West Michigan's Morning News
Summer Finances with Jill on Money
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We had a weekend with the kids, and we watched each year, we watched together, either remotely or in one room before on vacation together, the bear, which is on Hulu and fabulous, right? And we don't say a word, Evan. So I'm waiting for all those the whole season to pile up and then I am binging it. But you, as we talk about things that maybe you financially should get done this weekend, bring up a good point and that has to do with things like subscriptions to those streaming services. Yeah, I mean, look, I just want people to find a little bit of extra money every single month. And the easiest way to start is looking at those subscriptions. I know, I know you really want meant to be a very, very critical reader of everything you've signed up for and also watched all those things you were supposed to watch. But you didn't and that's okay because you don't need that stuff anymore. And we'd love for the money to just flow to you. I think it's funny that we are like, oh, we're all cutting the cord and then we end up spending more money on all these subscriptions. So let's cancel some of those and collect that mula. Yeah, they re-up themselves if you don't say no. So that's how they get you. Yes, exactly right. And so what you want to do is you want to check your Apple pay or your Google pay because a lot of this is subscribed. You subscribe to it through your phone or just check your credit card bill and see what's there. That, of course, is a ghastly experience for everybody like, oh my God, look what else is there. But it's a good habit to be in and almost like a couple times a year of maybe it's now mid-year and then at the end of the year you check it and just clean it up once and for all. The other thing you could do easily is you can take advantage of the fact that interest rates are high. You know, we've talked about the problem with high interest rates, which is it hurts borrowers. But it helps savers. But there are so many savers, millions and millions of dollars that's sitting in a bank account that's earning less than 1%. So if you go and search for a high-yield savings account, maybe a certificate of deposit, maybe you've got a brokerage account, you can open a money market account, you can earn more money. Again, if you just use your mouse, you click around, you will find that there are ways to save or make a little bit of money and it's seamless. And you can do this not only for yourself, it's good practice. But let's say you have parents that are senior citizens that maybe aren't doing it like they should every year, right? I'm being kind here, but Jill, I've gone through this with my father-in-law and now my mother. And it's like, you know, you've got this car wash subscription for a month. And you haven't driven the car once this month. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I said, I looked at my mother's phone the other day and bless her heart. I'm like, Mom, did you mean to actually sign up for the Atlantic? You know, it's actually a pretty expensive magazine. She's like, oh, that article that was sent to me by so-and-so. And then I just signed up. And she read the article and then seven days later, they were like, oh, now you're a subscriber. Thank you so much, Susan. So yes, I think it's good for us to remind everybody in our lives. Also, you're, you know, the younger folks out there, they sign up very easily for pretty much anything. So maybe it's like, oh, I'm engaged. I don't need to be part of this dating service app or maybe you do. I don't know. I don't know about your relationship. I don't want to get involved. So let's touch on and finish with estate planning, speaking of our changing parents, right? Yeah, what fun. You know, I have to tell you that I'm always shocked at how many people start the year and say, oh, I'm going to do my estate documents. I'm going to have my will and my power of attorney and my health care proxy. And, you know, I read a blog post by a guy who's a journalist. He was an old Wall Street Journal journalist. And he wrote this heartbreaking article about the fact that he had a terrible diagnosis out of the blue at 61 years old. And you know what he said? I thought this was so interesting. He said, sometimes we get blindsided. Chance is a cruel mistress. And I thought, like, oh, that is so true. It's like, you don't know. So you don't know when something bad is going to happen. So let's not wait for that. Let's try to get ahead of this and get it done once and for all. And there it is. Jill Schlesinger, CBS News business analyst. Great stuff. Thank you.