Amanda H. Christensen, AFC, Extension Associate Professor

KristiLyn Wilkinson, M.S., AFC Candidate

You might be familiar with this phrase if you have read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I’m here to tell you that revolving savings accounts are pretty life-changing as well! A revolving savings account is the magic that keeps irregular expenses from derailing your budget. 
One of the main obstacles to budgeting that I hear from people is that they have expenses that don’t happen every month, that are larger in nature, and throw off their planning. For most people, we tend to live our financial lives month-to-month. Your rent or mortgage is due once a month, your car payment is due once a month, you pay for Netflix and piano lessons once a month, etc. You get the picture. But every month it seems like there are some expenses like a birthday, Christmas, annual insurance bill, college tuition, etc. that come creeping in. ​

Alicia Nelson-Bell, personal finance intern

​When you think of budgeting, what thoughts, feelings or experiences come to your mind? Have you had positive, successful experiences with budgeting or have you had negative and restricting experiences with budgeting? Do you think of budgeting as something that can be fun or as something that takes a lot of time, effort and restricts you from being able to do the things you want in your life? Have you had any experiences in your life where you felt that better money management and planning would have helped you avoid that unfavorable situation? Do you believe that budgeting can be fun? 

Melanie Jewkes, Extension Associate Professor

Are you saving for retirement? Do you want to be saving for retirement? Are you looking for strategies to invest more money? Put it off no longer -- the best time to start saving for retirement is NOW. 
But I get it! LIFE gets in the way sometimes. It doesn’t help that picking a way to invest in retirement can be is complicated. But time is of the essence, and you are literally losing money, and money on that money (compound interest), the longer you put off figuring out how to save for retirement.
It is never too late to start saving for retirement. NOW is always better than tomorrow. Here are some strategies to get you on your way to investing in you beginning today.

Jerevie Canlas, Ph.D., CFLE

​Historically, women are poised differently for retirement compared to men. Most significantly, women work fewer years and earn less. Women only earn .82 cents for every dollar a man makes, and the discrepancy is larger among women of color. Women spend an average of 9 years taking care of family members instead of being active in the workforce. 
 
Women leaving the workforce to take care of family members is very common, and more especially so in the COVID-19 era. A 2020 survey on the impacts of the pandemic showed that 45% of women have taken on a larger share of caregiving responsibilities since the pandemic and 39% are considering leaving their jobs so they can take on caregiving responsibilities. In the past year, about 3 million women have left the workforce and many are considering quitting their jobs or reducing hours. The phenomenon has been called different names - she-cession, pink recession, etc. 400,000 more women than men have left the workforce since the onset of this pandemic.