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What do you find spooky these days? Now it’s less of shadowy figures and eerie noises and more of the mysterious numbers lurking in your bank statements.
This Halloween season, let’s sweep the cobwebs and shine a light on the real ghouls and ghosts haunting your finances.
Around the corner is your monthly jumpscare: Ghost Subscriptions. They tower over you, intimidating and inescapable. But if you lift the sheet, underneath is just your forgotten (but not gone) subscriptions.
Dispelling these ghosts takes some work. Start with where they congregate: check your bank statements, email, and subscription hubs for all your current, ongoing subscriptions. After tracking your gaggle of ghosts, start sorting which ones to keep and which ones to banish by cancelling them. With a bit of work, your next monthly bill will be clear of these ghostly subscriptions.
Now what’s that under your bed? There’s piles of receipts from your last impromptu shopping sprees, packages from sale days you couldn’t miss, and knick-knacks that you couldn’t leave the store without—that’s the nest of the Creeping Impulse Buys.
Quietly slipping in and out of your days, this creeping creature is hard to catch. So it’s important to learn what sets off your impulsive spending in the first place. Your next moves should be tailored to your habits:
It’s only by building better buying habits can you truly banish creeping impulse buys.
Down the hall is full of surprise traps and mysterious doors. Be careful—behind each one lurks the Hidden Bank Fees. This spooky creature takes many forms: overdraft fees, money transfer fees, inactive account penalties, foreign transaction and currency exchange fees, and more.
To sidestep these hidden traps, you need to know the shape of them. Start by looking up or asking about your bank’s account and maintenance fees. Then follow the trail by going through your bank statements, highlighting any mystery fees, and contacting your bank for clarification on these fees. By staying vigilant, you can track and even sidestep these hidden bank fees.
Now that you know which scary creatures are lurking around, it’s time to fortify your finances further. Get in touch with us to become a HC Mutual member and learn how we can help you reach your financial goals in life—this spooky season and beyond.
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