Dear Home & Family Finance Resource Center Subscriber:

Welcome to Our New Home

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With 11 years of articles stowed in the closets, new videos crammed in the living room, and calculators overrunning the basement, it was time for Home & Family Finance® Resource Center to look for new digs. This fall, we packed up all features, financial terms, videos, calculators, daily news, radio broadcasts, and Spanish content and moved them to a new, spacious "home."

Take a look around
We’ve set up the main room (centers) to feature topics closely linked to credit union products and services. Other categories are listed in the More Topics drop-down at the right of the category bar.

As you move from center to center, watch for the new categories of taxes, insurance, small business, leisure and travel, consumer protection, and education--where multitopic features are cross-referenced. There’s even a section full of articles about the unique credit union story.

The newest video is accessible from the home page by clicking on a still photo. One click takes you to past videos from the front page, as well. Each month, the Resource Center will continue to present its editors and other personal finance experts briefly (60 to 120 seconds) discussing key money topics.

CU in the limelight
As always, the credit union is at the center of attention. Right under the spotlight your credit union’s name appears. And your logo appears in each of the pages linking back to your credit union Web site.

Credit unions also can customize additional links from features back to specific credit union product pages.

Links to other CUNA content
Subscribers to other online content services from CUNA will notice direct links from each of the centers. For example, if you subscribe to Anytime Adviser®, a link to your Anytime Adviser Home Buying Coach will appear in the Housing center.

Look for this "new home" the week of Oct. 9.

How Much House Can You Afford?

To view, click here.

If you’re in the market for a new house, it pays to be prepared before you start shopping. Knowing what you can afford before you find that dream house can make things fall into place much easier. A statement stuffer from Credit Union National Association’s Center for Personal Finance, "How Much House Can You Afford?" helps you read and understand mortgage tables and gives tips for estimating how much house you can afford.

And, be sure to read "Home Sweet Second Home" featured this month in H&FFRC (see below for details).

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Copy & Art Express^TM (CARTX) subscribers--The number in parentheses after each summary is the item number of a shorter version of the article available in CARTX. To locate the article, enter this number in the key word search.

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New Home & Family Finance Resource Center content featured in October:

If It Looks Too Good to Be True...Recognizing and Preventing Mail Fraud (featured week of Oct. 2)
Prevention is the key to eliminating mail fraud, and protection begins with awareness of the latest scams. (fr-1636)

Courtesy Pay Abusers Pay the Price (featured week of Oct. 9)
Courtesy pay programs are a value-added benefit to some, but when you use courtesy pay as a substitute for monitoring account balances and spending within your means, courtesy pay use turn into courtesy pay abuse. (ta-1635)

Home Sweet "Second" Home (featured week of Oct. 16)
If owning a home is the American Dream, then owning a vacation home may be the American Dream--Part II. But it’s not for the faint of heart. (tl-1633)

Collaborative Divorce Softens Sting of Split (featured week of Oct. 23)
Wanting to avoid high legal costs and the stress of a courtroom divorce, some splitting couples are looking for alternatives to the traditional divorce. (mm-1634)

You’ll Learn a Lot From an After-School Job (featured week of Oct. 30)
Find out the tax consequences and trade-offs for working teens and how they can find a happy medium. (yt-1637)

Autos: New vs. Used Video Clip
Catch the newest Home & Family Finance Resource Center video clip as the director of business services for CUNA’s Center for Personal Finance talks about deciding to buy new or used when purchasing a car. Joe Day explains the pros and cons of each choice and encourages members to visit your credit union for all of their auto-financing needs. Look for this new video under on the Resource Center’s home page in October.

Use these "In the next issue..." messages in your traditional newsletter and online to regularly tell members what's coming in the Home & Family Finance Resource Center as you remind them to visit your Web site. Also remind your members to participate in October’s Snap Survey about how your financial plans have worked this year (featured beginning Oct. 2).

In the November issue (available beginning Nov. 6)

Get the December articles here.

Deciding When to File an Auto Insurance Claim
Thinking of filing an insurance claim? Depending on your driving and accident record, an increase in premiums could wind up costing you more than the claim is worth.

Avoid the Red by Saving More Green This Holiday Season
Setting a budget and making a list--and matching the two--can be really effective at reining in the ‘over’ part of holiday overspending.

Get a Clue About What National Databases Have on You
When it comes to car crashes and claims on your homeowner’s policy, it’s good to be clueless. And if you think an A-Plus is always a good thing to get, think again.

Homeschooling Brings Home the Cost of Education
As long as library cards are free, homeschoolers say it’s possible to teach your child at home for next to nothing. Is that really the case?

Looking for fresh ways to attract members to your Web site and to the Home & Family Finance Resource Center? Send these "coming soon" announcements to your sponsor/sponsors and suggest that they be posted on the Intranet or published in the sponsor newsletter every month.

What do you like about your Home & Family Finance Resource Center subscription? What would you change? What would you tell colleagues at another credit union about the Resource Center if they were considering a subscription? Have good ideas to share about how you promote it to your members?

Click here to let us know.