Dear Home & Family Finance Resource Center Subscriber:

What Do You Think?

Please send your feedback to askem@cuna.com

It’s been several months since we redesigned Home & Family Finance Resource Center. Now that you and your members have had some time to click around, we’re anxious to hear what you think. Is there something we could do differently to make navigation easier; are there topics you’d like us to cover more often?

March Fitness Challenge: Get Taxes Organized and Filed

Join the Challenge Read the message board View the tax video

In March, Home & Family Finance Resource Center's Financial Fitness Challenge encourages you to get taxes organized and filed. We also remind you to claim flexible benefits for 2006 qualified expenses.

If you haven’t already, use the links at right to get registered and join the Challenge. Be sure to share your thoughts on the message board to find out what others are saying. And, be sure to view the tax video too.

Remember, your members can win a $50 Visa card by participating in the Challenge, and your credit union staff members can win prizes too.

Help Your Members Save With Revised Handbooks
It’s so easy to put saving at the bottom of your to-do list. You’ll wait until you have some "extra" money, right?

Unfortunately, that time doesn’t always come. Even as income goes up, so does the number of financial responsibilities. There’s always something you think you should be putting your money toward instead.

Two completely updated handbooks from Credit Union National Association can help your members get on track and start saving for the future, today.

View "Your Investment Choices"

The Fundamentals of Personal Finance "Your Investment Choices" and "Your Retirement Guidelines and Goals," include updates for contributing to IRAs and other retirement savings plans, as well as new sections about Roth 401(k)s. The investment booklet includes updated information about savings bonds.

View "Your Retirement Guidelines and Goals"

The retirement booklet includes updated information in the Social Security section featuring a new resource box about Go Direct--a program offered by the Treasury and Federal Reserve that encourages seniors to have their Social Security checks directly deposited. New tables include: 1) the benefit of increasing retirement plan contribution amounts; 2) key birthdays in retirement planning.

Both handbooks include revised tables and illustrations as well.

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New Home & Family Finance Resource Center content featured in March:

Financial Fitness Challenge--
Organize and file your taxes, review and/or change your W-4, and review and/or change all beneficiaries.

Hostel vs. Hotel: A Good Option for Travel on the Cheap? (featured week of March 5)
Try this old-new travel option: Stay at a hostel. (tl-1705)

Ethanol: Home Grown, Less Polluting, But You’ll Pay More (featured week of March 12)
Fuel across the country has long contained about 10% ethanol to help reduce air pollution. But E85 is just becoming widely available. (arl-1704)

Launching Your Own Business: Are You the Type? (featured week of March 19)
If you’re contemplating starting your own business this article can help you decide if doing so would be a good move for you. (sb-1707)

Life Settlements: Proceed with Caution (featured week of March 26)
Life settlements: What they are, how they work, and what to look out for. (in-1706)

Fast Fact: New Passport Rules (Featured week of March 26)

Managing Credit Card Debt Video Clip
Many of us are so bogged down in credit card debt that we think we’ll never pay off those bills. The newest Home & Family Finance Resource Center video clip shows that by paying even a little bit more than the minimum each month, you’ll pay off card debt faster. Look for this new video on the Resource Center’s home page in March.

Use these "In the next issue..." messages in your traditional newsletter and online to regularly tell members what's coming in the Home & Family Finance Resource Center as you remind them to visit your Web site. Also remind your members to participate in March’s What’s Your Story about favorite travel guidance sources (featured beginning March 5).

Get the May articles here

In the April issue (available beginning April 2)

Financial Fitness Challenge--
Review and set savings goals

Sizing Up Your Financial Adviser
Whatever your age and issues, you want to find a financial adviser who will give you sound counsel for a reasonable fee.

Senior Home-Sharing a Win-Win
Decades after saying good-bye to college roommates, some mature adults are finding their way back to the idea of shared housing.

Experts’ Picks: Home-Inventory Software
We asked the experts, Tell us your favorite household inventory software.

Cooperatives Provide Value, Community
From housing to financial services, cooperatives are ready to help.

Looking for fresh ways to attract members to your Web site and to the Home & Family Finance Resource Center? Send these "coming soon" announcements to your sponsor/sponsors and suggest that they be posted on the Intranet or published in the sponsor newsletter every month.

What do you like about your Home & Family Finance Resource Center subscription? What would you change? What would you tell colleagues at another credit union about the Resource Center if they were considering a subscription? Have good ideas to share about how you promote it to your members?

Click here to let us know.