The Blatant Reality About the Next President and Your Finances
NerdWallet Personal Finance Columnist Liz Weston on why consumers need to take responsibility for their own finances and not depend on presidential economic policy.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have both laid out their economic policies and how they would help voters’ wallets. But NerdWallet Personal Finance Columnist Liz Weston explains why Americans need to take personal responsibility for their budgets and get their finances under control, regardless of who the country’s next president is.
“Presidential candidates are always promising more than they can deliver when it comes to the economy,” Weston told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Weston explained that consumers can’t wait patiently for any of a president’s policies to begin to affect them directly.
“Anything that happens is going to take years to play out. And you can’t just sit by the sidelines and say, ‘well, I’m going to wait for my candidate to fix everything about my finances.’”
Weston said consumers need to take the initiative in reviewing their budget and taking steps to improving their finances.
“You really have to take personal responsibility and step up and start looking at what needs to change and, you know, there are some things you can do yourself regardless of who is in the White House.”
Along with focusing on paying down your debts, Weston said consumers should refinance loans soon before interest rates rise.
“The bottom line is, if you have toxic debt, if you have credit card debt, you’ve got to get rid of that. If you have student loans that have a variable rate, look into refinancing them, get that rate fixed, because we know higher rates are coming, we’ve known this for a while. You want to make sure that you’re not paying out more when your rates go up.”
According to Weston, Millennials should not expect any debt forgiveness when it comes to their student loans if Hillary Clinton is elected.
“You’re not going to get your student loans forgiven, that’s pretty much unless you’re doing public service, unless you’re already in one of the programs that leads to that. You shouldn’t just expect it to be wiped out.”