Simplify Your Finances and Save Money

Simplify Your Finances and Save MoneyStart the new year off right by simplifying your finances. You’ll spend less time worrying about paying bills, be less likely to miss deadlines, and can keep better track of your investments — and maybe even earn some discounts.

Automate bill payments. Signing up to have some of your regular bills paid automatically from your bank account not only helps you avoid missing deadlines, but it could also reduce your costs. You may get a discount on your insurance premiums and student loans by signing up for automatic payments.

Save and invest automatically. It's easier to save when you have money withdrawn automatically from your paychecks and then invested before you have a chance to spend it. Pre-tax contributions to your 457 retirement-savings plan reduce your take-home pay less than you'd expect, because the money is invested before it's taxed. Increasing your contributions, even by a small amount, can make a big difference by the time you retire — see our Savings Boost calculator at www.icmarc.org/savingsboost. You can also automate contributions to a traditional or Roth IRA.

Simplify your investments. There are several ways to get professional help with your investments. You can begin by visiting www.icmarc.org/invest and looking at resources such as Choose Your Approach to Investing. Also, make the most of tools that help you monitor your progress. ICMA-RC's Account Aggregation service lets you connect and view all of your ICMA-RC accounts and other financial accounts in one location, so you can see a full snapshot of your finances in one place. You can sign up by logging in to your account at www.icmarc.org/login.

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