ARLINGTON, United States — The National Council on Aging (NCOA), the national voice for everyone’s right to age well, has launched Budget CheckUp, a free online tool that gives older adults practical tips on how to create a monthly budget and manage their money. A grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation helped fund the tool’s development.

“Many older adults live on a fixed income, which is challenging when the cost of living and inflation are on the rise. The Budget CheckUp can help them stretch their dollars every month,” said Josh Hodges, NCOA’s chief customer officer.

The tool offers guidance on how to create a monthly budget and decrease expenses, and it identifies programmes that can help pay for medications and utilities. “We are grateful to Bank of America for their generous support of this effort,” said Hodges.

Users answer questions about their goals, such as what expenses they’d like to decrease, whether they are retired or full-time caregivers, what benefits programmes they are enrolled in, their ages, and household incomes. Their responses generate a personalised plan of action to make the most of their budget. NCOA does not collect any personally identifiable information, but users can create accounts to save their plans.

Budget CheckUp is one of NCOA’s suite of online tools that are part of the Age Well Planner, which also includes:

*Job Skills CheckUp, which offers older job seekers tips on how to create a resume, interview, and find a job

* Medicare Cost Estimator, which helps older adults see how much various plans might cost, depending on their health conditions

* Falls Free CheckUp®, which empowers older adults to discover their risk of a fall

* BenefitsCheckUp®, which enables older adults to see if they may be eligible for benefits programmes to cover daily costs, such as food and health care.