If you go to the bank and ask them how much interest will you pay me to invest $10,000 for a year as I did , they will probably tell you the interest rate will be less than 1/2 of 1%, or 0.40%. When the bank told me that I started thinking what I could do that would help our family budget and make more income on the money we have to invest. I recently sold a summer retreat property and received enough for it to pay off the loan on our primary residence which is financed at 5 1/4%. We started the process to refinance at at 2.75% for 15 years instead of continuing with a 30 year loan. But the closing costs are so much that it takes at least 3 to 4 years before you can break even on the refinance.

I ask my wife what she thought of the idea of paying off the loan on our home and then saving the amount of house payment monthly to build up our savings? She is thinking about it.
In effect we will be saving 5.25% interest on $69,000 , we will have to pay the property taxes and insurance separately, but the result would be that we could put $400 a month in savings. So in effect we would creating a situation that we could have the equivalent of receiving 5.25% benefit as opposed to O.40% interest.

If a family has high interest credit cards, be on the lookout for the credit cards that offer 0% interest for a year to eighteen months for balance transfers. There is a transaction fee based on the amount transferred but generally you could save a substantial amount of money for the interest saved. Then try to pay the debt transferred off before the zero interest offer expires.

Edward Jones Investment company will make proposals after a family explains their financial goals based on their financial status. As long as the stock market does not tank investors seem to do pretty well with the mix of mutual funds that the Edward Jones representative recommends for their situation. If the market tanks the investor needs to have the discipline to ride out the dips because always in the past the market comes back within the next few months or years. My wife had $160,000 in Edward Jones American Funds when Obama was President and it decreased in value to $110,000 before stabilizing then it started to climb. Within three years her investment was back to the level before the declining market.

Wentworth investments advertising they are able to protect a families income in most financial situations. I do not know anyone that has used this investment service, I have only seen the ads.