Three milestones on the road to financial stability

Zachary D. Gildehaus, CFA, CFP^®
Analyst, Client Needs Research

You may know what you want to achieve with your financial strategy, but the road to becoming financially stable might not be crystal clear. As you chart your course to financial success, Edward Jones is ready to help you.

We recommend:

• Having three to six months’ worth of living expenses in savings to cover emergencies
• Saving enough for your unique retirement needs
• Being free of burdensome debt

Each of these may seem challenging, but a financial roadmap with clear milestones can help guide you on your journey.

Know before you go

When preparing for a road trip, you might complete a few tasks ahead of time to help ensure things go smoothly. You can follow a similar strategy on your financial journey, to make the trip easier:

1. Enlist a trusted guide. Your financial advisor can help you define your ideal financial future and show you how to get there based on your unique needs and circumstances.
2. Build a budget to help you save. Make sure you account for expenses that occur regularly, such as your car insurance and taxes. Also look for opportunities to reduce or eliminate some expenses.
3. Make your debt as efficient as possible. Start by understanding how much debt you have and consider ways to lower your interest rate, such as refinancing. Be cautious when trading unsecured debt (credit cards) for secured debt (a home equity loan) because if you’re unable to pay in the future, you may be jeopardizing your home. Prioritize making all minimum payments, and account for them in your budget.
4. Maintain basic forms of insurance, such as health, home, auto, disability and life.* Term life insurance could be especially important if you are the primary income earner or have dependents. Periodically review your coverage, especially after a life event such as a new home purchase or the birth of a child.
5. Understand your employer benefits. These benefits can help you achieve your goals.
6. Begin planning for your estate by outlining key priorities and objectives, such as asset transfer, incapacity protection and guardianship for minor children and dependents.

Milestone 1: Building a base

Now that you're ready to go, you’ll want to build a foundation for each of the three goals. While we recommend prioritizing each goal in the order shown below, you can tackle them one at a time, save for them equally or put more money toward the one that most appeals to you.

To make it easier, automate as much as you can. For example, you can divert part of your paycheck into an emergency savings account or a retirement account and set up automatic payments for any debt.

• Prioritize $500 to a month’s worth of expenses in emergency savings. This can help you cover minor repairs or a few days of missed work without taking on new debt. Consider keeping your emergency savings in an account separate from your everyday spending, so you know what is set aside for emergencies.
• Take advantage of employer matches in a health savings account (HSA) and retirement plan. This can give you an immediate return on your contributions, in addition to a tax benefit and potential market appreciation. HSAs can help you save for retirement, and they offer tax-free withdrawals when used for qualified health care expenses.** For this reason, focus on getting any employer HSA match first, then any retirement plan match.
• Pay down high-interest, nondeductible debt. Some types of debt, such as mortgages and some student loans, allow you to deduct the interest paid from your taxable income. However, high-interest, nondeductible debt, such as credit card debt, is likely to cost you more in interest than you can expect to earn on your investments. You’re better off paying down this debt.

Milestone 2: Gaining stability

• Save 1½ to two months’ worth of expenses in emergency savings. Not only will this help cover larger, unexpected expenses or longer periods of lost income, but it can also help you weather multiple events. Given the security this can provide, you may be tempted to prioritize it over an employer match or paying down high-interest debt. But don't forget what you'd be giving up by skipping the steps in Milestone 1.
• Save 10% to 15% of your gross income (including any employer match) in retirement accounts. You're already receiving your employer match, but what if you could add to that total? When it comes to retirement savings, time is your ally. Saving even smaller amounts can provide big benefits over time. Start with what you can, and pledge a portion of any future raises toward your retirement savings. Bonuses and tax refunds can also help boost your savings.
• Check your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. Your DTI ratio can be a predictor of your financial health. The higher the number, the higher the percentage of income being used to pay off debt. If you have a high DTI ratio, you may have trouble securing loans for a home or other big purchases, or you may be forced to accept higher interest rates on those loans.
  
  To calculate your DTI ratio, divide your monthly debt payments by your monthly gross income. If you’re paying a mortgage, try to keep your DTI ratio to 35% or less. (Without a mortgage, strive for 20% or less.) To lower your ratio, start paying down the debt with the highest after-tax interest rate.

Milestone 3: Optimal state

Now you're in the home stretch. But just as road trips can have detours, life can be full of the unexpected. You may find yourself back in an earlier milestone for one or more goals, and that’s OK. You can spend from your HSA or emergency savings with confidence, knowing it’s there for exactly that purpose. If that expense moves you back to an earlier milestone, you can go forward knowing you’ve navigated these roads before.

• Save three to six months’ worth of expenses in emergency savings. This can help you withstand longer periods of unemployment or multiple larger expenses without having to dip into your retirement savings or take on new debt. It can also provide flexibility to do the things you want to do, such as taking a sabbatical, switching careers or taking time off to care for a loved one.
• Stay on track for your retirement goal. Your vision of retirement is unique, and so is your path to get there. In this milestone, the focus is on ensuring you’re saving enough to realize your retirement goal. Your financial advisor can help you adjust as necessary.
• Think about your attitude toward debt. After completing Milestone 2, your debt should be manageable. If your balances still cause you stress, you could consider paying them down. Paying off your loans will save you in interest charges, but you may need to do so at the expense of investing for your future. As this chart shows, it’s possible that the expected return on your investments could outpace what you owe in interest. While you’ll want to be comfortable with your amount of debt, this may change how quickly you achieve other goals.

The road ahead

By completing these milestones, you’ll not only have built financial stability, you’ll also have achieved financial flexibility to do the things you want to do in life. Whichever road you choose next, your financial advisor will be there to help you at every turn.