MyMoney Resources - Life Events

This edition of FDIC Consumer News focuses on small businesses. They are crucial to the U.S. economy and they're very important to the entrepreneurs who put their own money and long hours into operating and growing a company. If you're a small business owner – or you want to be – read our tips on ways to handle your business' finances, including getting loans, paying for everyday expenses, understanding your rights and responsibilities, and guarding against fraud.

Over the last several decades, there has been a well-documented trend away from defined benefit plans toward defined contribution plans, in which an employee's retirement income depends on contributions to the plan along with the investment earnings on those contributions. Current workers increasingly must decide how much to contribute to retirement plans and how to invest plan contributions. By understanding which personal characteristics are associated with financial literacy, policymakers may target limited education resources to individuals with psychosocial traits that indicate risk for low financial literacy and insufficient retirement planning. Traditional, prior research on financial literacy has examined the impact of mainstay economic variables. This study examines the impact of previously unexplored variables- financial satisfaction, hopelessness and religiosity-on financial literacy. The study uses Health and Retirement (HRS) data and finds that financial satisfaction and religiosity are both significant independent predictors of financial literacy.

Estimate Your Social Security Retirement Benefits Online. The Retirement Estimator is tied to a person’s actual Social Security earnings records and eliminates the need to manually key in years of earnings information.

This FDIC brochure provides information and advice on overdraft fees.

Determine how long it will take to pay off your debt based on different monthly payment scenarios.

"my Social Security," is a new online service that provides individuals quick access to their personal Social Security information. The site enables working individuals to obtain their earnings record and see estimates of future retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. It also enables people, who already receive Social Security benefits to get a benefit verification letter, check benefit payment information, change their address or phone number, and start or change direct deposit information online. Check it out!

This FDIC Consumer News article features tips to help students and their families avoid debt overload as they plan for — and pay for — college, graduate school or other education.

Three steps to take when you don't have enough money to pay your credit card bill. How to avoid debt-counseling scams.

Increased policy and academic attention has been placed on promoting retirement savings early in the life course. This study investigates the extent to which retirement savings behavior among young persons, a population for which retirement savings is important but typically low, differs by marital status. We draw national survey data on young adult households (ages 22 – 35; N = 3,894) from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Results reveal considerable differences by marital status. Controlling for important characteristics, young adults who were married were more likely than all other groups (including cohabitors) to perceive retirement as an important savings goal and to have an individual retirement account. Married persons were more likely than their single counterparts to participate in a defined contribution pension plan. Single women fared particularly poorly on retirement savings outcomes. A range of possible theoretical links between marriage and retirement savings at young adulthood are discussed.

The practice of spreading money among different investments to reduce risk is known as diversification. By picking the right group of investments, you may be able to limit your losses and reduce the fluctuations of investment returns without sacrificing too much potential gain. To learn more about this investment strategy, read the SEC’s online materials on diversification.