IRFCU Celebrates 50 Years!!!

Hundreds of IRFCU Members and friends gathered at our Vero Beach office Friday October 23rd to celebrate Indian River Federal Credit Union’s 50th Anniversary! Be sure to visit our special 50th Anniversary page to see photos from the event!

Members enjoyed burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill, as well as sodas, bottled water, tea, orange juice from Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company, ice cream samples from Marble Slab Creamery, and of course, our 50th Anniversary cake! Blue balloons filled the lobby, while Christian FM’s Extreme Machine got the party jumping with non-stop music. Over 400 members took home jam-packed goody-bags and hundreds also grabbed their 2010 IRFCU Calendar. One dozen IRFCU Members got even luckier, as their names were drawn as door prize winners.

Commissioners Wesley Davis and Peter O’Bryan stopped by to offer their congratulations, as did William Berg of the Florida Credit Union League.  Davis thanked IRFCU for being an institution that “gets it,” referring to our slogan “Where People Are Worth More Than Money.” Berg offered a brief history lesson, telling of IRFCU’s humble beginnings and the growth we have achieved. IRFCU Board Chair H.T. “Sonny” Dean thanked our Members for making the Credit Union a success, and for the priviledge of serving them. Other Board Members, as well as President/CEO Bill Garrett, were also on hand for the occasion.

Our thanks go out to all those who helped make our 50th Anniversary event a success — our volunteers and staff; friends who donated food and/or beverage items, door prizes, goody-bag stuffers, etc; local media who helped promote the event; all those who were able to attend; and most of all, to all our Members! We look forward to serving you for many years to come!!!

Too Broke for the Basics: Where to Get Help

If you’re struggling just to get by, there are many organizations (both governemnt and others) that exist to help you not merely survive, but to get back on your feet again.   But your challenge is two-fold:

1. Finding the organizations, agencies, etc that can help you, and

2. Manuevering through the maze of red tape that is often involved in obtaining such assistance.

If you find yourself in those shoes — or know someone who is — here are two great places to start:

MSN Money’s  Donna Freedman recently wrote an article called “When You’re Too Broke For The Basics.”  It’s a great “cliff-notes” version of where/how to find help.

For more local information, contact Treasure Coast 211  — simply dial 2 1 1 on your phone, or visit their site (www.211treasurecoast.org). Free and confidential, they provide information & referral, crisis intervention, telephone counseling, etc, 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.

Want to help local organizations serve the needy in our community, but not sure where/how to start?  Plumbago Volunteer Services is your answer!  They specialize in matching volunteers with non-profit organizations.  To learn more, visit www.plumbagovs.org.

Details Make The Difference!

The mere mention of the dreaded “B-word” makes many people cringe.  But contrary to popular opinion, the purpose of a budget is not to handcuff you and drain every ounce of enjoyment from your life.  No, the purpose of a budget is to show you where every dollar you earn goes, which enables you to make better spending choices.  That leaves more money for the important things, and probably more for some fun stuff too. 

So start by making a list of where your money goes: daily, monthly, annually, etc.  Be sure not to overlook anything.  From there, go down the list and see what items could be reduced, or maybe even eliminated. 

You might find some big savings.  For example, you might decide that your fancy new car isn’t worth the strain of a $400/month payment.  So you might sell it and replace it with a less costly vehicle and quickly save a couple hundred dollars per month.

But most likely, your savings will be hidden in the details, and will have to be discovered a few dollars — or even cents — at a time.  Perhaps you’ll realize that the bottled water you drink adds up to several hundred dollars per year, and decide to use a reusable bottle with tap water from home instead.  Maybe you’ll opt to drop those extra TV channels that you never watch anyway.  Or maybe you’ll notice that your monthly banking fees add up much faster than you realized, and make some simple adjustments to avoid them.

Small changes like these are relatively painless, but can quickly add up and make a big difference in your big picture.  Where and how you make your spending adjustments is up to you.  A budget is simply a magnifying glass that helps to bring the details into focus.  When it comes to financial success, details make the difference.

For more information on financial matters, visit the IRFCU Vault section of our website, www.irfcu.com, and be sure to read our blog regularly.

Lost or Stolen Wallet? Prevent, Minimize & Repair the Damage

The thought of having a wallet lost or stolen is enough to turn the most iron-clad stomach queasy.  And for good reason: The items they house demand long, tedious hours to replace.  And in the wrong hands, they can result in an identity theft nightmare for the victim.

Identity theft is the fastest growing “white collar” crime in America.  The typical victim spends in the neighborhood of $2,000 and 600 hours over many months to clean up the mess left behind by the thief.  And the most common way IDs are stolen?  A lost or stolen wallet accounts for 43% of identity theft cases (Source: 2009 Javelin Strategy & Research, Identity Fraud Survey Report).

Blogger Paul Michael’s post “How to Increase the Chance of Someone Returning Your Lost Wallet” on WISEBREAD offers some simple, valuable advice:  keep baby photos in your wallet.  Statistics show that having baby photos in your wallet dramatically increases the odds that it will be returned (9 out of 10 baby photo wallets were returned – compared to only 1 in 7  for wallets containing only the usual cards and cash). 

Michael also provides an excellent check list of things to do if your wallet goes missing.  In order to make the most of his list, however, it’s vital that you know what you’ve lost.  So take a few minutes to go through your wallet and make a list of everything it contains.  Be sure to keep that list in a secure location, such as a safe or a safe deposit box.  Don’t forget to update it as necessary. 

While you’re going through your wallet anyway, why not trim some fat?  Most wallets probably contain a few items with sensitive information that could easily be stored in a more secure location.

Perhaps the best advice is simply to make it a habit to be aware of your wallet.  Do you ever leave it unattended at the beach?  In your purse at a restaurant table while you’re at the salad bar?  Or in the shopping cart behind you while you’re reading a label?  Never leaving it out of your sight goes a long way toward preventing its disappearance.

For more resources on Identity Theft, Fraud and related topics, visit the On-Line & Financial Safety page in the IRFCU Vault section of our website.

Summer Reading — Sweet Success!!!

Our Annual Summer Reading Program has wrapped up for this year, and we’re savoring the taste of sweet success!!!  This was our first time offering FREE ICE CREAM as the reward for students who read over the summer, and we’re pleased to report delicious results!

Huge thanks go out to our co-sponsors:  Marble Slab Creamery of Vero Beach, Paradise Ice Cream of Sebastian, and Florida Parenting News of the Treasure Coast.  We so greatly appreciate your support!

We’d also like to thank the many parents, teachers, principals, librarians, etc who partnered with us to encourage children to read.  We believe that reading skills are essential to success throughout life, and we value the opportunity to work together to benefit the children in our community.

And of course, thanks to all the kids who read books and earned FREE ICE CREAM this summer!  Great job!!!  Keep honing your reading skills — and be sure to reward yourself  by visiting Marble Slab Creamery or Paradise Ice Cream for a tasty treat!

We look forward to partnering with all of you again next summer!

Promote Your Biz or Organization @ IRFCU’s 50th Anniversary!!!

Looking for a cost-effective way to promote your business or organization to local consumers??? IRFCU’s 50th Anniversary is just the ticket!!!

October 2009 will mark Indian River Federal Credit Union’s 50th Anniversary!!! We’ve been serving the people of Indian River County, Florida with the same name on our doors since 1959 — longer than any other financial institution!

To celebrate this milestone, we’ll offer special promotions this fall (stay tuned!), & we’ll host two Member Appreciation Events — one at each office.

Our Sebastian Office will get us warmed up with a Member Appreciation Cookout on Fri Oct 16th, from 11 am to 5 pm. We’ll have burgers & hot dogs fresh off the grill, plus beverages, balloons, goody bags, door prizes & more! All FREE for our Members!

Our Vero Beach Office will turn it up a notch the following week on Fri Oct 23rd (also 11 am to 5 pm). In addition to the FREEfood, beverages, balloons, goody bags, door prizes, etc, our Vero Beach office will also have a short 50th Anniversary Ceremony at 1 pm. The ceremony will feature several local dignitaries, as well as Credit Union officials.

We’re expecting hundreds of our Members to join us as we celebrate this monumental occasion! How would you like to reach them with a promotional message on behalf of your business or organization?

We’re inviting local businesses and/or organizations to donate items for our goody bags and/or door prizes. Goody Bag items could include things such as pens, key chains, coupons, notepads, magnets, etc — any small, useful item that you could brand with your logo. Door Prize items could include gift certificates, gift baskets, floral arrangements, etc. Door prize items will be displayed along with a small sign recognizing the donor. Be creative and offer something of value to get the best impact!

Donations of food items are also welcome.

For information about donating items for goody bags and/or door prizes, etc, please contact Marc Camelleri, Marketing Director, at 772-770-5020 during regular business hours.

To stay up-to-date regarding our 50th Anniversary activites and promotions, visit our website regularly this fall!

Financial Relativity & Emotions

A recent post on FiveCentNickel.com sheds some light on relative price evaluation.  No, this doesn’t have anything to do with the cost of ones’ relatives! (Forgive the poor attempt at humor.)

The author does a great job of explaining relative price evaluation, so we won’t get into it too much here (you can — and should — read the article for yourself). For now, suffice it to say that $100 is $100, whether you saved it on a $500 item or on a $5,000 item. Funny, though, how saving $100 on a $500 item feels different than saving the same amount on a $5,000 item, isn’t it?

Emotions can be fickle, especially when it comes to money. Funny how we grumble about prices at the grocery store, yet gladly fork over $5 or more for a tiny ice cream cone at an amusement park. What makes the difference is simply our emotional state of mind.

Now, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with going to the amusement park and over-paying for ice cream. We all deserve to enjoy life from time to time. But allowing our emotions to dictate our spending too often can lead to a sad financial situation.

Sure, we’ve all gotten caught up in our emotions and spent foolishly as a result. Hopefully, we’ve learned from those experiences. But a look at relative price evaluation reveals that the impact our emotions have is probably more complex than many of us realize.

Money is more than hard, cold numbers in black-and-white. Many times, it’s about emotions. Until a person begins to understand the role that their emotions play in their spending, it will be difficult for their financial picture to be a happy one.

Relative price evaluation is certainly a good start toward understanding how our emotions influence our finances. For more financial information resources, visit our website, and go to the IRFCU Vault section.

The Garbage Bag Lesson

Recently, blogger Trent Hamm posted a thought-provoking piece titled “The Cheap Garbage Bag Dilemma” on his site The Simple Dollar.   In it, he clearly explains why he’s found that buying a slightly higher-priced, better quality trash bag is more cost effective for him than purchasing the lowest priced option.  But his article is about something more significant than trash bags.  It’s about finding true value as a consumer.

Finding the best value isn’t always as simple as comparing the up-front price of an item.  Consumers also need to consider the item’s performance, and in some cases, other factors too:  depreciation, maintenance costs, efficiency, aesthetics, insurance costs and more.

Being a wise consumer definitely involves more than just comparing prices at the grocery store.  It requires an on-going effort to research options, educate ourselves, chart expenses, track the long-term costs of purchases, and more.  In some cases, it means choosing to do without, to re-use or re-purpose something, or perhaps to roll up our sleeves and DIY (do-it-yourself). 

No question, it can be a daunting task.  But take heart!  We’re here to help.  The IRFCU Vault section of our website includes our Consumers’ Toolbox page, with links to many valuable, educational sites that can help you make the most of your money.  And in the long run, that’s what being a wise consumer is really all about.

To find more blog postings related to using your money wisely, be sure to visit MSN Money’s  Smart Spending, and visit our blog regularly!

Have some words of wisdom to share on the topic of being a wise consumer?  We’d love to hear from you!

Congratulations Bill & Rosalinda!!!

Congratulations to Bill & Rosalinda, who got married this morning at our Sebastian office!

Presiding over the ceremony was Veronica, one of our Member Service Representatives.  Veronica is a licensed notary, and as such can perform weddings in the state of Florida.  We provide notary services at no charge to all members of Indian River Federal Credit Union at both of our locations.

From all of us at Indian River Federal Credit Union, best wishes to the happy couple!!!

Reading Makes You Smarter–& Tastes Great Too!!!

In an article on MSN’s Mom’s Homeroom, Martha Brockenbrough writes that reading makes a person smarter.  While that’s not exactly news to most of us, she provides an interesting look into the whys and hows.

Brockenbrough points out that reading increases vocabulary more than conversation because we’re exposed to a wider variety of words when reading than when participating in conversation.  She also states that people who read more, know more — regardless of their general abilities — and that they’re less likely to fall for misinformation.

Those are some strong reasons to encourage our kids to read.  And if your kids need a little extra motivation, we’ve got just the scoop:  our Summer Reading Program!!!  Kids who participate can earn FREE ICE CREAM from Marble Slab Creamery or Paradise Ice Cream!  Sweet!  Check out our website for details!

Oh, and adults?  Brockenbrough encourages you to read too.   She says that “reading a lot can compensate for the wear and tear time can put on a mind.”   That’s good news for those of us with many dog-eared pages.

Young or old, reading makes you smarter — and with our Summer Reading Program, it tastes great too!