and see for yourself.

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This post was sponsored by MassMutual  and financial compensation was received for this post. The sponsor and any compensation received for this post in no way affected my opinion or any statements presented in this post. Top Notch Material blog always provides honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products and services reviewed. If you have any questions or would like your product, service or company featured on Top Notch Material, please contact katrina  from Top Notch Material at katrina dot gehman {at} gmail [dot] com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.