On Wednesday February 5th the GME Office welcomed Doug Stucki from Fidelity to share tips for Personal Savings with our residents and fellows. Doug shared knowledge gathered over his two decades worth of experience working with clients on retirement planning and investing.
A small sample of the tips Doug included are below. View the full event recording on the Resident & Fellow Seminars page.
- Always have an emergency fund. Don’t have one? Start putting money aside (in a separate account!) with your next paycheck.
- Start saving for retirement as early as you can. The power of compounding interest will turn even the smallest deposits into large savings given enough time.
- Pay off your debt with the highest interest rate first. Are you juggling school loans from a multiple sources? Always tackle your debt with highest interest rate first, once that is paid off move onto the second highest interest rate, etc.
- Home mortgages should cost no more than 28% of your gross income. Looking at a pricier home? You may be overextending yourself and impacting your ability to contribute to essential expenses, emergency savings and your retirement accounts.
- Consider your credit score before cleaning out your ‘old’ accounts. Your credit score is calculated based on a variety of factors one of which is credit age. Have an old credit card from when you were 18 that you don’t use anymore and are thinking about closing? Consider keeping the account open (ensure you pay the balance in full each month) to maximize your credit age.
Want to learn more? Learn all of Doug’s tips by watching the event recording.
Have additional questions? All UW employees can schedule a 1:1 meeting with a Fidelity representative. Meetings are available at Harborview, UWMC, SLU and the UW Campus. Book a meeting today.