Another year is almost over, and we are less than two months away from Christmas! With the holiday season fast approaching, many of us are already getting a head start on our present shopping. You may find yourself stumped as to what gifts you can give that are meaningful without taking a sizeable chunk out of your bank account. I'd like to share some helpful hints that will make your gift-giving this holiday season pleasurable and affordable.

Budgeting for Gifts

The first step in planning your gift giving is deciding who your recipients will be. Start by compiling a list of every person you intend to buy gifts for, including children, spouses, siblings, parents, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. The earlier you put together this list of gift recipients, the more time you have to brainstorm gift ideas for each one.

Next, you want to set a budget. Determine how much you're willing to spend, then place a dollar amount next to each name on your gift list and calculate the total. Adjust the dollar amounts up or down depending on whether you're over or under your intended budget. This gives you a clear idea of how much you can spend on each person on your list.

Now it's time to decide on what to give.

Brainstorming Gift Ideas

Don't be afraid to ask your giftees what they would want (or need) for a present. As much as it's nice to surprise your friends and family with an unexpected gift, you don't always know what they actually want. By asking, you are insuring you gift them something they will enjoy or actually use.

Get creative! You can make any gift thoughtful with a bit of effort. Even for less expensive items, such as a bottle of wine or a box of your spouse’s favorite chocolates, you can make your gift that much more special with minimal work by adding a bit of decoration like a cute ribbon or gift tag.

Think about the practicality of your gift: is this something the recipient will use? For example, if your mom loves to spend her free time in the kitchen baking, you could create a personalized "baking basket" filled with baking supplies such as a mixing bowl, cookie mixes, measuring cups, and anything else you think a hobbyist baker might use. To help stay within your budget, you can purchase most of these supplies at a dollar store or wait for your local shops to put these items on sale.

Make sure you take advantage of sales and coupons. A lot of stores now offer digital coupons through apps, which is a great way to help you save when holiday gift shopping.

Create a Coupon Book

A great free option is to give a coupon for an act of service. The gift of free time can be more meaningful than anything money could buy.

Maybe you have a son and daughter-in-law with young kids who haven't had a night out in several months; you could give them a coupon for a free night of babysitting. Perhaps your grandfather doesn't like shoveling snow; gift him a coupon for snow removal. Are you a great cook? Offer a friend or family member a coupon for a homecooked meal.

There are plenty of examples of these kind of "gift coupon books" online to help inspire you, and you can customize them to the needs of the gift recipient. This gift is great because it shows thoughtfulness about the gift recipient while also not costing you any money, instead you're giving the gift of your own time. Plus, you can get as creative as you want DIYing the coupons and putting together a fun, festive coupon book.

No matter what gift idea you come up with, remember it's the thought that counts. You don't need expensive or extravagant gifts to let someone know you care.

Beth-Ann May is an Assistant Branch Manager at New Tripoli Bank and has been working for the Bank for over seven years. Outside of the office, she enjoys spending time with her husband and young daughter.

Mental health and financial wellness are two topics that may seem separate but are actually closely related to one another. The concept of financial wellness encompasses your ability to manage your finances. Strong financial wellness is achieved through developing sound money habits, budgeting, and understanding your financial situation. Studies have shown that when a person fails to achieve a strong state of financial wellness, it can negatively impact their mental health.

Financial Stress & Financial Wellness

Stress can lead to issues with both mental health and financial soundness. Stress tends to impair our judgment, leading to impulsive decision making which can ultimately damage our finances. Making good decisions with your finances is challenging when stress becomes a burden on your mental health. This can lead to impulse purchases, late bill payments, and an inability to allocate long-term savings. This can cause a vicious downward spiral where the stress compounds, leading to further financial difficulties.

Stress not only impacts mental health, but many times it also has physical impacts. The physical side-effects of stress can include insomnia, fatigue, hypertension, heart diseases, obesity, etc. Stress can also lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as smoking, drinking, or unhealthy diets. Additionally, stress can lead to people avoiding necessary doctors’ visits.

All of these various scenarios can lead to additional expenses and have further negative impacts on one’s financial wellness and mental health.

Importance of Physical & Mental Wellness

Taking care of yourself is critical to both physical and mental health. Activities to improve physical well-being include exercise, relaxation practices (such as yoga, meditation, etc.), participating in local events, and pursuing hobbies that interest you. Staying active will improve your physical health, balance your state of mind and allow for better decision making, ultimately leading to better financial outcomes.

Practicing Financial Wellness

There are certain skills everyone needs to learn to practice proper financial wellness, including how to budget, save, invest, and utilize debt. All of these concepts fall under the banner of financial literacy, which is understanding the basics of financial investments and how they work. An understanding of basic financial literacy is closely related to financial wellness, and knowing where and how to utilize these skills to achieve financial stability in a way that’s right for you.

Budgeting is a key first step to regaining control of your finances. Keeping track of a budget can be done using a simple excel spreadsheet or with the help of a budgeting app. By entering your monthly income and expenses into a summary, you can better analyze your spending habits and make sure your expenses are not exceeding your income. If they are, it may be time to re-analyze your spending habits and consider what is most important to you.

Saving and investing money ties back to your budgeting process. If you are able to keep your expenses below your income, you will have extra funds to save and invest. At New Tripoli Bank, you have access to several competitive savings products at competitive rates. Additionally, investing in short-term saving products such as Certificates of Deposit can provide short-term returns on your money.

Debt is an instrument that allows you to access funds to achieve your goals in life. New Tripoli Bank offers a variety of lending products that can help you attain these goals, such as fixed rate mortgages, home equity loans, and personal loans. One of our lenders would love to assist you in reaching your life’s aspirations.

Improving Financial Wellness

There are several skills you can use to improve your financial wellness, including budgeting, preparing for emergencies, saving and investing, paying down debt, and planning for the future.

There are plenty of tools at your disposal to assist you with improving your financial wellness. These include budgeting apps, setting up automatic bill payment for monthly bills through your financial institution, setting a recurring reminder in your phone to periodically review your financial status, and arranging a meeting with a financial professional. These tools can help take the stress out of improving your financial wellness.

Putting your trust in a knowledgeable professional could provide peace of mind that you are saving and investing in the right products. They can help you set a realistic budget for your lifestyle, review your financials, and guide you into the appropriate financial avenues to achieve your goals.

Mental health and financial wellness are intertwined and if you ignore one the other will suffer. When someone experiences financial stresses, they may become mentally stressed, which can compound into further financial stresses, and physical and mental instability. Improving your financial literacy can improve your financial wellness. Utilizing techniques such as budgeting will help you achieve your personal goals and alleviate stress.

If you’re looking for assistance with your financial wellness, consider reaching out to a Community Banker at New Tripoli Bank. We can help point you in the right direction no matter what part of your journey to financial improvement you happen to be on.

Matthew Koncz is New Tripoli Bank's Controller and an Assistant Vice President. He has been with the Bank for over five years and is responsible for monitoring New Tripoli Bank's financial health. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and has completed educational programs for CPAs offered by various accounting firms and organizations including PA Bankers.

by Jennifer Dietrich

Natural disasters can happen anywhere at any time and affect consumers at every income level. While a natural disaster is impossible to avoid by its very nature, there are steps every consumer can take to help prepare for an emergency to mitigate its impact on their life. Starting over after a disaster invites uncertainty, expense, and a lot of difficult choices.

While it can be hard to imagine life after the worst has happened, the truth is that your financial responsibilities don’t go away simply because you’ve suffered from some catastrophe. Immediately following a disaster, your priority is your safety and the safety of those around you and meeting your day-to-day needs. However, once you’re safe and accounted for, you will need to focus on ensuring your financial obligations are met.

Here is how you can best prepare for an emergency.

Create a Disaster Preparedness Plan

A disaster preparedness plan is a general outline of how you and other members of your household intend to respond to the types of emergencies that are most likely to occur where you live, work, learn, or play. It can be impossible to prepare for every predicament, so you should formulate a plan that is applicable to a broad swathe of situations. This plan is intended to ensure the immediate safety of you and your loved ones in the event of a disaster.

You should assign responsibilities to the members of your household based on their capabilities. Plan for emergencies that are most likely to occur where you live, consider what you and your family need to do in the event you are separated during an emergency, and decide what you need to do in the event you need to evacuate to a safer area. Finally, ensure that you have a plan to contact each other after the emergency has passed.

Create a List of Financial Obligations

Responding to an urgent situation takes up a lot of one’s attention, leaving little time to think about things like credit cards or student loan payments. It’s important to keep a list of these financial obligations as part of any disaster preparedness plan to make sure you are able to manage your finances while you recover from a crisis. Include any automatic payments so you remember when bills come due, in the event that your finances are stretched thin you may have to ask for extensions or adjustments to your payments.

Immediately following a disaster, you should consider contacting credit card companies, loan servicers, lenders, utilities, and any other entities to whom you may have bill payments due. In the event of an emergency, some companies will waive interest in late fees, allow you to stretch out or defer monthly payments, or provide other options to help you continue your payments even as you work on rebuilding following a disaster.

In the event that your home is damaged to the point that you can’t live in it, contact your utility companies to have them suspend your service since you won’t be using them while you rebuild.

Safeguard Personal Documents

You should make copies of personal documents that will are important to have easy access to following a disaster. This includes things such as Photo ID, Social Security information, birth certificates, insurance policies, military service records, Pet ID tags, tax statements, household information, and medical records. These documents should be stored in a safe place at a separate location from your home, such as a fireproof safe deposit box at your local bank.

You can also scan these documents and store them digitally; if you do so, be sure to keep them in a place that is both encrypted and password-protected with multifactor authentication. You do not want this information getting into the hands of hackers.

Inventory Your Home

Take some time to survey your home and create a list of all the important personal and household valuables. Many types of insurance will cover your belongings in the event they are damaged inside of a home that you own or rent; be sure to check with your insurance provider so you understand exactly what is covered by your policy.

Beware of Post-Disaster Scams

Scammers like to take advantage of the stress and confusion that follows a natural disaster or emergency. These scams range from fake disaster relief charities, impostor scams where the scammer pretends to be someone from FEMA or another government agency, employment scams looking for desperate people trying to rebuild after a disaster, and loan repayment scams.

Some simple rules you can follow to avoid being defrauded are:

• Be cautious about sharing personal financial information with anyone. You should only feel comfortable providing this information when you are the one reaching out.
• Remember the government will not call or text you about owing money or receiving economic impact payments.
• Scammers will try to contact you via social media – never the government!

You can find more about identifying and avoiding scams on our resource page about Fraud, Scams, and Phishing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for responding to disasters and providing aid to those affected. If you have been affected by a natural disaster or other emergency, you can visit FEMA.gov for more information and resources to help you recover and rebuild.

By taking the time to plan a disaster response, you will be better prepared for emergencies and reduce the time it takes for you to rebuild your life. You can reach out to your friendly community bankers at New Tripoli Bank for help with things such as setting up an emergency fund, renting a safe deposit box, and identifying potential scams to ensure you are fully prepared for the next big emergency!

Jennifer Dietrich is a Deposit Operations Representative for New Tripoli Bank and has been working for the Bank since 2023. She spends her free time at the various sports fields around the area cheering on her son.

Retiring in a financially secure position isn’t a sure thing. It takes planning and commitment to ensure you can retire comfortably and early enough to enjoy your golden years to the fullest. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, only about half of all Americans have calculated how much they need in order to save for retirement.

People are notoriously bad at thinking about and preparing for the distant future, doubly so when it requires them to save money. However, formulating a plan, developing savings habits, and understanding how Banks and other financial institutions factor into retirement planning is essential for achieving your retirement goals.

Start Early & Stick to It

The best time to start saving for retirement was yesterday, and the next best time is today! Even before you develop a formal retirement plan, it’s important to get into the habit of putting money away into a savings account on a regular basis. Long-term savings plans rely on compound interest to turn even the most modest amounts of money into a sizeable fund for the future. So, the earlier you start saving, the more you can leverage the power of compound interest.

Start by putting a small amount of money into a savings account at the end of each month. As you grow more comfortable with your new budget, consider increasing the amount you deposit each month. The key is to make saving an automatic habit rather than something you need to actively consider each month.

Understand Your Needs

Retirement is expensive. It’s important to understand that your retirement savings are there to replace your regular income once you stop working, so how much you save determines what your standard of living will be upon retirement. Take some time to list your current expenses and income and determine which of your regular expenses will change in retirement. For example:

• Are you currently paying a mortgage? You should calculate if you will finish paying it off before retirement. Don’t forget that even if you have your mortgage paid off, you will still have home maintenance costs after retirement!
• How much do you plan to drive? If you drive a lot for work, you may notice your monthly gas bills getting much lower after retirement.
• Do you want to keep dining out after retirement? Be sure to factor in leisure expenses like vacations and dining out.

The standard rule of thumb you will receive from financial planners is to replace 70 to 90 percent of your annual pre-retirement income through savings and Social Security. So, if you earn $80,000 per year before retirement, you’ll want to earn $56,000 to $72,000 per year in retirement.

New Tripoli Bank has a retirement calculator on our website to help you determine your savings target. Once you have calculated this number, you can use it to determine whether or not your savings contributions are enough to help you reach your goal.

Consider Social Security Benefits

Before you start looking into retirement accounts, you should determine what your Social Security benefits will be upon retirement. The amount of wages that Social Security replaces varies depending on your earnings and when you retire. The longer you wait to retire, the greater your Social Security benefit will be.

You can learn more about Social Security and calculate your expected benefits by visiting the Social Security Administration’s website: https://www.ssa.gov/

Consult Your Employer

You should speak with your employer to understand what options they can provide to help you save for retirement. Many employers offer 401(k) plans, and some businesses still maintain traditional pension plans for their full-time employees. If your employer doesn’t offer a retirement plan, suggest that it start one. Your employer may be able to set up a simplified plan that can help you and your coworkers plan for retirement.

If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, you should ask if they do contribution matching and what stipulations exist to ensure that you get as much money as you can out of the plan. You should contribute as much as you comfortably can to this plan. Your taxes will be lower, you’ll be taking advantage of your employer’s contribution matching, and automatic deductions from each paycheck reduce your mental burden when it comes to saving.

Put Money Into an IRA

An Individual Retirement Account is similar to a 401(k), but instead of being an employer-sponsored retirement savings account, you assume responsibility for opening and contributing to the account. Much like a 401(k), the funds you contribute to your IRA are invested into a variety of investment products such as stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit (depending on the type of IRA and the institution you are working with). This means an IRA will, on average, produce greater returns on investment than a standard savings account.

The tradeoff is that the funds in an IRA can’t be touched until you reach a certain age, and contributions to an IRA are limited to a certain amount each year (click here to learn more about contribution limits for the current year). There is also a penalty for withdrawing from your IRA before you reach age 59 ½.

There are two types of IRAs, traditional and Roth, and each one offers its own benefits. Traditional IRAs are tax-deferred, which means you make contributions from your income before taxes, and you will pay tax when you start receiving the money later in retirement. Roth IRAs are the opposite: the money contributed to a Roth IRA comes from post-tax income, but in exchange you do not pay taxes later when you start taking the money out in retirement. You are not limited to one or the other (though the annual contribution limit applies to all your IRAs combined), and each has its own benefits and downsides. After seeking advice from a financial planner, you can speak with one of New Tripoli Bank’s IRA specialists who can assist you in opening your desired IRA account.

You can also speak with our partners from the New Tripoli Financial Advisors for more information on other investment options.

No matter how ready you think you are, it can’t hurt to ask for advice. New Tripoli Bank offers both traditional and Roth IRAs, as well as Simplified Employee Pension IRAs. Feel free to contact me or reach out to your local New Tripoli Bank branch office to speak to a community banker who can walk you through opening a retirement account. We would be happy to help you plan for the future!

Jenna Smith is an Assistant Vice President and the Branch Manager for New Tripoli Bank's Claussville Office, as well as a certified IRA Services Professional who has worked for New Tripoli Bank since 2006. She completed the PA Bankers Advanced School of Banking and has been helping customers for many years. She has dedicated her career to learning all she can about banking and finance and in her free time enjoys spending time with her family and working on arts and crafts.

by John Hemak and Mike Koch

Over the years, we have been asked the same question many times, both from customers looking to start up a new business and existing customers looking to expand their business: “Why do I need a business plan?”  A solid business plan is important because it addresses every aspect of the commercial venture you are about to undertake. The plan describes your business, it identifies its operational and financial goals, and, most importantly, it helps you determine the best course of action to achieve success for your business.

With this blog, we hope to provide an outline for developing an effective business plan, as well as point out several resources available to help you formulate your own plan.

First, write an executive summary. This is your pitch to provide more information about your business to people. Key items you should include are a mission statement, a brief description of products or services to be offered, and your intended customer base.

Next, describe your company in detail. You will want to include in this description your business’s registered name, business location, and the key employees comprising the business. Your company description should also define your business structure, such as sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation. If there are multiple owners in the business, this is the perfect time to specify the percentage of each owner’s stake in the company. It’s important to highlight the ownership team’s strengths that will give your business an advantage over your competitors.

Now that you’ve completed a description of your business, it’s time to state your business goals. These should include short-term and long-term goals. These goals can be numbers-based and will recognize the financial and profit goals of the business, as well as strategies to create brand awareness. Explain how you will achieve these targets, either by attracting new customers, adding investors, or obtaining a business loan.

The fourth item is to describe your products and services. This section can be a bit overwhelming, but it is necessary to explain how your product or service works, provide a detailed pricing model, cover your supply chain, and order fulfillment strategies. You should also go into greater detail about the customer base you wish to service.

The last step is to outline financial plans by providing a prospective statement for the next five years. Include forecasted income, operational costs, and cashflow statements. Include a section on unanticipated costs, as it’s important to factor in potential costs so you are not caught unaware if something does come up, and you have a contingency plan in place. You will also want to consider a capital expenditure budget, to ensure the business is able to support future capital projects, such as equipment, personnel, or real estate acquisitions.

The bottom line is that business plans are important because growing a business requires a vision and establishing a business plan will help set you on a successful path.

If you’re looking to get started on your own business plan, there are a several resources available to assist you in developing your business plan:

• The US Small Business Administration provides example plans through their site. You can check out their guide to writing a business plan here: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan
• There are Small Business Development Centers located throughout the country; you can find a local center at https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/resource-partners/small-business-development-centers-sbdc. The goal of these centers is to help businesses start, grow, and prosper through offering free services.
• Consider hiring a Business Consultant, a professional who can offer industry experience and knowledge that can help guide you to create a successful business plan.

John Hemak is a Vice President of Commercial Lending for New Tripoli Bank and sits on the board of the East Penn School District Education Foundation. He has been involved in commercial lending for decades and has been a commercial lender for New Tripoli Bank for over 11 years.

Mike Koch is New Tripoli Bank's Business Development Manager and has previously served as a Branch Manager and Assistant Branch Manager. He has been a member of the New Tripoli Bank team for almost 20 years and has decades of experience working with business customers.

With how tight the real estate market is right now, it’s easy to believe that selling your home is a sure thing. However, just because there are more buyers than there are houses on the market doesn’t mean the offers you receive on your home are the best they could be. Many homes are put on the market in need of serious repairs or with unflattering pictures that poorly reflect the personality of the property. These homes often languish on sites such as Zillow or Redfin for months before finding a willing buyer.

If you want to give yourself the best chance to receive an offer on your home and maximize its value to potential buyers, you’re going to need to put in some effort. Here are five recommendations you can consider in making your house more appealing to prospective homebuyers.

Making Repairs

Every homebuyer knows the importance of having a home inspection contingency as part of an offer. One step you may want to consider is having your property inspected before putting it on the market. Making certain repairs before selling a home may help to alleviate potential buyers’ concerns and also potentially reduces the likelihood that a sale falls through.

A pre-listing home inspection report will tell you which home repairs you should consider making. You will want to review this report carefully and proactively with your trusted advisors. You will also want to compile a list of completed repairs and have that information readily available.

Making certain repairs before listing your home shows you are being transparent about the property you are selling, which can reflect positively during negotiations and potentially increase buyer confidence.

Make Small Improvements

When it comes to selling your home, keep in mind that not all home improvements are made equally. A fully remodeled kitchen will be the centerpiece of your open house, however the cost to remodel your kitchen won’t necessarily be reflected in the sale price.

The upgrades that can maximize your profit are those that tend to have the greatest emotional impact on buyers. Minor changes like repainting the cabinets or even upgrading older appliances can make a noticeable difference. Even something as small as replacing lighting fixtures can go a long way toward evoking an emotional connection in a potential buyer.

Rather than remodeling your entire bathroom, consider making smaller updates like replacing the vanity, shower frame, and the fixtures. It’s amazing what a small investment can do to improve the first impression of a home.

Curb Appeal

Does your home have curb appeal? The front of your home will be the first and last impression you leave on a prospective buyer, so it’s important that you put your best foot forward.

If you have a lawn, make sure it is dry and freshly mowed. Also consider picking up some inexpensive colorful perennials and annuals to fill out any garden beds.

Avoid Negatives

Think about all the aspects of your property that annoy you. It could be as small as the outdated fixtures you haven’t gotten around to replacing, or that your backyard is smaller than you might like. Once you have all these “undesirable” features in mind, make an effort to avoid highlighting them as much in your listing.

Your photos should focus on the aspects of your house that will be pleasing to everyone. Focus on exceptional features that make your home stand out. Be sure to highlight any improvements you’ve made to the home in your listing. This can include a bathroom, your kitchen, or even new flooring.

The Perfect Buyer

Do you know what your perfect buyer looks like? Different homes appeal to different demographics. For example, a house in the suburbs may attract young families with children while a condo in a city might appeal more to a single person or a younger couple.

You should keep your target buyer in mind when staging your home. If you think your home will appeal most to single men, consider moving things around to set up one of your bedrooms as an office or even an exercise room. If you believe your ideal buyer will be a family of four, think about staging one of the rooms as a child’s bedroom. The idea is to make it easier for potential buyers to envision what their lives would be like living in your home.

Selling a house can be just as intimidating as buying one, but a bit of forethought can go a long way toward receiving the best offers on your investment. Hopefully, these tips will help you the next time you decide to sell your home!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help!

Gail Post is a Vice President and Mortgage Loan Officer at New Tripoli Bank with over 40 years of experience in mortgage lending. She has been working for New Tripoli Bank for over 25 years and has helped many of our residential customers finance their homes. When she's not working, Gail enjoys volunteering in her community with her husband and spending time with her children and grandchildren.

When the United States Mint was established in 1792, one of the first coins produced was the one-cent piece. Prior to the U.S. establishing its own currency, American colonists would use a mixture of coins from other countries for trade, with the British penny being the most popular. Hence, when the U.S. government began issuing its own currency, the common one-cent piece inherited the nickname “penny” from its British counterpart.

The first one-cent coin was designed by Benjamin Franklin and featured on its obverse (heads) side the image of a lady with flowing hair representing Liberty. Her design changed a few times over the years, with her flowing hair eventually being wrapped up in braids starting in 1808, when she started being portrayed wearing a Liberty headband. This design would last until 1857, when it would be replaced by the smaller Flying Eagle cent.

The original penny was nearly 50% larger than the modern one-cent piece and made from pure copper, making it more than five times as heavy as the modern penny. The so-called large cent was about the size of a modern half-dollar piece. The penny was shrunk nearer to its current size with the Flying Eagle cent in 1857, which would then be replaced by the Indian Head cent in 1859.

The Lincoln cent was adopted in 1909 on what would have been Abraham Lincoln’s 100^th birthday. Lincoln was the first figure from American history to have their likeness grace a piece of U.S. currency, which was the result of a wave of public sentiment stemming from the anniversary of the former President’s birth. This was also the first piece of U.S. currency to feature the motto “In God We Trust.”

Lincoln’s likeness as featured on the penny is actually based on the work of a Lithuanian-born Jew named Victor David Brennar who had made a bas-relief of Lincoln based on an old photograph. The relief had caught the attention of then-president Theodore Roosevelt. In some older coins, Brennar’s initials can be found on the rim of Lincoln’s bust.

Modern pennies are copper-plated zinc, which is both lighter and cheaper. The use of zinc in the minting of one-cent pieces began at the peak of World War II, when the demand for copper to be used in munitions meant that an alternative had to be found for minting currency. From World War II until 1982, pennies were 95% copper and 5% zinc. This changed again in 1982 because the value of the copper used to mint a penny had risen above the value of the currency itself, leading to the modern composition of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper.

The modern Lincoln cent was redesigned in 2009, in honor of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. This design did away with the Lincoln memorial on the reverse side of the coin in favor of a shield bearing the motto of the United States, E Pluribus Unum. There were also four special reverse-face designs minted in limited quantities for Lincoln’s bicentennial, each depicting a scene from Lincoln’s life.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the origins, designs, and transformation of the U.S. penny since the founding of our country, and I hope you think a bit more about these inconspicuous pieces of currency the next time you feel them jingling around in your pocket.

Kayla Schnellman is the Assistant Branch Manager for our Claussville Office. She has worked for New Tripoli Bank for over five years, where she has worked as Community Banker, Customer Service Representative, and Head Teller. When she's not working, she enjoys spending time with friends and with her three dogs.

By Tanya Hausman

Have you ever been cleaning your office when you find a forgotten bill hidden underneath a stack of papers? Maybe you recently received an overdraft notice because you weren’t paying attention to your account balances? Whatever the case, being financially fit isn’t just about getting better with saving and spending money; something as simple as staying organized can help you maintain a healthy financial life.

Organization can be applied to all aspects of your life, but it can be especially helpful for those of us who are trying to get smarter with our money habits. Here are some good rules of thumb for staying organized to improve your financial fitness.

Stick to a routine. If you’re the kind of person who is prone to distraction, it can be helpful to set a time of day dedicated to a particular important activity, whether that’s cleaning your house or paying your bills. Maybe you collect your bills when you come home from work and spend the first few minutes of your evening paying them online, or maybe it’s easier for you to wait until the following day and schedule the payments first thing in the morning.

The longer you repeat an action, the less thought it takes to do that action each time. A lot of the time we become disorganized while trying to avoid the amount of mental or physical strain of a particular activity. What’s important is to not let interruptions in your routine stop you from sticking to it.

Automate your tasks whenever possible. When a routine simply won’t cut it, there are online tools you can use to make organizing your life easier. New Tripoli Bank offers automatic bill pay tools that allow you to pay recurring bills each month. When you set up monthly bills to be paid automatically from your checking account, it reduces the stress that comes from worrying about late fees. You can always start off small with one or two bills until you get a handle on it.

Keep your bills, invoices, and receipts in one place. Purchase an expanding folder or a file cabinet that you can dedicate to filing your monthly bills, invoices for work, and documents you need for tax purposes. Ideally you will keep them near your desk or wherever you normally write checks or pay bills online. Decide on a filing system so you can easily find a bill from a specific company. If you plan to use a physical filing system, make sure you print out electronic bills so you will have them in the same place.

Some people prefer to store their records online and shred any paper documents that arrive through the mail. If you want to organize your bills electronically, scan every bill you receive in the mail and keep them filed in the same place as the rest of your documents. Having a mix of digital and physical records defeats the purpose of organization. No matter which way you choose, make sure you have a filing system that makes it easy to locate specific documents at a later date.

Create a budget and track your spending. You should always be aware of where your money goes and how your spending fluctuates throughout the year. Most homeowners know that their electric bills increase in the summer months when they’re constantly running the air conditioning. Keeping a log of your spending will help you streamline your budget and identify areas where you can cut back.

It’s important to leave yourself reminders for bills that occur once a year, such as property taxes or the bill for filling your oil tank. Keeping a checklist of expected bills will prevent you from being surprised by sudden expenses that may throw your monthly budget out of order.

Learn how to prioritize your obligations. Whether it’s planning your budget or organizing your bills, you need to categorize so you give the proper amount of attention to the things that are most important. When budgeting, you should allocate money for necessities such as bills, food, and utilities before worrying about things like entertainment, donations, and savings. If you find yourself with a mountain of bills, prioritize paying them off in order of due date.

Implementing these tips can help relieve the amount of stress you feel when thinking about personal finances. By creating a daily routine, using tools that can automate processes, organizing your bills into one place, reducing clutter, creating a budget, keeping on top of your spending, and prioritizing your obligations, those financial goals that seem hopelessly out of reach start to seem a lot more achievable.

Looking to improve your financial fitness? Contact your local New Tripoli Bank branch to speak with one of our helpful community bankers and learn how our products can help you achieve your financial goals.

Tanya Hausman is a Senior Deposit Operations Specialist with New Tripoli Bank. She has been a member of the New Tripoli Bank team for the past ten years and when not working she likes to spend her time raising her two wonderful children and practicing her crafting hobby with her Cricut machine.

Your credit score is a prediction of your credit behavior, such as the likelihood of you paying back a loan on time, based on information from your credit reports. Companies use your credit score to decide whether to offer you a mortgage, credit cards, auto loans, and other credit products, and landlords use credit scores to screen tenants. The interest rate you receive on credit products is also influenced by your credit score.

When you have a low credit score, it can feel impossible to pull yourself out of the hole. Though it can take several months to see an improvement on your credit score, there are a number of quick, simple things you can start to do to help boost your credit score.

Review Your Credit Reports

Before you work on improving your credit, it’s important to know how you arrived at your current credit score. You can do this by pulling your credit report from the three major national credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—and reviewing reports for indicators of what is negatively impacting your score.

Be on the lookout for things like sustained high credit card balances, repeated missed or late payments, collections, and judgments. All of these can detract from your overall credit score. You should also be wary to not pull your credit report too often, as doing so can negatively impact your score. You are entitled to one free copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus once per year, which can be accessed at www.AnnualCreditReport.com. You can also obtain free weekly credit reports from the website which show your credit history without your score.

Organize Your Bill Payments

Your payment history has a massive impact on your credit score. That’s why it’s important to develop a system for paying your debts on time. New Tripoli Bank offers Automated Bill Payment through our online banking service that makes paying down these monthly debts much easier.

Create a record of your monthly bills, either in paper or digital, and set reminders for yourself so you know when your next payment is coming up.

If you are comfortable doing so, consider charging your monthly bills to a credit card, while making sure you pay the card’s balance in full each month to avoid interest charges. The benefits are twofold: you consolidate your bill payments into a single monthly credit card payment, and you boost your credit score as long as you keep up with those monthly payments.

Keep Your Credit Utilization Low

Credit utilization is the portion of your available credit that you use at any given time and is another important factor in how your credit score is calculated. While your best option is to pay your credit balance in full each month, if you are unable to do this, you should set a hard limit for how much of your available balance you can leave outstanding each month. 30% is the recommended amount to start improving your credit score, and each month you should work on reducing this percentage to further increase your score.

Limit Requests for New Credit

When you apply for a credit card, loan, or other credit product, the company offering the product will pull your credit report in order to gauge your creditworthiness. If this only happens occasionally, it won’t have much effect on your creditworthiness, but if you are repeatedly applying for new credit in a short period of time, it can damage your credit score.

Not all credit report inquiries will affect your score. So-called “soft inquiries” include an employer checking your credit, routine checks by financial institutions with whom you already do business, and companies checking your credit in order to send pre-approved credit offers. If you are working on improving your credit score, it is best to avoid applying for new credit in general.

Consolidate Debts

If you have a number of outstanding debts, it can be advantageous to take out a debt consolidation loan from a bank in order to pay off older debts. This leaves you with a single payment and the possibility of a lower interest rate on the loan, which puts you in a better position to pay down your debt faster and improve your credit utilization ratio.

There is no set amount of time that it takes to improve your credit score. How long it will take depends on the specifics of why your credit score is low and your financial capability to get a handle on your credit situation. Improving your credit score can take several weeks or months before you see a noticeable impact on your score. The important part is to take those first steps to a healthier financial future. If you’re looking for help getting started, you can reach out to New Tripoli Bank, which offers products and services tailored to your needs.

Kate Hart-Zayaitz is New Tripoli Bank's Chief Lending Officer and Senior Vice President. Kate has spent many years working for various community banks in our area. She was born and raised in Emmaus and has been involved with multiple banking and economic organizations throughout the Lehigh Valley.

In honor of Black History Month, we thought it would be pertinent to highlight the many milestones that African Americans have achieved in finance and banking. Ever since emancipation, African Americans have played a significant role in the development of our modern financial and banking institutions. It is our sincere hope that these stories of influential figures in Black history can help inspire you.

The Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company was a savings bank chartered by the United States’ Congress in 1865 to collect deposits from newly emancipated communities. It opened 37 branches across 17 states and Washington D.C., collecting funds from more than 67,000 depositors across the country. Unfortunately, the bank’s rapid growth was mired by mismanagement and fraud, weighed down by speculative loans issues by the bank’s White officials, and would eventually fail in 1874.

Blanche Kelso Bruce was the second African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate and the first to serve a full term. Born a slave to a plantation in Virginia, he is best remembered for his investigation of the collapse of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company. He would later become the first Black Register of the Treasury and the first African American to appear on U.S. Currency in 1879.

The same year that Bruce first appeared on U.S. Currency, the first bank founded by African Americans opened in Washington D.C. The Capital Savings Bank provided capital to Black-owned businesses, to whom many White-owned banks were unwilling to lend. Just four years after it opened, the bank’s deposits had grown to well over $300,000. The Bank continued to operate under African American leadership and within Black communities until it closed in 1902.

Between 1888 and 1934, 134 Black-owned banks were formed to help Black communities overcome financial hurdles, not only by providing capital and credit but also offering training and employment. One of the greatest successes of African Americans in the financial sector was in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. Greenwood had become one of the most prosperous Black communities in all of America. Tragically, the neighborhood was destroyed by white supremacists during race riots in 1921.

In the early 20^th century, many former slaves made names for themselves in the financial services industry. Alonzo Herndon was one such former slave, founding the Atlanta Life Insurance Company after working his way up from slave to barber to the owner of several barbershops, before eventually opening what is still one of the largest Black financial institutions in the United States, as well as becoming Atlanta’s first African American millionaire.

While not a slave herself, Maggie Lena Walker was the daughter of former slaves who would grow up to become the first African-American woman to charter a bank. The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank was designed by a Black architect and was one of few banks at the time whose board included a high percentage of women. Walker would go on to serve as the Bank’s president for several years.

Another former slave was Major R.R. Wright who, along with 70 other Black bankers, founded the first professional organization of African Americans in finance in 1927, an organization which still operates today as the National Bankers Association and focuses on providing financial support for underserved minority communities.

Following the Civil Rights Movement of the late 60s and early 70s, African Americans became much more represented across all financial sectors. In 1970, Joseph L. Searles became the first African American to do business on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Azie Taylor Morton was the first African American woman to have her signature on U.S. Currency when she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the 36^th Treasurer of the United States. In 1993, Harry Alford and Kay Debow founded the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which today is the largest Black business organization in the world, with regional chapters in the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, London and Paris.

We hope this extremely brief history of the role African Americans have played in the banking and financial services industry has been both entertaining and informative. It is a history of great struggle that highlights the hurdles minorities have had to overcome in order to achieve some level of success in today’s society. Hopefully, we will continue to work toward equity and equality in the future, not just in our industry, but across all parts of our society.