Kicking Assets

A young person's guide to personal finance

Author: Brianna

3 Ways You Can Save Money Under Quarantine

April 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments

As Coronavirus disease arises worldwide, we are faced to stay home and be under quarantine to ensure public health safety. Now that we have some extra time in our day due to staying home, it’s important to practice real life situations that can affect you in the future (as boring as it sounds).

Here are 3 ways you can practice this by saving money while under quarantine. 

Be sure your credit card report is in solid shape

If you’ve paid off a loan recently, make sure to check your credit report. It’s important to regularly check your credit card report because of the situations you can be in and not even know! 

Your credit score can change as often as daily, depending on how often the information in your credit report changes. If you’re planning to buy a car soon, checking your credit score more often will help you be prepared.

There are many ways you can check your credit score for free. If you want to monitor your credit score regularly, using a free service is the best way. Sign up for CreditKarma.com and CreditSesame.com. You’ll be able to view your credit scores regularly for FREE! 

 File your taxes

President Trump recently announced that the deadline to file your taxes has been pushed to July 15th, but if you are receiving a tax refund this year, you will want to get that filed ASAP.

Try to not wait, keep in mind the quicker you file your taxes, the quicker you will get your refund! Most tax refunds are issued within three weeks. Your tax refund does not affect your coronavirus stimulus payment, if you’re eligible.

Save money on your car insurance

Since you’re probably driving a lot less because of the Coronavirus pandemic and no longer driving to work, you’re probably paying too much for car insurance. 

Some car insurance companies acknowledged that they have been charging too much for policy premiums during the Coronavirus pandemic and want to give money back to customers. 

Liberty Mutual said it was giving its auto insurance clients a 15% refund on premiums for April and May. Geico followed with a different kind of discount, which is a 15% credit for auto and motorcycle insurance customers. Geico will have policies come up for renewal between April 8th through October 7. 

 

Take advantage at this time to save on your car insurance since you aren’t using your vehicle at this moment and look into switching to a different car insurance to save yourself money. 

 

Relax and Stay Safe
I hope these tips were helpful during these stressful times. Enjoy your time being in quarantine by calling a friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with, have a glass of wine while watching something on Netflix, read a book, or spend some time making a home-cooked meal with your family! 

 

Edited by: Kristina

How To Build A Good Credit Score

March 10, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Written by: Brianna

I know what you’re thinking, what the heck is a credit score? That is the same thing I thought going into this too. Here are some tips I found and thought I would share so we can all learn together! It’s good to find out how to start a credit score before adulthood comes into place, since you need a credit score for your future adult purchases. 

 

“A credit score is a statistical number that evaluates a consumer’s creditworthiness and is based on credit history: number of open accounts, total levels of debt, and repayment history. Lenders use credit scores to evaluate the probability that an individual will repay loans in a timely manner. A person’s credit score can range from 300 to 850; the higher the score, the more financially trustworthy a person is considered to be.”

 

Five tips to help you build a good credit score

  • Pay your bills on time
  • Use your credit card on important transactions only
  • Maintain your credit cards and pay it on time
  • Don’t open several credit cards at the same time, space it out. 
  • Write down what you purchase on your credit card to avoid overpaying

 

What Is Considered A Good Credit Score?

So, there is a scale it ranges from 300-850, a good credit score starts at around 690. So automatically anything higher than 690 would be considered the excellent which is where we need to aim at. 

Aiming to achieve a good credit score can teach us responsibility that we know how to pay on time and eventually it will prepare us for the real world.  

You can check out this free app called Nerd Wallet to find out if you have a good credit score…. For free?? Sign me up!

The benefits to having a good credit score

  • You will qualify for the best interest rates
  • You can get a more affordable price on apartment/house payments
  • Employers can also look at your credit score to see where you stand
  • Approval for loans from bank won’t be a problem
  • Pay less on car insurance 

 

Here are only a few of the benefits you gain from a good credit score. But did I also mention the bragging rights? Who doesn’t want to brag about having a good credit score when it’s something to be proud of? Start maintaining a good credit score now the earlier you do it the better!

 

Edited by Victoria

Let’s Talk About Loans

February 25, 2020 / / 0 Comments


Let’s Talk About Loans


Written by: Brianna 

Let’s face it, dealing with loans is a complicated process that nobody wants to deal with. Realistically being a college student dealing with homework, school activities, outside hobbies and maybe even handling a job at the same time can be real stressful. Here are some practical tips that I genuinely thought would help make your gradual process a bit easier.

Loans…something we need to know more about before college.


I know you don’t want to hear this but, the truth is, the longer you put off paying toward your student loans, the higher your payments will be. So to avoid this problem it’s important to plan ahead and understand all the uninteresting details now.  For instance, if you have student loans, understanding your interest, monthly payment amount, how long steady periods are and when repayment starts is important to figure out your budget. 

That being said, you’ll need to earn enough income to afford your monthly payment. You should definitely consider making in-school payments to offset increasing interest. Even small payments of $25 a month while you’re in school can help save money over the life of the loan.

Think about it in the long run, yes, in this moment I know spending your paycheck is probably on your mind right now, but you will thank your future self for starting early. Here are some tips that you can start working on now!

  •  Instead of spending everything you earn, you can consider making full or some payments to cut down on interest
  •  Put the amount of your monthly payment into a savings account so you’re used to budgeting without that money.
  • The bonus is that you’ll have a bunch of savings to rely on should you have a month when money is tight.

    I hope that some of this information, it will help you make easier decisions regarding paying for school, and will help you with planning your first years in the working world. 

 

Edited by: Kristina

#Finance #Money #Loans #CollegeStudent

 

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