Our Blog
How to Save Money for Holiday Shopping
The most wonderful time of the year doesn’t start at the end of December. It begins a few months earlier when you cut back on spending in an attempt to get your loved ones every gift you can buy. It’s a financial challenge for many people, but somehow we all still buy...
What You Should Know About Finance as a Young Adult
Everyone learns the same thing about money at a very early age: It is what you give to the clerk behind the store counter so they won't yell at you for taking candy out of the store. Unfortunately, this is not the only lesson in money you need to get ahead in life....
3 Tips for Retiring Early
We all want to get ahead of the curve in life. And when it comes to retiring, we want to get ahead of the curve of life. While it’s not always easy, there are some things each of us can do to get closer to an early retirement. Everyone’s circumstances differ, but the...
The Economic Benefits of Buying Local
What Is a Lease Buyout Loan?
Preowned vehicle prices have risen dramatically over the past couple of years. According to CarGurus, the average price for a used Ford on January 1st, 2020 was $20,392. On April 17th, 2022, the average price for a used Ford was $30,455 – an increase of 49.3%. This...
Mortgage Rates are Still Historically Low
When you consider the past three years alone, mortgage interest rates have risen dramatically. This is largely because the Federal Reserve pushed mortgage rates below 3% in order to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Now that the American...
Building Wealth Through Homeownership
If you never intend to sell it for profit, then your home cannot be an investment in the truest sense of the word. But this does not mean that homeownership isn't an excellent way to build wealth! Since you must spend money on your living arrangements, doing so in a...
The Value of a Local Bank’s Involvement in the Community
“It is not more bigness that should be our goal. We must attempt, rather, to bring people back to the warmth of community, to the worth of individual effort and responsibility, and of individuals working together as a community, to better their lives and their...
Cyber Security Awareness: 7 Tips to Stay Safe Online
According to the FBI, internet crime cost Americans more than $4.2 billion in the year 2020 alone. In other words, cybercriminals pulled off enough successful ransomware attacks, account hijacks, data breaches and other high-tech misdeeds that they could have...
Benefits of IRAs & HSAs
Money is often said to be incapable of buying two things: happiness, and good health. We understand the sentiment behind these claims, but they are not entirely accurate. If someone is paying for their living expenses during their golden years with an Individual...