You’re about to purchase airfare online. You’re almost done booking the ticket when you’re confronted with the question: Do you want to add travel insurance to your purchase?

We typically think of a checking account as a tool to help us manage the ho-hum aspects of our daily financial lives: we use it write checks for the babysitter, to get cash from the ATM at lunchtime, and to pay for groceries after work. We don't usually think of our checking accounts as something that can save us – or make us – money. But maybe we should rethink our checking. 

Hanscom FCU is always looking for ways for our members to save more money, which is why we've partnered with a program called Love My Credit Union Rewards. This program offers our members unique discounts and offers, like the one from Sprint, which gives members a $100 cash reward for every new line they activate or transfer (3 lines maximum) and $50 for each existing Sprint line transferred into the Sprint Credit Union Member Cash Rewards program. On top of this, members get a $50 Loyalty Cash Reward each year for every line activated or transferred.

Nominations are now open for our annual Heroes Among Us program, which will honor and celebrate members of the United States armed forces during four of the Lowell Spinners' 2018 home games at LeLacheur Park in Lowell. 

You hear it every time you step up to the counter to pay: “Would you like to save an extra 20% on your purchases when you open up a credit card with us today?” I feel a little foolish declining any chance to save money, which is exactly why sales associates phrase the question this way. Who says “No thanks” to saving money? I do, in this case, and here’s why I walk away feeling okay about it.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2018 Relay for Life event at Burlington High School in Massachusetts. The weather was perfect and the energy was inspiring. For more information on how you can be involved in the Relay for Life efforts to benefit the American Cancer Society, click here.

I was with a friend recently who was telling me about a family member whose finances were circling the drain.

“She’s got no savings, her credit cards are maxxed, she’s getting calls from creditors all day long …she’s bankrupt.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said with some sympathy. “At least now that she’s filed, the calls should stop.”

If overwhelming debt is causing you stress, you are not alone. Millions of Americans are suffering from anxiety and depression because they have difficulty paying their financial obligations.

Ruth Ladd’s church in Lexington, Massachusetts, has a special relationship with Russell School in Dorchester, a Boston public elementary school. When the school’s library was in dire need of reading material, parishioners donated or purchased books for the children. Volunteers work with the kids in the classroom and help out during Field Days. Unfortunately many students experience homelessness, so when a child’s family finds housing, it’s not only a positive turning point in their lives, but a celebratory event at the school and for people like Ruth.

Maybe you’re tired of writing rent checks each month, knowing that your hard-earned salary funds your landlord’s real estate investment. Or that living below a bunch of hard-partying college kids has worn thin, along with your apartment walls, which are more like Egyptian papyrus — and as old, too!